After 60 years, Canton Ballet is offering shows this weekend billed as 鈥�.鈥�
鈥淚 was trying to go through the different decades and choose things 鈥� for our alumni to remember and say, 鈥楳y gosh, I remember being in that piece,鈥� said Jennifer Catazaro Hayward, executive artistic director.
Her involvement with the company stretches back to the 1970s, when she was a young student at the ballet school 鈥� a school that didn鈥檛 exist when Canton Ballet was founded in 1965.
鈥淐anton had a stellar symphony and an art museum, but it was lacking a ballet,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey started as a civic ballet, which means there was no school attached at first.鈥�
Dancers not only performed, they also made costumes and sets. An education program for 250 students was up and running by the time of a 1981 fire at the company鈥檚 studio.
鈥淭hat destroyed everything: our facilities, our costumes, we really had to scramble,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 was a young student at that time, and I remember traveling to Kent State Stark for classes and other churches in the Downtown Canton area. We were just kind of displaced and put all over the place.鈥�
A grant from the Timken Foundation helped build their new home at the Cultural Center for the Arts, which opened in 1983 and today also houses the Canton Museum of Art, ArtsinStark and Sing Stark. That鈥檚 where Catazaro Hayward began teaching.
鈥淚 think the training that we provide at Canton Ballet definitely prepares you to go and follow your dream if your dream is to become a professional dancer,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t's life skills: the discipline and the time management and the cooperation and the working as a team and respect. That has helped many of our former students go on to wonderful careers in the professional world.鈥�
And not just as dancers. She counts alumni who are today neurosurgeons, anesthesiologists or aerospace engineers. In her own family, three of her sons are professional dancers 鈥� and in one case, also a professional pilot.
Celebrating 60
This past season included performances of 鈥淧eter & the Wolf鈥� and 鈥淭he Nutcracker,鈥� plus a joint project with Ballet Excel in Cuyahoga Falls. Catazaro Hayward hopes to continue that partnership as well as ones with the Canton Symphony, the Vocal Fusion a cappella group, Summit Choral Society and Canton City Schools.
鈥淚 think it's good for our students to have those relationships [and] good for the audience because they aren't just coming to see Canton Ballet,鈥� she said.
On Friday at 7 p.m., Catazaro Hayward has planned a mixed program with different styles of dance.
鈥淪o, if you don't like one, perhaps you'll like the next piece,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think that's always my favorite kind of program, where it's a little bit of all different styles and different choreographers.鈥�
That program expands on Saturday at 6 p.m., when the 60th season closes.
鈥淵ou get to see a special performance [with] special things that weren't in the Friday evening show,鈥� she said. 鈥淚'm calling it 鈥楪reatest of All-Time鈥� simply because 鈥� I'm trying to hit different periods so [alumni] all have something that they remember.鈥�
The show is followed by a gala featuring food and music by Tony Quarles & The Discovery Band.
