North Pointe Ballet Inc

North Pointe Ballet's mission is to make classical ballet accessible to everyone. We aim for a ballet environment of inclusivity rather than exclusivity, creating opportunities for those who otherwise would not be able to enjoy ballet in its traditional practices. NPB is committed to increasing diversity and equity in the arts by addressing and removing barriers for underrepresented communities including those of diversability, those of differing socioeconomic backgrounds, and those who simply wouldn't otherwise be exposed to ballet if an opportunity didn't exist or wasn't accessible.

NPB's mission rests on the underlying idea that the arts bring unity and are crucial to the human experience. NPB seeks to not only provide these opportunities but to always strive to improve upon them and provide the best possible arts experience.

NPB provides high-quality, professional ballet to the western suburbs of Cleveland and beyond through full-length theatrical events that are family-friendly, educational workshops, community engagement tours, and by offering special events inclusive of audiences and performers of all abilities. Our strategies can be classified under three umbrellas initiatives: Community Engagement Initiative, Dance & Diversity Initiative, and Sensory-Friendly Initiative.

Our Community Engagement Initiative includes a performance tour, traveling to schools, nursing homes, hospital/treatment centers, cultural centers, and other organizations with 10-12 professional dancers performing excerpts of full-length ballets. For schools, this program consists of a hands-on dance education workshop led by NPB directors that engages the children on both physical and academic levels, a performance of excerpts of a ballet by the professional dancers, and a question-and-answer session. For nursing homes, hospitals and treatment facilities, the program is adjusted for the capabilities of the audience. NPB has also transformed its in-person workshop performances into Virtual Ballet Experience, a video series that includes movement activities to engage participants in active learning, performance excerpts featuring NPB’s professional productions, a virtual field-trip with a behind-the-scenes backstage tour of The Nutcracker, and live virtual Q&A sessions with professional artists.

The first component of the Sensory-Friendly Initiative are sensory-friendly performances offered with every full-length dance production produced. These performances accommodate those with social, cognitive, and sensory needs by adjusting lighting and sound, allowing talk and movement during the performance, and providing extra staff to assist as needed. The second component of the Sensory-Friendly Initiative is the A Chance to Dance program, aimed at providing dance performance experiences to children and teens of diversability. These performers are given roles in NPB's sensory-friendly performance and are paired with company members and typical peers for rehearsals and the performance.

NPB's Dance & Diversity Initiative provides ballet instruction to students of varying ethnicities, partnering with local schools and cultural centers. Each group of students receives a one-hour ballet lesson once per week for eight weeks. Lessons focus on ballet basics and the elements of posture, building confidence and discipline through ballet technique, choreography, and movement-based games. Each 8-week session culminates with a performance piece. NPB also provides community members of diverse ethnicities with up to 100 tickets to its biannual ballet productions.

NPB's performances and initiatives are made possible thanks to staff credentials, community and organizational partnerships, funders, and volunteers.

NPB's staff members have diverse education, training opportunities, and refined skills. Executive Director Janet Dziak is a professionally trained dancer and holds a teaching license in dance through the Ohio Department of Education. Assistant Director Melaina McConnell was a principle dancer, instructor, and later School Administrator for Dancing Wheels Company, a physically integrated dance company uniting dancers both with and without disabilities. Development Director Elizabeth Radachi, in charge of the Sensory-Friendly Initiative, is a practicing Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst who works with individuals with Autism and other diagnoses. She brings a wealth of behavioral strategies, knowledge, and experience to the programs involved in the Sensory-Friendly Initiative.

None of NPB's initiatives would be possible without school and organizational partnerships. Each of our three initiatives strategically works with other entities that also work to serve corresponding populations. To complete a bi-annual tour of workshop performances, NPB partners with schools, senior residencies, and other organizations to present interactive lessons and abridged performances of our full-length story ballets. To fulfill the Sensory Friendly Initiative, NPB partners with schools for students with special needs as well as arts education organizations for students of diversability. In carrying out the Dance & Diversity Initiative, NPB works closely with local community and cultural arts centers as well as schools with students of diverse backgrounds to bring ballet lessons and performing opportunities to students in those communities.

Our volunteer base of individuals serving in costuming, youth cast chaperoning, performance promotion, cast coordination, fundraising, audience services, and other responsibilities have also made North Pointe Ballet's operations possible in a very large way.

Since its founding in 2016, North Pointe Ballet has produced at least bi-annual full-length ballet performances, including a sensory-friendly performance with each run, serving hundreds of audiences members with special needs and their families. We provide annual dance performance opportunities for tens of students with special needs. In addition, we have provided dance education opportunities for students of diversabilities yearly. NPB's community engagement initiative has consisted of bi-annual tours to schools, senior residences, and other community sites with abbreviated performances and movement workshops. Our Dance & Diversity educational programming serves an average of 45 students at three locations during every eight week session. The CoVID-19 pandemic was a catalyst for growth for NPB. Thanks to restrictions and health precautions that forced cancellations of our in-person performances we learned how to reach our community virtually, taking both our community engagement tour and our annual production of The Nutcracker to digital viewing platforms that were easily accessible to our audiences.

Looking ahead, NPB will be replicating many of the program pivots we've taken in order to provide opportunities fit for a CoVID-19 world. Due to the success of our first free, outdoor performance we will be producing a second, as productions of this nature both fulfill our mission of making ballet accessible and provide a safe option in light of CoVID-19 protocols. We will also be producing a second virtual adaptation of our community engagement tour, this time catered toward students in grades 6-8 that meets social-emotional learning criteria. NPB's Artistic Director will be completing a Physically Integrated Dance Teacher Training through Dancing Wheels Company, a dance company dedicated to enhancing integration and diversity in the arts to unite people of all abilities. This will further strengthen our capacity to create performance opportunities for individuals of all abilities.