ABT New York- Kaia's Ballet Dream

My name is Kaia and I'm a 12 year old dancer with a passion for ballet.  I began dancing at the age of 2, and have not stopped since.  I currently train at Santa Barbara Festival Ballet and have performed a variety of roles over the last six years in our Nutcracker at the historic Arlington Theatre.  In addition to that production, I have performed in a wide variety of smaller ballet productions here in town.  At nine years old I was fortunate enough to be chosen to join the Royal New Zeland Ballet for a small part in their performance of Giselle at the beautiful Granada Theatre.  I shared the stage with Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel!!  What an honor! 

As I'm getting older and practicing ballet 5 to 6 days a week, the costs are becoming very high and my parents struggle to keep my dream alive.  Last year, I applied for and was granted, a $2000 dance merit scholarship from the John E Profant Foundation here in Santa Barbara.  They were so generous and I was very grateful for this help and support.   This was a much needed surprise for my whole family; mom, dad and my two younger sisters.

This Janurary 2017, I embarked on my very first Summer Intensive Audition season.  This was an exciting and scary experience and I was thrilled to discover that I was accepted into all the companies that I auditioned for, including my most favorite- American Ballet Theatre (ABT).  Even more amazing, they asked me to come to the New York location!!!  Imagine that, the company where Misty Copeland dances!!  I was beyond ecstatic!  This is the chance of a lifetime for me.  

While my family is very happy for me they are also, quite uncertain how they will afford this huge financial burden.  I am too young to attend the Intensive on my own this year and my mom can't leave my sisters for five weeks when my dad has to work.  So we have to find a way to get our whole family out to New York and/or my parents will take turns being there with me. Either way, the cost is as follows: 
Tuition- 2900
Housing- about 3500- 4000
Plane fare- crazy expensive
Food/misc- 1000+
As it would be for most families, this quite a large sum of money and as you can see, my goal here simply serves to offset the costs not cover them.  

I, along with my family, would be so incredibly grateful for any bit of financial help you could offer to support my dance dream.  Lastly, I want to thank my family, my incredible ballet instructors, Denise Rinaldi, Valerie Houston and Cynthia Padden, and Emmylou Crawford,  for their support, love and guidance over this first part of my journey with dance.

With lots of love and gratitude, 
Kaia Abraham