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Dancing
Around Each Other
As
Saratoga begins to buttress itself for the summer rush, Saratoga
Performing Arts Center and Save the Ballet are independently
working on ways to improve attendance at the New York City
Ballet this summer.
Save the Ballet wants an ongoing role guarding the local interests
of the New York City Ballet, complementing SPAC’s efforts,
to ensure that the New York City Ballet’s annual residency
is secure for years to come. The group has collected petitions
and ticket pledges, and was instrumental in getting the attention
of state legislative leadership to protect the ballet’s 39-year
summer residency from ending in 2005. For now, however, it
is uncertain how Save the Ballet will be involved, if at all,
in SPAC’s considerations.
Save the Ballet committee member Jennifer Leidig said the
group has what SPAC needs: community support. “We also want,
desperately, to be seen as a source of support for SPAC and
a resource for the board of directors to come to if they need
to make an educated decision,” she said.
“We’re
planning to communicate with the people who have expressed
interest,” said Helen Edelman, SPAC’s marketing-and-public-relations
director. She hopes to announce SPAC’s new “extensive tactical
plan” for community outreach that awaits the board’s approval.
Part of that plan, she said, will include contacting the people
who signed approximately $130,000 in ticket pledges collected
by Save the Ballet.
SPAC has also hired Sawchuk Brown Associates, a public-relations
firm in Albany, as consultants, Edelman said, to work “through
some community relations and government relations plans with
us,” adding that the contract would “be expiring fairly soon.”
Now that the ballet is back on the schedule for 2005, some
people working to secure the ballet’s presence are scratching
their heads, wondering where the money to hire a public-relations
firm came from, if SPAC’s financial trouble is what partly
caused the board to question the viability of the New York
City Ballet at SPAC in the first place [“Unhappy Feet,” Art
Murmur, Feb. 19]. And although she could not say how much
the firm was being paid for its services, Edelman did say
the money was coming out of SPAC’s “promotional budget.” Just
the same, Save the Ballet member John DeMarco pointed out
that the promotional efforts may have helped the public understand
SPAC better, which he thinks is a good thing.
Radio and television stations are helping by donating media
time and the free production of promotional spots to SPAC
“so that we can extend our reach in the community,” Edelman
said. That could help reach more people, but Save the Ballet
says SPAC could be doing more, and believes they can help
with community-oriented efforts, such as tapping into volunteers.
Save the Ballet is now moving into the second phase of its
existence; it is newly incorporated and hopes to have its
nonprofit status soon. One of its goals is to establish a
substantial endowment to support the New York City Ballet
in Saratoga Springs. Leidig said the group intends to continue
“making sure that New York City Ballet’s future is secure
and the priorities of the community are upheld.”
DeMarco is hopeful this year’s attendance will increase because
the ballet is “more in the forefront of people’s minds,” and
he hopes Save the Ballet’s efforts will help that even more.
—Ashley
Hahn
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Author,
Author
New
York's Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was all smiles
last Saturday (April 24) at the Book House of
Stuyvesant Plaza, as she prepared to sign copies
of the just-released paperback edition of her
hit memoir, Living History. Folks had to
pick up tickets for this event the previous Monday
(April 19), which they happily did, judging from
the reported turnout. Oh, and they had to buy
a book, because the senator wasn't signing anything
else.
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