OUR COMMITMENT TO ACCESS & EXCELLENCE

ACCESS & EXCELLENCE COMMITTEE STATEMENT

Grand Rapids Ballet’s Access & Excellence Committee, comprised of members from the Grand Rapids Ballet Board of Directors, Artistic Director, Executive Director, School Director, dancers, and staff members, is dedicated to expanding access to experience world-class dance. Our Access & Excellence Committee is committed to helping the Grand Rapids Ballet become an operationally and artistically excellent organization.

GOALS

We acknowledge that the work of the Access & Excellence Committee will be ever-evolving, and as such, our goals will continue to transform over time. Today, our committee is dedicated to working to accomplish the following goals:

  1. To serve as a resource to achieve our goal of creating excellent and accessible performances, programming, and content for our audiences.
  2. To encourage and facilitate engagement with local communities, ensuring access to our performances and classes.
  3. To continue advising the organization’s efforts to support workforce excellence in operating procedures and culture.
  4. To focus on promoting arts excellence within our community.
  5. To actively seek input from perspectives of individuals beyond our committee.
  6. To support the next generation of artists and arts champions by facilitating and encouraging excellence within Grand Rapids Ballet School and the Junior Company.
  7. To work in collaboration with the Board of Directors to uphold the organization’s commitment to access & excellence.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

DANCE IMMERSION PROGRAM

Grand Rapids Ballet School’s Dance Immersion Program was established in 2010 when we began offering classes at Coit Creative Arts Academy, teaching one weekly class to 300 students. Since then, the program has grown to include 5 Grand Rapids Public Schools, reaching over 2,000 students, including satellite classes at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary, Cesar Chavez Elementary, Mulick Park Elementary, KEC Oakleigh Elementary, and Lincoln Elementary.

Our Dance Immersion Program invites students to be immersed in dance and movement during their academic school day. Students that participate are exposed to ballet by receiving a series of weekly dance classes as well as an opportunity to attend a live Company performance at DeVos Performance Hall and a lecture-demonstration with GRB Company members.

Grand Rapids Ballet School includes Michigan Arts Education Instruction and Assessment (MAEIA) standards within the program. Each grade level receives unique lessons and instruction designed to enhance their learning within the school and dance environment. MAIEA is a resource for arts educators to create standardized evaluations, ensuring the quality and effectiveness of arts education within K-12 classrooms. For this program’s purposes, the MAEIA assessments and resources act as a guide for the lessons created for each class.

Since 2010, Grand Rapids Ballet School is proud to have awarded five full-tuition scholarships to students from each school, giving them an opportunity to attend GRBS Summer Programs.

As a first important step in our ongoing mission for excellence, Grand Rapids Ballet would like to recognize the People of the Three Fires, the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potowatomi peoples on whose land we are gathered. The Three Fires People are indigenous to this land which means that this is their ancestral territory. The Grand Rapids Ballet is built on native land. As such, we are guests on their land, and one way to practice Right Relations is to develop genuine ways to acknowledge the histories and traditions of the people who originated here first, who are still here, and who tend to the land always. As we take this step, we understand that there are many more ahead as we continuously advocate for operational and artistic excellence.

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