Hi! Our Stella has been training in ballet for 11 years. She is 15 today, and so she has been doing this for most of her life. She’s very dedicated to dance, and it has been an unbelievably sweet artistic journey for her, and for us.

Recently, Stella went to an audition in Los Angeles for the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet’s summer intensive. She went for the “audition experience” and was stunned when she learned some days later that she had actually passed the audition. Glass half empty: we can’t begin to afford to do this for Stella, which she more than understands. This outreach is a way for this corner-turning event to happen. 

The Gelsey Kirkland Academy's summer intensive is in Brooklyn, NY. There are 1 – 5 week opportunities at the camp, and we dearly hope to be able to send Stella there for two weeks of training and workshops, her first extended educational experience away from home, and in the arguable dance center of the world. This is not a vacation junket, but a working summer dance camp intensive where the dancers will be training and absorbing dance all day, every weekday.

Gelsey Kirkland herself teaches at the camp, and is a legend in her own right. She was basically drafted into the NYC Ballet at the age of 15 by George Balanchine himself, and was a force of nature and art in her own storied career alongside Baryshnikov and many other greats.

We know this could be one of those watershed experiences that opens Stella’s eyes to all Life’s possibilities. Stella has a yearning sense of the larger world and a deep desire to see it in action outside her hometown. An experience like this would immediately broaden and season her world view, immerse her in a terrifically diverse environment with other dancers [people!] from all over the country and world, and give her a dose of another kind of life and in a real world environment.

The costs break out like this, and we have rounded up to the $4500 goal figure to accommodate fluctuating airfare:

*2 weeks of Gelsey Kirkland Academy’s summer camp - $2075
*2 weeks of academy room and board - $1700
*Round trip to NYC from LAX ~ $600
= $4375.

Yes, it's a $um, and asking for assistance this way puts us completely outside our comfort zone. But we feel the sea-change this experience would usher in for Stel is a game-changer that we have to do everything we can to actualize. 

If you know Stel, you know she is a terrific student academically, and a loving, spark-throwing livewire of a young woman and friend. Stella is a striving flower and this opportunity is full sun. Thanks very much for considering making a contribution to this experience for Stel. We need to meet this goal by March 27.