Teaching Note: Slimnastics School of Ballet: entrepreneurial decision-making “En Pointe”

Passant Esmail, founder of Slimnastics School of Ballet in Cairo, Egypt, faced a pivotal moment in 2023 as she prepared to relocate to Saudi Arabia. She needed to decide how to secure the future of the ballet school she had built over nearly a decade. The options were clear but challenging: sell the business for a potentially lucrative exit, which risked compromising its values and team cohesion, or distribute equity among her management team to preserve the school’s culture and continuity while stepping back from daily operations. Spanning 2014–2023, this case study examines Slimnastics’ journey from a bold entrepreneurial vision...