ENTERTAINMENT

Ballet’s $1M anonymous gift signal to community

Elizabeth Kramer
@arts_bureau
  • The donor has earmarked the money to cover presenting new works, live music, among other things.
  • “It’s a call to action for the board and patrons of the ballet to step up” — Lisa Patrick Leet.

On Friday, the Louisville Ballet’s announcement of a $1 million gift by an anonymous donor from New York signaled progress to strengthen the artistic side of the company’s work.

The money, said artistic director and executive director Robert Curran, is specifically dedicated to that side of the company’s work over the next two years and not for operations.

“It’s the beginning of a new chapter for us and an exciting new chapter for me personally,” Curran said to a crowd of more than 70 people gathered at the Louisville Ballet’s studios for the announcement.

Curran also described the donor as “someone I’ve known for a long time” and “a supporter of mine” whose intention is for the money to “be a catalyst for the future.”

The donor has stipulated that the money be used for projects over the next two seasons. The donation is part of a long-term effort to grow the company five years after it recorded a $1 million debt. The situation forced the company to sell its building to the Fund for the Arts Properties, which manages the Brown Theatre, with the intention of buying it back.

“This is a first step,” said Louisville Ballet board President Lisa Patrick Leet. “It’s a call to action for the board and patrons of the ballet to step up and continue the financial support for the ballet so this momentum that we have with this $1 million gift continues and grows.”

The donor has earmarked the money, Curran said, to present high-quality existing works in the company’s repertoires, ensure performances have live music, support work that embraces collaborations with other artists in other art forms and present new work by living choreographers.

Some of that money will be put to use immediately. Curran said in the upcoming season-opening production in October of “Coppelia,” which is set in Louisville’s own Germantown in 1917, just as the United States joins World War 1, includes sets designed by local artist Jacob Heustis and has been given new choreography by Curran. The original comedic ballet about a life-size doll that comes to life premiered in Paris in 1870.

This company’s current budget is $4.2 million, which includes $500,000 from the recent gift. Nearly 25 percent of that budget goes toward programming costs to pay for theater rental, costume construction, musicians, warehouse costs and set building and other production expenses. The rest pays for salaries, marketing, operating the Louisville Ballet School, fundraising efforts and other operations expenses.

The company now owes the Fund for the Arts $1.4 million for the building. Otherwise, the company’s books were in the black after the 2013-14 season and it anticipates the same for the past season after a current audit of its financial statements.

Past leaders and performers with the company at the announcement included Helen Starr, wife of former artistic director Alun Jones. Starr, a principal dancer for 20 years and former associate artistic director, lauded the donor’s decision to designate the funding for the company’s artistic efforts.

“This sort of gift allows for a vision to be pursued,” she said. “Sometimes in paying for other costs, the vision gets squashed down.”

That was evident in the seasons that followed the ballet’s revelation of its debt nearly five years ago. Afterward, the company scaled back the number of productions each season, reduced the number of professional dancers it employs and began using recorded music for all of its productions instead of having the Louisville Orchestra perform for its classical productions.

After Curran arrived last year, he stipulated a commitment to having live music for the company’s performances, particularly those at the Kentucky Center and Brown Theatre, as well as producing new works.

Reporter Elizabeth Kramer can be reached at (502) 582-4682. Follow her on Twitter at @arts_bureau.

Coffee with The Courier

When: 9:30 a.m. Aug. 21

Where: VINT Coffee, 2309 Frankfort Ave.

More information: Join arts writer Elizabeth Kramer for a discussion about Louisville’s arts scene (and a free cup of coffee) to launch The Courier-Journal’s 2015-16 Arts Preview. Kramer will be discussing upcoming offerings with special guest speakers Kim Baker, president of the Kentucky Center, and Todd Lowe, Fund for the Arts board member. Advanced copies of the Arts Preview will be available.