Providing an opportunity to introduce younger children to ballet, our abbreviated daytime Preview Performances are offered to students at a reduced ticket price. Free online Teacher Resource Guides serve to enhance the theater-going experience through classroom learning activities. Seniors also enjoy our Preview Performances as they fit their schedules and their budgets well. When funding permits, free tickets are offered to the most disadvantaged schools in the Charlotte Mecklenburg School system (as identified by CMS's Free & Reduced Lunch reports) through the Gateway to the Ballet program. Thanks to a grant from RBC Wealth Management Foundation, 250 of the 1,700 school show attendees at the Nutcracker ‘10 performances were students from local Title I schools. Free tickets are also offered to other community agencies such as Charlotte Emergency Housing, Thompson Child & Family Focus, and Family Promise. Girl Scout troops receive discounted tickets, and special activities such as our new Before the Curtain program are planned around them to enhance the theater-going experience. As a result, an estimated 600 seats are filled with Girls Scouts each year, many of them seeing ballet for the first time.
In the Community
