Save NYCB at SPAC

February 15, 2004

New York City Ballet has been the resident ballet company during July at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center since the amphitheater was built.

George Balanchine, NYCB's founder, was instrumental in designing the facility and Saratoga Springs, New York has been called, officially, "The Summer Home Of The New York City Ballet." Not only does the three-week residency bring a much-needed cultural richness to this upstate New York area, it brings in many dollars that help to support the local economy.

The current Board of Directors of the Performing Arts Center has arbitrarily (and short-sightedly)decided to end the Company's residency in Saratoga Springs after 2004. The rationale is that the bottom line for the Performing Arts Center is adversely affected by the small audience attendance for NYCB.

The Saratoga Performing Arts Center is a Not-for-Profit organization. With a one-year extension of the agreement between the Performing Arts Center and New York City Ballet until 2005, sufficient funds could be raised to cover the disparity in cost and make the NYCB residency financially viable.

Please let your legislators (along with the Board of Directors of the Performing Arts Center) know that you would like for them to extend this residency and that you support the effort to work with SPAC to make this a profitable enterprise.

Please confine your comments and discussion to arguments that will help to bring about a positive change, one hopes, in which all of us will win. SPAC will be a more vibrant facility, with greater community support, and, in addition,we will all achieve our hope of NYCB continuing to perform there. Personal insults and attacks will only divide us from any kind of successful conversations with the people from whom we are trying to garner results. Thank you.