Exactly a year ago, Charlottesville Ballet was finalizing the contract to move into its current first floor — and what a whirlwind it’s been!
We have grown from 300 to over 500 students in just one short year, and have expanded our outreach programs to include TWO Chance to Dance groups walking over from Woodbrook Elementary to have their class in a professional studio. Thanks to the expansion, Charlottesville Ballet was also able to partner with Richmond Ballet’s Minds in Motion program, and now hosts their after-school program in our facility once a week.
We wanted to share a few images of all the progress from the last year, and to say thank you to the countless people who made Building the Future possible!
Our first donation to Building the Future came from Liz Mason, who generously donated her baby grand piano that now lives in Studio 3, CB’s Studio Theatre.
Thank you to Gayle Gardner and Debra Kiraly for sponsoring Studio A & Studio B’s sound system, and a special thanks to Julie Govan for coordinating with our neighbor Crutchfield to provide partial in-kind sponsorship!
Parents and students are grateful to Rio Hill Shopping Center’s The Great frame Up, owned by Jen and Mike Poole, for sponsoring the Homework Area on our second floor! Students now have a quiet place to work on homework in between classes and parents can pull out their laptops and do a little work while they wait! A very special thank you to Glenn Robinson for donating his time to build it, and to Cherish and Josh Alberts for assisting!
A huge thank you to Nick Williams of Pet Food Discounters for sponsoring our first floor lobby bench! Parents enjoy it as a place to relax as students dance, while little ones love standing on it to get a peek at the dancers inside the studio! And another thank you to Glenn Robinson for donating his time and expertise to build the bench (with a little assistance from Cherish Alberts, Fred Davidson, Jordan Robinson, and Dan Wilkinson).
A huge thank you to Scott & Misty Shoemaker for sponsoring our class props and materials! We only have a few pictured here, but students have enjoyed new therabands for strengthening, delightful tutus to foster the love of creative costuming in dance, and other materials that aid in engaged and explorative learning!
And another special thank you to the Shoemakers for sponsoring our green upgrades, which include our energy efficient lighting, our green cleaning materials, and green facility supplies.
Students love the spacious Studio B, and we are so grateful to Heather Boe and Lisa Brooks for sponsoring the building of our sprung floors to keep our dancers safe, Keith Lee of Lynchburg for the donated marley, and the Sikes-Dorman family for the barres! (And thank you to Bill Hines and Scott Morris for helping install the barres!)
None of this would have been possible without our wonderful donors, Building the Future committee members, and beloved CBA families.
Thank you for helping Charlottesville Ballet
Build the Future!
And thank you to our wonderful 2015-2016 Season Sponsors!