CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA YOUTH BALLET
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Mission Statement
Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet's mission is to inspire, educate and enrich lives through the training in and performance of classical ballet. CPYB's vision is one of changing lives through dance. CPYB offers eight distinct programs including the 5-Week Summer Ballet Program, Academic Year Program, August Course, Teachers Training Course, Changing Lives Scholarship Program, Male Scholarship Program, Annual Production Season and DiscoverDance, an educational community outreach program.
About This Cause
HISTORY AND MISSION In 1955, in a historic red barn in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Marcia Dale Weary’s love of dance compelled her to open Marcia Dale Weary’s School of Classical Ballet – later renamed the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. Today, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet (CPYB) is a nationally and internationally recognized school of classical ballet providing complete ballet training highlighted by a trademark clarity of technique and artistic aplomb. CPYB’s mission is to inspire, educate and enrich lives through training in and performance of classical ballet. CPYB builds futures filled with promise, enhances the quality of regional life, and strengthens the unity of fellow citizens. While the school’s academic programs are designed with the serious ballet student in mind, CPYB attracts students of all ages, with varying degrees of interest and talent, who wish to pursue dance instruction in an inspiring and enriched learning environment. Founding Artistic Director Marcia Dale Weary started teaching in 1955 at the Carlisle Band Hall on South Street in Carlisle. That was a temporary solution until Marcia suggested to her father that they buy a barn. It was her father (along with family and friends) who renovated a sheep barn to include the first four dance studios and costume storage. Marcia and her sister (Sandra Lee Weary) purchased the barn with a $55 down payment the real estate agent lent them interest-free. When referring to the growing business, the family simply called it “the barn.” Lisa de Ribere was the first CPYB alumna to be accepted into the esteemed New York City Ballet. Her father, Andre de Ribere, was a business man with a manufacturing business in nearby York. John Gregor (also in manufacturing) worked with Andre and Marcia’s family to guide the organization through its articles of incorporation and non-profit designation. Andre served as the first CPYB board president at that time. The organization continued to grow, relocated its headquarters to a warehouse on Dickinson College’s campus in 1999 and now has an annual operating budget of nearly $4 million. Lisa was just the first of many CPYB alumni to experience success as a ballet dancer. Darla Hoover trained at CPYB, and after dancing with the New York City Ballet, returned as CPYB’s Asociate Artistic Director in 1991. Also a noted CPYB alumna, Tina LeBlanc went on to dance with the San Francisco Ballet. Many more famous alumni were to follow. ORGANIZATIONAL VALUES Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet strives to operate in accordance with the utmost integrity and the highest standards in all relationships and is committed to diligence, excellence, and inclusiveness among all affiliates. CPYB holds the following values with the utmost respect: •Integrity –We maintain high ethical and moral standards in speech, both the spoken and written word, and in personal and professional conduct. We value candor and honesty and are committed to doing what is right to protect our students, audiences, faculty, staff, and stakeholders. •Diligence –We value persistence and dedication as fundamental to the success of the entire organization. Inherent in that, we take responsibility for our own actions and are answerable to others. •Excellence – We give our personal best to proactively contribute to the success of the organization while seeking out new possibilities in every area and embracing innovative change that adds value. •Inclusiveness– We commit ourselves to fostering an environment that values all individuals, treating each other with the respect and dignity that all deserve. CURRENT PROGRAMS CPYB offers eight distinct programs including the 5-Week Summer Ballet Program, Academic Year Program, August Course, Teachers Training Course, Changing Lives Scholarship Program, Male Scholarship Program, Annual Production Season and DiscoverDance, an educational community outreach program. CPYB students range in age from 4 to 18. The majority of CPYB students are female and CPYB students come from all across the world. For example, the 2014 5-Week Summer Program had 582 students representing 45 states and 11 countries. CPYB touched the lives of more than 12,000 individuals through its eight programs in FY14. 