Ballet San Jose, the second largest professional ballet company in California needs your help. The company, which is currently working to regain a solid financial footing, is asking for the community’s support in raising $550,000 by March 14.
In addition to suffering from many of the same financial challenges as many other high arts institutions around the country, Ballet San Jose is attempting to right financial “missteps” made by previous administrators, according to Millicent Powers, chair of the company’s board of trustees.
Powers says it isn’t easy for the company to come to the community, hat in hand. However, at the same time, she says Ballet San Jose believes it owes it to the community to ask for help—so that it may survive. And she believes the community will step up.
“We’re not entitled to this support,” she says. “But we think we’ve earned it.”
The company has earned the community’s support by consistently delivering world-class dance performances, as well as instruction, says Allan Hineline, CEO of the Ballet San Jose. With 32 dancers, three apprentices and a dance school, which teaches 350 students, he says losing the company would be a serious blow to the creative spirit of Silicon Valley, especially considering the recent shuttering of the San Jose Repertory Theatre.
Ballet San Jose has already raised $580,000 since January of 2014. Their ultimate goal is to reach $3.5 million by October. If they reach that goal, which Powers believes they will, she says the company be on secure enough financial footing for the foreseeable future.
Hineline says he is hopeful that the community comes through, noting that it would be a “shame” for an area as wealthy as Silicon Valley to lose such a cultural institution.
“The large, historic cultures aren’t remembered for generating money,” Hineline says. “They’re remembered for their artistic contribution. And it would be a shame for Silicon Valley to reach such a height but have no art to contribute.”
Dance, he continues, is “a uniting language that everyone can understand. It’s a human language through movement. Art is something that allows people to escape, to think creatively, to think outside the box, and to move back into everyday life with a fresh point of view.”
