Brown Girls Do Ballet's 2021 Fall Recap
At Brown Girls Do Ballet, we take extreme pride in creating opportunities for dancers of color while fostering a supportive community and ensuring ballerinas of all backgrounds have access to valuable resources, mentors, and supplies to nourish their dance journey. We created this Fall 2021 Recap to highlight the amazing moments that made our fall season one for the books!
Related: Brown Girls Do Ballet's 2021 Summer Recap
Involvements
Founder TaKiyah Wallace wrapped things up with We the Culture, a program created by Facebook that provides leadership funding for creative entrepreneurs for one year. TaKiyah was a part of its inaugural class, and the funds received allowed her to commit to Brown Girls Do Ballet full-time, which led to a lot of the achievements and developments listed below!
Partnerships and Funding
We received a $50,000 donation from Athleta alongside our dancewear release, which you can read about here. Through our partnership with Janie and Jack, we received a $30,000 donation. 100% of the sales from our Fathead Partnership will be donated to us as well! Lastly, we received $7,235 on North Texas Giving Day! These donations will help support our Pointe Shoe Program, which helps offset one of the significant costs associated with ballet: purchasing pointe shoes.
Related: How Giving Days Help Dancers of Color Succeed
Scholarships
Nessaja S. and Kylah H. were this year’s Brown Girls Do Inc College Scholarship recipients. The scholarship is awarded to full-time college undergraduate students across any field of study. Applicants aren’t required to be dancers, and priority is given to first-generation college students who demonstrate financial need. We also launched the new Tiny Dancer Scholarship, which awards young dancers aged 4-8 with a full year of paid ballet tuition. This year’s application is open until December 15, 2021!
Brown Ballerina Blog Updates
On the Brown Ballerina Blog, dancers, their parents, and teachers can find a variety of articles covering topics including mental health, career growth, advice from industry professionals, and more. This fall, we gathered some meaningful insight from several Brown Ballerina Ambassadors: Mia Watkins shared an experience that taught her about professionalism, Nia Rackley reflected on her purpose in dance, and Sophia Cooper opened up about a major surgery she needed in order to fulfill her dance dreams.
Sponsorships and Recognition
We partially sponsored a Pointe Shoe Party at JDR Dance Academy in Duncanville, TX, where ballerina Alex Maureen taught dance students how to prep and care for their pointe shoes. During the Route and Align Wellness Retreat, we sponsored seats for dance professionals to attend. To put the cherry on top of a fantastic season, TaKiyah received a resolution from Texas State Representative Nicole Collier honoring the contributions of her hard work through Brown Girls Do Ballet!
This successful season would not have been possible without our amazing network of support, including dancers, parents, sponsors, businesses, and donors.
Thank you for your help, encouraging efforts, and continuous generosity!