Sacramento Ballet

Reviewed by the Sacramento Region Community Foundation
Fundraise

$585 raised by 5 donors

1% complete

$50,000 Goal

 

Sacramento Ballet is a highly regarded cultural asset renowned for artistic and production quality. Deeply committed to the Capitol region for more than six decades, our international company of 22-classically trained dancers and second company of 30 aspiring pre-professionals call Sacramento home. Approximately 100,000 people attend performances annually; many more participate and train in School of SacBallet, free community performances, programming for older adults, dance in schools, and outreach programs.

Our vision is to deliver transformational professional performances in new and evolving delivery mediums; excellence in dance training and education; free Second Company community performance premieres, and to reach to underserved populations, and activate community engagement for all ages.

Barbara and Deane Crockett founded Sacramento Ballet as a resident company of professional dancers in 1954. Ron Cunningham became Artistic Director in 1988, serving with Carinne Binda, as Co-Artistic Directors from 1991-2018. Lauded choreographer and former professional dancer, Amy Seiwert was named Artistic Director from 2018 to mid-2020 when COVID-19 pandemic halted performances. Anthony Krutzkamp was named Artistic/Executive Director in July 2021 and the company returned to stages with sold-out, live performances of Nutcracker created by local Sacramento artists in December 2021 through this season.

Choreography 

Current Programs & Activities 22-23

- Dance training and education from 18 months to pre-professional; adult classes for ballet, tap, hip-hop, Broadway and contemporary dance

-$60,000 scholarships to School of SacBallet

- Leaps and Bounds community programs 

- Send a Child to the Ballet with free tickets for underserved youth and families

- Free events in local parks "Ballet in the Park" and at James Hargrove Outdoor Studio Stage

- 1200 free tickets and bus transportation for four schools a season from diverse neighborhoods that otherwise might not have opportunity to attend

- 5,000+ school-aged students and family members attend shows at nominal ticket prices

- Hybrid school assemblies, "A Day in the Life of a Dancer," with themed programs highlighting the athleticism, social and cultural diversity of dancers and connection to academic achievement

- Second Company & SB2 free performances, expansion and reach to populations and neighbors who are underserved, marginalized, isolated and poor

- Falls Prevention through Movement for Older Adults brought to communities, assisted-living and healthcare providers sponsored by Kaiser Permanente

-SacBallet has an experienced Board of Directors, a senior-management team with national arts experience and a staff and production team with deep industry expertise.

- Artistic/Executive Director Anthony Krutzkamp is a former principal dancer with Cincinnati Ballet and Kansas City Ballet, and former Director of Programming and Manager of Dancers at Kansas City Ballet's Second Company, and founder of summer dance festivals in Kansas City and Cincinnati. As a director, he has presented repertoire from around the world by Marco Goecke, Douglas Lee, George Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon, Salvatore Aiello, Yuri Possokhov, Penny Saunders, Andrea Schermoly, Marina Kessler, Stephanie Martinez, Chris Stuart, Todd Bolender, Matthew Neenan and Ma Cong.

-General Manager Sara Slocum joined SacBallet in 2016 and is a UC Davis graduate with BS in Environmental Design. She began her career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala. She worked in Human Resources at the Smithsonian Institution, as Executive Assistant to the Dean of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and has owned a small business.

- Communications and Development Director Cynthia Wuthmann is a classically trained dancer who studied and performed with Maria Tallchief, Ed Parish, Gus Giordano, and the University of Utah Ballet School of Dance. Her successful marketing and fundraising contributions include Development & Communications Director at Smuin Ballet, CEO of Cindabella Inc, and Director of Worldwide Sales & Marketing launching Star Wars video games in the U.S. and internationally for Lucasfilm Games.

- School Director Jorge Laico whose 18-year professional dance career led him to join numerous professional ballet companies around the US. After his performing career, he taught at the Rock School of Pennsylvania Ballet, North Carolina School of the Arts, and Cirque du Soleil among others.

Giving Activity

Mission

The mission of the Sacramento Ballet is to entertain, educate, inspire, and engage through the power of dance. Our mission is in action through professional productions, a full-time school of dance, and community and neighborhood outreach programs that move dance out of the studio and into the lives of thousands of people who are underserved, isolated and would not otherwise engage with the joy of movement and dance.

Needs

--Support @SacBallet's Financial Aid and Scholarship Programs dance education - $60,000

--Support and Productions to help us purchase specialized (Marley) dance floors $25,000 and stage lighting - $15,000

Equity Statement

Sacramento Ballet Access and Equity Statement

Sacramento Ballet is committed to racial equity and fair representation of multiple diverse populations in employment, outreach, scholarships, and all programs. We provide equity, inclusion and allyship including equitable pay, fair AGMA Union treatment; access, opportunity, ideas, perspectives, values, and advancement for all. We strive to identify and eliminate barriers as well as innate, learned, and conveyed biases that prevent full participation of our communities.

At Sacramento Ballet we know that all diversity strengthens us all. Our diversity commitment to our community aligns with that of California Arts Council as well as Sacramento Arts, Culture, and Creative Economy (ACCE) and Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission’s Race and Cultural Equity Statement. We are ever mindful, considered, and inclusive in our outreach to attain fair representation including but not limited to, race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, ability, geography, citizenship status, religion, language, physical appearance, and those affiliating with multiple identities.

Sacramento Ballet has always have been a way for communities of the Sacramento region to come together and engage with the arts and each other. Our art allows us to provide and share solace amid uncertainty, to share mutual fears and concerns, to give voice to the voiceless, and to advocate for diversity, equity, inclusion, and be the allies that strengthen us all.

Our commitment to DEIA extends to Artists and choreographers like our own Julia Feldman who is a distinct and unique voice from Sacramento to the world. With funding to deepen her ability to develop her craft, she will be a breakthrough new choreographer of note.

When we have funds to sustain our performances and art, we can reach all neighborhoods and communities, especially underserved populations. Equitable opportunities happen when we are funded to maintain community outreach, professional productions, dance education and innovative projects to keep students and artists on stage and to keep our production, staff and faculty members employed.

The nuts and bolts of activating equity for our art demands funding for representation. When we create media releases and reach the community with communications and messages. We are committed to funding translations (and interpretations in live venues) for speakers of languages other than English. We rely on the Sacramento region Medi-Cal and school district standards for translation into the following languages in rank order: English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Russian, and Hmong. Our first season release was translated into Spanish and released to Spanish language media. We provide live, virtual, social media, and printed accommodations for hearing and sight impaired as well as people with developmental disabilities and older adults. We are committed to helping our dancers, activating their training, supporting fair, free and allied representation; restarting rehearsals safely; and affording workers comp, health insurance, liability, rentals, equipment, expertise, policies for E&O and D&O – as well as every aspect of the running and maintenance of the professional performance enterprise that is Sacramento Ballet.

Organization Data

Summary

Organization name

Sacramento Ballet

other names

SacBallet

Year Established

1954

Tax id (EIN)

94-1674349

Mission Category

Arts, Culture & Humanities

Operating Budget

$1,000,001-$5 million

Organization Need

Funding: Unrestricted, Funding: Program, Technology, Other

Demographics Served

Asian/Pacific Islander, Youth & Children, General population

Local Counties Served

Sacramento

Equity Statement

Equity Statement

Address

2420 N Street
Sacramento, CA 95816

Service areas

Sacramento, CA, US

Sacramento County, CA, US

Placer County, CA, US

El Dorado County, CA, US

Yolo County, CA, US

Phone

916-732-3670

Email

cwuthmann@sacballet.org

Website

http://www.sacballet.org

Social Media