Waldorf’s Ballet Arts Academy, took a shot in the dark when its board of directors applied for a grant from a prominant area foundation. Deborah Stanley, the Academy Administrator, worried that the little ole’ Ballet Arts Academy, in its third year, wasn’t in the same league with regional arts organizations who’d won the foundation’s grants in the past. Additionally, the BAA asked for what Stanley felt was a lot of money, although the amount was dearly needed. It seemed like a pipe dream.
So, it’s easy to imagine how thrilled Artistic Director and Founder Jayne Stefani Keating and Stanley were to learn that the fund had granted them $25,000. The decision was made in December, and the check arrived last week.
“It’s just so exciting! It’s very validating when somebody’s willing to put that much money into us,” Deborah Stanley told The Bay Net.
The BAA’s program is of such quality that, in addition to drawing students from all over Charles County, families from Virginia drive here twice weekly so their children can work with the academy’s instructors. BAA students are regularly chosen for places in intensive summer sessions with the District’s most prestigious dance schools.
The BAA has earmarked the money for three student tuition scholarships as well as salaries for the artistic director and the pianist accompanying the classes.
It was a successful holiday season for the BAA’s students as well. Three dancers – John Radtke, Robert Stanley, and Nikita Tchoumak – had parts in the American Ballet Theater’s performances of The Nutcracker.
The boys were onstage at the Kennedy Center during most of the company’s seven performances having, reportedly, a marvelous time. On the nights they weren’t part of the performance, they were still backstage ready to go on in case of emergency.
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