Ballethnic [BAL-ETH-NIK]

Dance Company Inc.

Dear Supporter,The winter brought us

the opportunity to prepare one of our loved classics, The Leopard Tale to audiences in the Atlanta Metro Area at the Rialto Center for Performing arts. The process was a huge job with great results. Our new company members have worked tirelessly to uphold the standard and quality that the production demands while bringing a fresh approach to the work.

This year’s show was unique in that we were able to bring back several generations of previous dancers from the Leopard Tale’s past productions. The energy of collaboration and the experience among all participants brought a truly authentic and classically Ballethnic spirit to the process. We are especially proud to showcase and congratulate new company member Josh Schadl (above) in his premier as the Leopard.

On Pointe Newsletter: A New Leopard—A New Company Ballethnic Dance Company's

 mission is to classically train culturally diverse youth and adults by providing education, performances and community

programs through performing ballet, blending traditional discipline with modern, jazz,

African and other ethnic dance forms.

Dedicated DancersIncluding Schadl, BDC has

nine outstanding nine company dancers who have be working to maintain the integrity of the work presented at Ballethnic. These young men and women teach classes within the academy and conduct rehearsals all while maintaining their own rigorous class, rehearsal and performance

schedules. This year the company (shown below) toured to North Carolina to perform excepts from the Leopard Tale as part of a lecture-demonstration for student audiences. In four days the tour consisted of seven performances at four schools grades K-12.

Nothing is without its hardships and this season the dancers of Ballethnic Dance Company are reaching out to you for help. With just a little bit of assistance your contributions can make a significant difference in the work that the company

continues to create and share.

Beginning April 9th, BDC will be kicking off a new philanthropic opportunity. This exciting project will bring together the worlds of social media, business, and dance. The Adopt

A Dancer Project is part of Ballethnic’s 25 legacy fundraiser for programming, innovation and new works. But this program is special in that The Adopt A Dancer Project is all about individuals helping individuals. The program will connect you directly to the dancers you support. Your contributions will allow the dancers to set up a residency for the summer months. Your contributions will help the Company Dancers directly by providing funds for their pointe shoes, ballet slippers, makeup, head shots, costumes,

stipends, per diem, and salaries for their next performance season. How does it work?

We will be using fundly.com as a crowdfunding platform where you can very easily make your donations count. We will have exactly 60 days from the date the website is created to raise as much as we can. Fundly accepts any donation above their $10 minimum towards our goal. Fundly makes it easy to track our progress as it links directly to Facebook keeping everyone connected and informed.

The company will be using twitter, instagram and youtube to spread the word leading up to the fundraiser launch date. BDC humbly asks you to do the same. The Adopt A Dancer program is not just about finances, it is also about brining in the exposure the company needs to take us to the next level. So spread the word.

As a thank you for your contributions the company has tiers of gifts set up for different levels of donations. Every donation receives a subscription to On Pointe Newsletter. Each donation over $250 will receive a signed pair of performance pointe shoes from a company dancer. All sponsors who donate over $500 will get a mention in On Pointe Newsletter. Finally for each contribution in excess of $1,000 the donor gets an honorable mention (or “shout out”) to them or the person of their choosing on our Youtube channel. 5, 6, 7, 8. . .

Via Youtube, the Adopt A Dancer Program’s 5, 6, 7, 8 videos will let you meet each dancer through their dancer profiles. You can learn about their background, training, education as well as

Spring-2015

—Robert GrahamCompany Dancer, Staff Writer

what their experience has been working with the company. Giving you an inside look at company life, these videos also provide an interactive forum where you can leavequestions and comments to each of the dancers. Each dancer will also provide their instagram and twitter ID (where applicable) so you can follow them individually online as well. Meet the Company

The work has already begun. Our campaign’s promotional video is up on our youtube page. The company had a great time shooting it for your entertainment. The first step in support of our new program is to simply watch the video on youtube.com. Take a second to familiarize yourself with the talented young men and women that make up the heart of Ballethnic Dance Company. The second step is to make a point to attend our Visage D’ Africa 25 Legacy Fundraiser Performance on May 9th, where we will kick off the program with a line up of performances from BYE, BDC, and our senior dance group, Ediliegba.

Help us to make our program a success. Through efforts like the Adopt a Dancer Project, we hope to be able to give back to and support these energetic performers and teachers whose thirteen hour days and sixty hour weeks are invaluable.

Upcoming Events: May 9th—Visage D’ Africa 25 Legacy Fundraiser Performance @Southwest Arts Center 7:30pm

Brandy Carwile Indiya Childs

Taylor Fergins Robert Graham

Laila Howard Savery Morgan

Josh Schadl Alicia Williams

May 8th—BYE Jambalaya @ 7:30pmgo to ballethnic.org for tickets