Since a major focus of the GPBA is 'Neighbors Helping Neighbors, Taking Care of our Neighbors in Need,' we have been involved in New York Theatre Ballet's Project LIFT since Artistic Director Diana Byer founded it in 1989.
Project LIFT provides ballet scholarships, tutoring, mentoring, medical care, clothing and other support services for homeless/at-risk children living in our city's shelters. While LIFT works to give gifted children a chance at a dance career, the bigger goal is to give them a real chance for meaningful lives.
Neighbors Helping Neighbors has supported LIFT through the years with clothing, book and educational supply drives. Several of our Gramercy Park children have attended NYTB, and for years the GPBA brought NYTB to The Players and the National Arts Club to perform The Nutcracker at our annual holiday party.
We have enjoyed an excellent relationship with our Councilwoman Rosie Mendez and we are grateful for her support in finding New York Theatre Ballet a new home. Please see article below.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
New York Theatre Ballet finds a home at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery
By Maria Rocha-Buschel
A dancer at New York Theatre Ballet
Photo by Heather Weston
It was last fall when the director of the New York Theatre Ballet, which had been located at the Madison Avenue Baptist Church on East 31st Street for over 30 years, learned that the company would be getting evicted in May. But thanks to a conveniently-timed call to City Councilmember Rosie Mendez's office, the NYTB recently found a new home in another church: St. Mark's in-the-Bowery, on Second Avenue at East 10th Street.
