Why I support City Center Ballet

I got involved with City Center Ballet four years ago when I became a member of the faculty at Lebanon Ballet School, the school of City Center Ballet. There are many many reasons that I have chosen to give my support to City Center Ballet and their mission to provide professional-level performing experience for young dancers in the Upper Valley.

The youth involved in the City Center Ballet company have invested hours and days of their lives to mastering their craft. Most of the girls involved in the City Center Ballet Company have committed 4-8 hours a day, 6 days a week to this organization, in addition to keeping up with their academic work. The students that participate in these performances are bright and energetic and have developed such a deep relationship with dance that has become an integral part of their lives. Because I too have nurtured my own relationship with dancing over the last 24 years, since my mom enrolled me in that first pre-ballet class, I know that this is a passion that will follow them into their adult lives and continue to bring them joy.

The discipline that comes from learning to balance school and all those hours at the studio will allow these students to be successful in whatever they choose to do after City Center Ballet, whether it is dancing or not. These students have learned to do everything they do with passion and that while perfection may not always be achievable, if that is what they aim for they will be overwhelmingly successful in whatever they do. They have learned to be critical of themselves and to take criticism from others in stride, they have learned to rejoice in their own successes as well as the successes of their friends and colleagues, and they have learned that when things don't go their way that the best thing they can do is learn from their mistakes and apply the lessons they've learned until they find success.

City Center Ballet is more than a company that presents amazing performances for the Upper Valley community to enjoy, it is an organization that is nurturing young minds that will eventually go on to do many great things. I invite you all to join me in supporting City Center Ballet as they present The Sleeping Beauty this weekend at the Lebanon Opera House, tickets are for reserved seating and are available on this website.