Ballet Hispanico staff and dancers thank donors for their support. “From the Ballet Hispánico familia to yours, mil gracias for the love!”
By Carol Tannenhauser
The home of Ballet Hispanico – the revered school of dance, professional dance company, and educational outreach program – at 167 West 89th street should be fully restored in about three weeks, following major damage as a result of a water main break on West 89th street and Amsterdam Avenue on August 29th. Two brownstones, a private school, and a hardware store also took in water, but Ballet Hispanico suffered the worst damage by far (unless you count the BMW that was sucked into a sinkhole created by the break.) The UWS institution, dedicated to supporting, teaching, creating, and sharing “Latino-ness” through the vehicle of dance, lost its entire school office, including computers, two dance studios, and countless children’s costumes that had been stored in the basement.
“There was a setback in the construction when it was discovered that one of the dance floors originally thought salvageable was not,“ said Eduardo Vilaro, artistic director and CEO of Ballet Hispanico. “When it was ripped off, we found mold and had to go through another process.”
“We’ve been managing,” he said. “We’ve been working with St. Gregory’s, the Catholic Church next door, holding dance classes there on weekends. We’ve had to double up our after-school classes, but the kids have been great about it. We received a lot of technology donations from other schools and organizations in the area, and our parents have been remarkable, so we’re very blessed.”
Financially, Ballet Hispanico took a hit because of lost income from the rental of studio space.
“And we lost a lot of costumes for the kids that we’re not going to get back from insurance,” Vilaro said. Ballet Hispanico, a nonprofit organization, is about to launch a fundraising campaign to replace them. For information, call (212) 362-6710.
On Facebook, the studio has posted some of the notes that donors have sent since the flood, like these:
They had no insurance? Most biz, even nonprofits today carry insurance that includes coverage for lost revenue.
Insurance is not going to cover, or pay to remake, handmade costumes.
They simply said their insurance did not cover those items, not that they had no insurance whatsoever.
Nice to see these young, hardworking, talented people back!
terrible school
Let me guess – they didn’t accept you.
Why is it a terrible school?
Really? WHY????
Do you have SPECIFIC DETAILS, or is this just your baseless opinion???
And haven’t we all had ENOUGH of unproven “facts” tossed around by a certain candidate this election season?
That space used to be the Claremont Stables (Riding Academy)
Claremont was to the left of this photo.
Actually, I’ve been away from this neighborhood for so long I’m mistaken. I know Claremont was there as well as a couple of other stables. Claremont, being the larger of them.
So my statement was wrong, I think.
I thought Claremont was being turned into an actual school. Not a dance studio?
Ballet Hispanico is a wonderful school! My son thrived there. Teachers are caring, strict and have very high expectations that the children rise to. We were thrilled with the experience and grateful that Nate could be part of such a warm and supportive community.Thank you so much for posting Makedah – it reminds me to send them a donation.
Ballet Hispanico is an amazing organization. Not only are their programs wonderful but they also have offered a scholarship to a wonderful dancer/student from my school. Thanks to them a very deserving, but extremely underprivileged child will be able to pursue her dream of dancing. And that is awesome. Thanks Ballet Hispanico.
Several schools have taken class trips to see BH perform over the years, and it was always an enlightening and inspirational experience for the children. I hope they will continue to prosper.