Ballet Memphis Receives Mellon Foundation Grant

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a $60,000 planning grant to Ballet Memphis to support field interviews, research, and convening, aimed at examining the intellectual and civic relevance and operational challenges of regional ballet companies in midsized cities. The work will be conducted primarily by Dorothy Gunther Pugh, working with Russell Willis Taylor, executive director of National Arts Strategies. The planning grant will result in a paper that will be made available to the dance field.

In the last year, four ballet companies in medium-sized cities have closed: Ballet International of Indianapolis, Ohio Ballet, Oakland Ballet, and Ballet Pacifica of Riverside (California). Dance companies nationwide are shortening their seasons, canceling productions, and downsizing in an effort to remain viable. Dorothy Gunther Pugh, artistic director of Ballet Memphis, is interested in examining these trends and in asking fundamental questions about the value and sustainability of regional dance companies, particularly those located in medium-sized cities in the often neglected "flyover zone" of the heartland.

This discovery phase of the project will require the input of business leaders, futurists, marketing and trends experts, innovative non-profit leaders, and academics. Topics for discussion will include:

*What are the current civic imperatives facing cities, and how are the arts currently involved in addressing these issues?

*What does it mean to be a successful community organization in each of various cities, and what are the exemplars?

In the second phase of the project, Ballet Memphis will pilot these new ideas using Memphis and its professional dance company as a lab with the goal of providing a national model for other companies to explore.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is a private philanthropic institution, with assets of approximately $5 billion, that makes grants on a selective basis to institutions of higher education, independent libraries, centers for advanced study, museums, art conservation, and performing arts organizations.

Now celebrating its 20th anniversary season, Ballet Memphis is a creative resource to the nation as a maker and interpreter of the Mid-South region's cultural legacy through dance, production and training. Artistic Director Dorothy Gunther Pugh founded the company in 1986 as Memphis Concert Ballet with two professional dancers and a budget of $75,000. Today, Ballet Memphis employs 14 professional dancers and has a $2.8 million budget. In 2000, the Ford Foundation awarded Ballet Memphis $1 million for its New Donors: New Directions program, citing the company as a "national treasure and exemplary arts institution." Ballet Memphis was one of only two ballet companies in the U.S. to receive this honor.

The company performs at the historic Orpheum Theatre in downtown Memphis, as well as at non-traditional venues throughout the city. Ballet Memphis has performed in Paris, New York, Houston and Quebec. The company also performed on the Inside/Out Series at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Mass., in August 2005, and is scheduled to perform at the prestigious Joyce Theater in New York for a week in April 2007.

The Ballet Memphis School trains more than 600 students each year. Performance experience is provided through the Junior Company of Ballet Memphis. In addition, Ballet Memphis offers Pilates and movement instruction at the Sanderlin Center in East Memphis and at the Hope and Healing Center in Downtown/Midtown Memphis. Ballet Memphis' Educational Enrichment program is made possible in part by the generous support of the Greater Memphis Arts Council. The company tours to local schools and performs for more than 15,000 students annually. In 2005-2006, the combined programs Ballet dance company, ballet school and Pilates Centre-served approximately 75,000. -- www.balletmemphis.org