From Director, Ann Dunn:

 

Dear Asheville Community,

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I write with a heart both heavy and full of hope. For the first time since its inception, The Asheville Ballet must cancel a concert in its main season. Next month, we were to premiere work by seven choreographers at our home auditorium, Diana Wortham Theatre. But the theatres are all, of course, dark.

It takes a long time to create a piece of dance art, and many people must work in close proximity to each other for hours at a time. To protect our choreographers and dancers, we halted our rehearsals in early March, sterilized and locked the studio, and went each to our own homes. 

This eventuality is deeply sad for us all on an artistic level, however my first concern has been for the survival of the artists. Some have gone on meagre unemployment, some have applied for temporary loans, I have applied for a temporary relief loan, and we ask people who can to help support the company with a tax-deductible donation. 

Next year, The Asheville Ballet will celebrate its 60th anniversary. I have been at the helm of this wonderful organization for 40 of those years. I have watched it grow to become the only, year-round, resident professional company in our region. We are your community dance company. And we look forward with excitement to carrying our work for you into the 2020-21 Season. The company and the community will celebrate endurance and art together again.

Where there is art, there is hope. To paraphrase Emily Dickinson: Dance, a thing with feathers, flies. And to interpret the Old Testament, when the bird delivers the branch to Noah: after the storm, the sun always shines. 

Here’s to our theatres once again becoming bright with the dance, music, and drama that enrich our communal lives here in Asheville and Western North Carolina.

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With Sincere Love, 

Ann Dunn, Artistic Director and Executive Director of The Asheville Ballet, Inc.

Mailing Address: 4 Lynwood Road, Asheville, NC 28804

Email: adunn@unca.edu