DDP Talks To Vicki Parsons (Director of the Butler Center for Dance & Fitness and Pilates Center)
Ballet Austin
Your website explains that community engagement is at the core of Ballet Austin’s Mission. You offer free programming specifically for breast cancer survivors and older adults in Austin. You also create a monthly newsletter with resources related to food, fitness, and healthy living to encourage well-being in the community. How did these programs originate? How did you determine the need for this specific kind of programming in the community?
Each of these programs came about in a different way, but all point back to our mission which is “to involve and strengthen our community through the creation and experience of dance and the encouragement of health and well-being.”
Ballet Austin has operated a state-of-the-art Pilates Reformer Studio for about 20 years. As studies began to show the benefits of Pilates for women recovering from breast cancer and breast cancer surgeries, we saw an opportunity to share our Pilates program expertise. Pink Pilates, a post-operative workout for breast cancer survivors, was developed to offer a gentle and careful way to venture back toward physical and emotional health. More than just exercise, our Pink Pilates Program offers a restorative workout and encouragement in a warm and friendly non-hospital environment at no cost. Through this programming we fulfill our mission to “strengthen our community through the creation and experience of dance and the encouragement of health and well-being.”
We are grateful to Texas Oncology and the generous donations of individual donors who support our Pink Pilates program. Ballet Austin’s Active Aging Programming grew from the dance and fitness programming we already offered to adults of all ages through Ballet Austin’s Butler Center for Dance & Fitness. Over 10,000 adults take classes with us annually.
As we understood the significant demographic shift showing unprecedented growth in the aging population, as well as the potential for even more rapid growth in the next 25 years, we began to explore how to expand our dance and fitness programming to better serve the unique needs that occur as we age, especially beyond age 65. With staff education and experience in the field of aging, we began to develop programming that includes Better Balance and Movement (a fall prevention workshop), Silver Ballet, Osteo-Strong for Better Bone Health, and Pilates Reformer Functional Workouts for Active Aging. Through Active Aging programming, we fulfill our mission to “strengthen our community through the creation and experience of dance and the encouragement of health and well-being.” Ballet Austin receives ongoing underwriting from St. David’s Foundation’s Aging Well that allows us to offer programming at no cost.
Ballet Austin’s Be Well initiatives grew directly out of our mission during a time when our community needed it most. As we considered how to “involve and strengthen our community” at the start of COVID in March 2020 when our world shut down, we became intentional to find new ways to “strengthen our community and encourage health and well-being.” We began by creating videos that would foster both physical and mental health and offer, not only respite during a time of sheltering in place, but encouragement and inspiration to live well. We produced hundreds of videos hosted on our Be Well YouTube channel.
As we came out of COVID we knew we needed to continue with our Be Well strategies. At that time, we expanded Be Well and developed our Be Well web pages that include Eat Well, Eat Well Recipes, Move Well, and Live Well. Content is curated monthly, posted on our pages, sent out in our Be Well newsletter, and posted on our social channels. As we fulfill our mission to encourage health and well-being, we also provide free Be Well Talks in our community. We believe that Employee well-being is the overall measure of an employee’s mental and physical health, relating to life habits in the workplace and beyond – home, work, and community life. Prioritizing and supporting well-being can have a significant and positive impact on a business when it focuses on ensuring employees are individually well. As part of Ballet Austin’s Be Well Initiative, we offer free talks for businesses and organizations.
One of your leading community engagement initiatives is the Ballet Austin Food Drive for Black Women in Business Community Impact initiative. Tell us more about this program and how it aligns with your mission.
Black Women in Business initiated this relationship during the beginning months of COVID in the spring of 2020. They had begun an initiative to collect and distribute food to people who were in need. Their reach is wide, serving people who live on the margins and often fall through the cracks of other service programs.
Ballet Austin has so many programs, but this is the one thing we do where we all come together to focus on one area. Staff, our artists, instructors, Board members, students, everyone! It is an individual effort that becomes a group effort to collect food items year-round at Ballet Austin that is then given to Black Women in Business to distribute to people in the community who are in need.
As far as how it aligns with our mission, it directly falls into the area of encouraging health and well-being. When people go hungry it affects their physical and mental health and well-being and contributes to a host of other problems. If Ballet Austin can give to our community simply by asking everyone to bring a non-perishable food item when they come into our building, we can be a part of making a difference on a grand scale.
You’ve been collaborating with Black Women in Business since 2020 and have now provided free groceries to over 140,000 Central Texas families and seniors. What other metrics do you use to track the impact of this program and how else are you continuing to develop your positive impact throughout the community?
Let me first say that Black Women in Business has provided the free groceries to over 140,000 Central Texas families and seniors. Our contributions have helped them reach that many people, but there are other organizations and individuals who also participate in this community food.
We can track the impact of our Community Food Drive through reports from Black Women in Business. They let us know the number of families who are receiving the food. We can also see the response each time we send out a Food Drive reminder to our team and customers. We can count the packages of food that come in during a single day to measure that response. There is also the anecdotal feedback we receive from Ballet Austin staff and customers, from Black Women in Business staff and volunteers, and from families who have received food.
When you ask, “how else are you continuing to develop your positive impact throughout the community?” I am guessing you are asking about all the other community impact programming Ballet Austin offers. We do a lot! We are a mission-driven organization.
Another Community impact program is Ballet Austin’s Night of Community. Since 1997 it has been our honor, and an important part of our mission, to offer over 160,000 tickets to non-profit social service organizations to attend Ballet Austin’s full dress rehearsal performance. Ballet Austin offers financially challenged individuals, individuals with disabilities, or otherwise under-resourced community members an opportunity to attend a live ballet performance at no cost. Learn more about Night of Community here.
“For the JOY of It!” targets communities that are experiencing challenges or hardships, isolation or loneliness, and those who otherwise would not be able to participate in movement classes due to location or cost. Ballet Austin takes dance and movement classes out into communities where people live and gather. Classes are offered at no cost at Senior Activity Centers, Group Living Homes, and Community Centers, to organizations serving those with Autism, Parkinson’s, Down Syndrome, and more.
Dancing is a way to find joy. Dance boosts well-being as it improves our emotional and physical health, and makes us feel less stressed and more socially connected. Programming is adapted to each unique community, but all classes include a primary focus of a dance or movement class bookended by an opening and closing mindfulness and empowerment mantra.
With a mission that involves dance, as well as health & well-being, Ballet Austin recognizes the enormous potential Ballet Austin holds to inspire and encourage our community; to involve and strengthen our community through the creation and experience of dance and the encouragement of health and well-being. We continue to grow Community Impact programming, not only to fulfill our mission but to inspire and give back to our community.
Allison Orr, Courtesy of Forklift Danceworks
ProviDANCE, Courtesy of Ballet Rhode Island