Saturday Matinee

In this economy, recession is hitting the arts hard. Oregon Ballet Theatre has issued a national call for help, with the entire dance community pitching in. With the threat of closing down if funds aren’t raised, they are putting on DANCE UNITED, a benefit performance to raise enough funds that will allow them to stay open if they reach their goal by the end of this month. Keep track of their fundraising progress, here.

Dancers from all over North America are flying in to dance in a special one-night-only benefit performance, including San Francisco Ballet’s own Sarah Van Patten and Damian Smith in Christopher Wheeldon’s mesmerizing After the Rain pas de deux. Other companies flying in to help include New York City Ballet (Megan Fairchild and Daniel Ulbricht in Balanchine’s Tarantella), Joffrey Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Boston Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and lots more. It’s going be a star-studded night and one heck of a performance. The performance is on June 12 at 7:30 PM. Click here for tickets.

I get the sense that OBT’s struggles represent a much larger fear in the arts community of the very near future, and the fear is palpable with no certainty at how large the impact is going to be.

OBT is hardly the only company to be struggling. Sacramento Ballet has been struggling since last year where mid-season, the company was forced to close down for the rest of the season. The dancers themselves have picked up on a grassroots campaign called “Save Our Sacramento Ballet” to raise enough funds for the company. They’ve smartly partnered with neighborhood business, from everything to ice cream shops to performing as living sculptures in art galleries to a benefit performance at the Mondavi Center, to collaborate in a huge fundraising effort to keep their company open. Their fundraising efforts seemed to have paid off at least partially – the current status of the company is that they will be performing the “Nutcracker” and other programs at their normal venue at the Community Center next year, with performances at other venues. They will also continue their popular in-studio “Ballet and Beer” programs as well.

The great thing is to see support from fellow dance companies all over the continent pitch in to help – the message seems to hit close to home in the tightly knit dance community. The immediate impact are the artists themselves who lose jobs which is dire in itself, and additionally the long term effect will be on whole communities and future generations growing up without arts education and experience. Today, it’s Portland and Sacramento – tomorrow, what will it be? San Francisco, New York, Chicago?

Click here to donate to the Oregon Ballet Theatre. Click here to support Sacramento Ballet.

Check out a video of the efforts that the Sacramento Ballet dancers have been doing in the community to keep their company alive.