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Jacksonville ballet studio and non-profit helping at-risk students needs $500,000 to fix aging building

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A local dance studio and nonprofit is in need of help from the community.

Like many in the arts community, the Florida Ballet was forced to close for a few months during the pandemic, which made fundraising efforts difficult.

“We have class every day for an hour and a half just to keep our bodies in shape and warmed up,” Morgan Brown-Sanborn said.

Right now, dancers at the Florida Ballet are busy rehearsing for their upcoming performance of Cinderella, starting next week.

“I’ll be doing the lead role of the prince,” Mauricio Nava said.

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As well as teaching students of all ages, Florida Ballet also started the “Breaking the Barrier” program.

Aimed at middle-school-age boys, it helps get them involved in the art of dance while breaking gender stereotypes.

The project targets at-risk young people from urban communities, who may be facing barriers because they don’t have the money to pay for dance tuition.

“Besides the programming here we do offer scholarship opportunities for many of the kids out in Jacksonville that are hoping to dance but they just can’t afford it,” Lemire said.

The nonprofit has many different groups that use its facility and it offers not only ballet but hip-hop, swing dance, ballroom dance, and more.

Even students from Douglas Anderson School of the Arts come some way to use the space to rehearse.

Last year when the pandemic hit, the studio closed its doors for four months, also missing out on revenue it would have made from performances.

Now it’s facing yet another hurdle: its aging building.

“Desperate needs right now is some of the HVAC systems need to be replaced and some roof issues: it is a 30,000 square-foot building, so having to address some of the leaks within the building is definitely a challenge,” said Martha Lemire, the executive director of the Florida Ballet.

The Florida Ballet has to raise nearly $500,000 for these much-needed improvements.

They’re improvements that’ll keep these dancers on their toes.

For 13 months they’ve been waiting to perform Cinderella in front of a live audience.

“It is a lot of hard work, not only physically but emotionally exhausting,” Nava said.

And next week all their hard work will finally pay off.

“I’m looking forward to being on stage again,” Brown-Sanborn said.

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Florida Ballet will put on Cinderella at UNF Lazzara Theater from April 23 to April 25.

It’ll only be at 25% capacity and dancers, as well as audience members, will need to wear a mask.

To purchase tickets you can click HERE.

Or if you would like to donate you can click HERE.