43
A BALLET MILESTONE
By REBECCA NIEMINEN SLOAN
YOUNGSTOWN
For five decades, Ballet Western Reserve has provided the Mahoning Valley with excellence in dance education, and this accomplishment will be celebrated at a 50th anniversary party Saturday at Stambaugh Auditorium.
Anita Lin, vice president of the board and a former artistic director and former executive director, encouraged anyone associated with Ballet Western Reserve, past or present, to attend the upcoming celebration.
“We are so proud of 50 years in existence,” Lin said. “We are still going strong despite challenges we have faced, and we want everyone who has been touched by Ballet Western Reserve to come to this event.”
Ballet Western Reserve was founded in 1962 by Stacia Sublette and has held its own over the years, despite economic lags that threatened to shrink student enrollment and the ongoing challenge of building a community support system.
Lin said collaborating with other local arts organizations, such as the Oakland Center for the Arts, Youngstown State University, the Butler Institute of American Art, the McDonough Museum of Art, Mill Creek Park Fellows Riverside Gardens, Youngstown Symphony, Youngstown Playhouse and Easy Street Productions has helped Ballet Western Reserve endure as a creative presence in the Mahoning Valley.
“By collaborating, you provide a service to other arts in the community. It also broadens the audience and broadens respect,” Lin said, adding, “Our main focus is education, not competition, and this makes us different.”
At the Saturday event, Lin, who first taught dance at Ballet Western Reserve in 1982, will present a brief documentary on the ballet’s history.
The celebration also will include cocktails at 7 p.m., a small plates dinner at 8 p.m. and dancing at 8:45 p.m. to music from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
The party will also include a sushi bar and silent auction.
New York City designer Nannette Lepore, who was born in Youngstown, has donated dresses and other clothing for auction.
To obtain tickets, which cost $50 per person and $35 for Ballet Western Reserve students, contact the ballet at 330-744-1934.
Artistic Director Virginia Hartman, who is a former student of Lin’s, called Ballet Western Reserve a pillar in the arts community.
“This is quite an accomplishment,” Hartman said. “We are celebrating our tenacity and our ability to stay strong. We offer something unique to this area, and I couldn’t be more honored or proud to be a part of this.”
Lin said when Hartman was a student at Ballet Western Reserve, Hartman was identified as someone with “extreme talent.”
“It is really wonderful that [Hartman] returned to Ballet Western Reserve,” Lin said, adding, “Our most famous alumni, Stephanie Dabney, who is originally from Liberty, has also returned. It is really cool to have these kinds of things come full circle.”
Lin said Ballet Western Reserve currently has about 175 students.
Besides classical ballet, students can study modern dance, tap, jazz and hip hop.
Lin and her husband, attorney Michael Morley, divide their time between Youngstown and New York City and have long been passionate about fostering the local arts community and the revitalization of Youngstown.
“The ballet moved downtown in 1997 with the idea of building an arts community there. It went through its hardest time economically after 9/11 but got over that hump,” Lin said. “We get a lot of community support and corporate funding and private donations and grants. We are proud to operate in the black.”