Midsummer in Winter

A year ago this week, I dropped 225 invitations in the mail for an event that was an new sort of undertaking for my brother’s ballet organization. The event was the first fundraising benefit his organization had ever attempted. There was nickel-and-dime level fundraising and grant applications that often went nowhere. But in the course of my first Nutcracker season, one of the volunteers said, in passing, that it would be nice to do something more adult one of these days. I told her I was thinking the same thing. And as I became more aware of my brother’s ambitions and my sister-in-law’s more modest goals, I thought we should try it. We should try a serious, grownup, fundraiser, along the lines of being the organization my brother envisioned. In the parlance of another strand of development, we should “act ‘as if’…”
The benefit was a smashing success, as I’ve written here before, and yesterday, a little earlier than I might have expected, my brother and sister-in-law premiered their production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at UB Center for the Arts. I was not involved in the production much; I did, however, offer to organize a reception to celebrate the premiere, and with the help of Tracey Martin, the friend who was so involved in the Spencer business, we put on a nice, grownup cocktail party. Tracey was instrumental in getting a number of donations, and a couple whose daughters dance at the school offered to sponsor the primary costs. That was a pleasant part of the evening, but the real highlight was to come.
My brother has had some of these students their entire dancing lives. Several of them are straining at their small-city tethers, dreaming of dancing in New York City or elsewhere. Several of them are well on their way to professional careers. Many of the students are going to be able to do something with dance or theater. Whatever they do, I hope they remember this production. Considering that these are largely not professional students, the quality of the performance and the production was spectacular. Yes, I do have some bias, but I’m also capable of standing back and viewing with as much perspective as possible. I overhead many of the parents commenting afterwards that the leap forward from the last dress rehearsal was considerable. I had a brief glimpse of part of the rehearsal myself, and can attest to the fact that the finished performance was about as good as I’ve ever seen from these kids. They did themselves proud, and my brother and sister did as well. I know that they were still sewing butterfly wings on costumes an hour before curtain; I know that they did not sell out the house. I know that many parents were wondering why they were doing another production so soon after Nutcracker. I only wish that more of the community could see the results. I hope that they will.