5-Week Summer Ballet Program 582 Academic Year 262 August Course 240 Teachers Training Course 40 Changing Lives Scholarship 21 Male Scholarship 15 Production Season 9,045 DiscoverDance 1,800 Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet’s distinguished faculty has earned both a national and an international reputation for providing the finest in classical ballet training. Throughout the years, CPYB has developed a curriculum that is focused on building technical strength, stamina and flexibility, as well as nurturing artistic development. The school’s Academic Year Program consists of Preschool, Primary, and Pre-Professional divisions. Each is intended to challenge students and support their physical, mental, artistic and emotional development consistent with that level. Classes promote early childhood development, focus on clarity of position and quality of movement, and to develop, strengthen and perfect their ballet technique. Students in the Male Scholarship Program are part of the Pre-Professional Division, receiving specific training and mentoring that male dancers need to achieve professional success. Performance experience is an integral part of a child's ballet education and a big part of CPYB’s mission to inspire, educate and enrich. Students who qualify as a member of the CPYB performing company are invited to perform by Founding Artistic Director Marcia Dale Weary. CPYB offers a robust professional-level performance schedule in Harrisburg and Hershey. The performance schedule for 2014-2015 includes Hansel and Gretel in October, George Balanchine’s The NutcrackerTM in December, Cinderella in April and five distinct productions including a world premiere by Jeffrey Cirio (principal dancer with Boston Ballet and CPYB alumnus) as part of the June Series. LOCAL COMMUNITY IMPACT In addition to the instructional and training programs and Teachers Course, CPYB has made significant financial commitments to provide scholarship funding for students and their families with limited access to financial resources through DiscoverDance, the Male Scholarship Program and the Changing Lives Scholarship Fund. There are many studios that offer dance instruction in Pennsylvania, but CPYB is different for many reasons. First, CPYB traces its humble beginning back to a red barn. That was the year CPYB founding artistic director Marcia Dale Weary began realizing her vision to enrich the lives of young children through exposure to the arts. CPYB continues to build on that mission today with outreach programs such as DiscoverDance that introduces more than 1,800 1st and 2nd graders every year to the world of classical ballet. Today, with educational facilities in the CPYB barn, and CPYB warehouse (5 North Orange Street) and at the Grace Millman Pollack Center in Camp Hill, CPYB is much more than the Resident Ballet Company for the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts in Harrisburg. Marcia’s vision of changing lives through dance has developed into an internationally recognized school of classical ballet, an artistic cornerstone of the capital region, and an economic cultural powerhouse infusing nearly $6 million a year into the central Pennsylvania economy. NATIONAL IMPACT While many south-central Pennsylvania residents recognize the local impact of CPYB mentioned above, far fewer are aware of the larger influence CPYB continues to have on the world of classical ballet. Sometimes it takes an out-of-towner to bring our attention to this. In 2001, Joseph Carman of the New York Times wrote about a CPYB reunion gala performance at the Sunoco Performance Theatre in Harrisburg. He lists the many CPYB trained dancers well known in the dance world, but of greater importance is his classification of CPYB as one of the preeminent schools of classical ballet in the world. London, Paris, St. Petersburg and New York are well known for their first-rate ballet academies, training many of the best dancers in the classical form. Add to that list Carlisle, Pa., a town with fewer than 20,000 people and a modest economy driven by state government jobs and the defense industry. For the last 46 years, Marcia Dale Weary and her Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet have produced dancers well known in the ballet world. Sean Lavery, Tina LeBlanc, Deborah Wingert, Lisa de Ribere and Ethan Stiefel are just a few of Ms. Weary's former students. When artistic directors hear that a dancer has been trained by Ms. Weary, they prick up their ears and sometimes even make the pilgrimage here to recruit the prospect themselves. JOSEPH CARMAN, “DANCE: Guru in an Outpost of Ballet Wisdom” New York Times Aug. 2001 Mr. Carman isn’t alone in his praise for CPYB. After pointing out that “Former Carlisle [CPYB] dancers are in nearly every major company in the United States.” Ellen Dunkel in The Philadelphia Inquirer goes on to point out the quality of the instruction at CPYB. Part of the secret to Weary’s success is that she and her fellow teachers – all but one are alumni of the Barn – are unusually hands-on, molding the students’ bodies into shape instead of giving only verbal commands. If beginners can’t point their toes, “We get down on our hands and knees. And we fix their feet.” ELLEN DUNKEL, “Barn Dancers” The Philadelphia Inquirer June, 2001 And more recently, Stephen Manes, bestselling author, embedded himself with the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle for a year. He wrote about what he learned as a ballet outsider and what he calls the Land of Ballet. His research and writing covers everything from making it snow on stage for the Nutcracker to dancer union agreements. It eventually leads him to make a literary pilgrimage to Carlisle, Pennsylvania to visit CPYB and its famous barn.