Help Jolene Follow Her Lifelong Ballet Dream

Help Jolene study at the English National Ballet School

This fund will benefit Jolene Fisher in her lifelong journey to dance professionally in classical and contemporary ballet.

Your gift will be used for Jolene's professional training. Jolene has been offered a place at the prestigious English National Ballet School in London, England. To put this in sports terms, it's like being scouted for an NBA team or being asked to try out for an Olympic team. If it could be compared to academic studies, it would be like being excepted into Oxford, Harvard or another school on that level.

Time is of the essence: Jolene begins the first term in London on the 7th of September!

A note from Jolene:

****************************
Hi, this is Jolene!

I wanted to write a personal note about what dance and going to English National Ballet School means to me.

I have loved to dance since I was a little kid. I remember dancing around the living rooms of several houses (we moved a lot) to all sorts of music. Whenever and wherever there was music playing, I would dance. Finally, when I turned three I was allowed to take ballet lessons, and I remember the first role I ever played was a fish in The Three Little Fishes (see link below). Since then, I have changed ballet schools and become serious about trying for a career in dance. When I was 14 I began a Full-Time Program with Melbourne Academy of the Arts, and started doing a lot more hours. I danced in many performances, and loved every minute of it! I hope someday I will be able to perform as a professional ballerina before an audience of hundreds of people.

One of my favourite things to do in ballet is pas de deux, which means dance of two. I dream of someday performing the Grand Pas de Deux of Sugarplum and the Cavalier Prince in Nutcracker. I love the way the two dancers work in harmony, producing beautiful, mesmerising movement together. Going to the English National Ballet School would mean I could learn how to dance pas de deux, which makes me so excited!

Thank you for all your loving prayers and support.

Jolene's first recital at age 3 (she's the tiny fish at 0:28): https://youtu.be/1Lycrv8qKEM 

****************************

The details:

Tuition for the full time program is 19,200 pounds (about $35,000 AUD or $26,700 USD). Add to that flights, visa, room & board, public transport, health insurance and uniforms and the total comes to $50,200 AUD ($38,000 USD) per year!

When we first considered this offer we thought we should decline outright. The financial cost alone is a crazy amount of money! As a family we are unable to fully support this wonderful opportunity. However, we see God's hand putting things in order so that the barriers that seemed so unassailable are being broken down. At present we have received $15,000 USD ($19,800 AUD) out of the blue which we will use for the first term. And we're pulling out all the stops:

• Jolene continues to deliver papers every week as she has for the past 3 years which helps to pay for her pointe shoes.
• Jolene's Mum, Megan has taken a second job which has also come out the blue and will help cover some of the living expenses.
• We are also applying for all the grants and financial aid we can find. However, there is little in the way of financial help to support the arts: most grants are academically geared.
• Through a friend we have found a Christian family in London (Ealing) who have offered to host Jolene at a rate that is a great savings over typical London room and board.
  
  If 400 people give $50 each we will reach the goal. Or if 200 people give $100. Many small amounts add up! So please share with whomever!

Where do you come in? All of our efforts above will eventually fall short of the total required for Jolene to maintain her studies at ENBS. So we're asking those who can, and those who want to see Jolene supported in her pursuit of a career in the arts, to please consider giving toward Jolene's expenses to cover at least one year in this wonderful opportunity.

The arts are important. We agree with Makoto Fujimura when he quotes Martha Graham: "the dance is the mother of the arts". We think it's important for Christians to be in the art world too. And we would love if Jolene could use her gifts to spread the love she's been shown in Christ. Your support would mean so much to Jolene and our family and be an integral part of pursuing such a noble and challenging career.

Q&A:

Q. What happens to the money donated if Jolene doesn't continue at ENBS?

A. Every dancer's journey is filled with ups and downs: awards, rejection, success, injury, etc. All international students are on a one term probation period at ENBS and then again after one year. If ENBS were to decide the offer was not suitable for Jolene, Jolene plans to continue to pursue other ballet schools. Most schools are equally financially challenging for our family, so your donation would be used to further Jolene's career where ever she continues on for her finishing years.

Q. What happens to the money donated if Jolene cannot continue a ballet career due to injury or illness?

A. Jolene has a desire to dance professionally no matter what. Even if it means dancing for a smaller, lesser-known company, Jolene just wants to be able to dance. However, Jolene has a back up plan and desires to study science if ballet doesn't work out due to serious injury or illness. In this case we would either offer to return your gift (unless it was anonymous), give to a charity, or help support another financially challenged dancer (there are many!).