Ballet School Turns to Legislature for Help
Youth Academy, in Debt After Moving to Silver Spring Facility, Seeks $200,000 From State

By Philip Rucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 30, 2008

The Maryland Youth Ballet has groomed talented youngsters to join the ranks of the nation's elite dancers. It has built a sterling reputation for teaching ballerinas, both able-bodied and disabled. And the venerable academy regularly stages classics such as "The Nutcracker," "Swan Lake" and "Sleeping Beauty."

During its 37 years in Montgomery County, the ballet school has never sought funds from the legislature. "We didn't even know what a bond bill was," said Charles Barnett, the school's president.

Until this year.

The saga started two years ago, when the school was kicked out of its longtime studio in downtown Bethesda so a developer could demolish the building and build a high-rise condominium. The ballet school quickly moved to a nearby office building, but it was not big enough for a school that teaches 1,200 dancers each week.

So a few months later, the academy opened a studio in the arts district in Silver Spring's revitalized downtown. The cost of two moves within a year put the school in the red.

Barnett said it was close to having "little girls in tutus out on the street."

"We were at death's doorstep," he said. "We were dangling on the ropes, swinging back and forth, begging for help."

This year, the school applied to the General Assembly for a bond bill. It asked for $200,000 from the state's capital budget to help pay its outstanding bills from the move to Silver Spring.

"If there was ever a time for them to answer our SOS, this is the moment," Barnett said.

The legislature could decide tomorrow whether to fund the Maryland Youth Ballet, which is among more than 150 community facilities and programs seeking state aid this year.

Under preliminary versions of the budget, the school will receive the $200,000 it requested, with the Senate and House each providing $100,000 from separate funds. Through bonds, the General Assembly can award money to local projects at its discretion.

"The Maryland Youth Ballet has brought such a sense of grace and uplift to downtown Silver Spring, and there are hundreds and hundreds of young people whose lives are being changed by that group," said Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Montgomery), the lead sponsor of the bond bill.

But because of tough fiscal times, lawmakers said that some worthy projects could go unfunded.

"We have a limited amount and are tightening our belts and are trying to spread the money across the state," said House Speaker Pro Tem Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County), who chairs the capital budget subcommittee, which is responsible for allocating $12.5 million this year.

Sen. Ulysses Currie (D-Prince George's), chairman of the Budget and Taxation Committee, said his panel considered requests totaling more than $100 million but can give out only $12.5 million in bonds.

"You see very worthy programs that are heartwrenching programs without the money to fund them, so we fund the ones that we can," Currie said.

Lawmakers said state bonds, which can be seen as a stamp of approval, can often help organizations solicit grants from federal and local governments and raise private money in their communities.

"There are a lot of really good projects that don't get any money, or much less than they'd like," said Del. John L. Bohanan Jr. (D-St. Mary's), a leading member of the budget subcommittee. "But it's always valuable to prime the pump and help jump-start projects by attracting private and local investment."

Several projects in the Washington suburbs will probably be awarded state aid this year, including the CentroN¿a day-care facility and Imagination Stage, both in Montgomery County. In Prince George's County, lawmakers are expected to fund the Children's Museum near National Harbor in addition to several shelters and community recreation centers.

"The big things to [fund] are projects that stimulate economic development and that meet critical needs in communities that otherwise would go unmet," said Del. Melony G. Griffith (D-Prince George's), vice chairman of the capital budget subcommittee, who helped secure funding for the museum.

At the Maryland Youth Ballet, dancers, parents and administrators say they hope the state will help pay the outstanding bills for outfitting their new facility.

For dancers, the new space is breathtaking: five spacious studios, 16-foot ceilings, soaring windows and modern dance floors that help prevent injuries.

The studio even has a first-of-its-kind apparatus designed for dancers with cerebral palsy. A harness suspended from the ceiling allows children with disabilities to move freely on the dance floor.

"The studio is incredibly beautiful," said Judy Hansen, whose 16-year-old daughter, Charlotte, a sophomore at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, is training to become a professional ballet dancer. "It is really a state-of-the-art, world-class dance studio. It's unlike any other in the area, truly."

Michelle Lees, who has taught at the school for three decades, said: "Maryland Youth Ballet finally has a facility that matches its reputation."

But the move came with a hefty price tag: $280,000 just to outfit the space. For a school that spends most of the money it raises on scholarships for needy dancers, it was too much.

"We've robbed Peter to pay Paul, so it's a little bit scary for us," said Alyce Jenkins, the school's executive director.

One Saturday last month, Barnett went to Annapolis to testify on the school's bond bill before a panel of lawmakers. Sitting with him in a room full of bureaucrats and lobbyists were two ballerinas in full costume. The dancers performed on the carpeted floor in front of the lawmakers' desks.

"People know, like, two things about ballet," Barnett said. "They know pirouette, and they know the name Baryshnikov. It's our own universe, and I feel like it's better to show people. It's a performance art. You have to see it."

One senator asked the ballerinas whether they could perform a pirouette.

"They just off and did a double pirouette -- not even on a dance floor -- and they landed on a dime and did a little bow," Barnett said. "People were just dumbstruck."

"It was certainly the most memorable hearing of the day," said Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery).