Would Canada’s National Ballet have existed without its first women volunteers?
In the 1950s, three high society women had a vision to create a ballet company in Canada. It took dedication and ingenuity in fundraising
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In 1951, three of Canada’s high society women could hardly have known that their philanthropic dedication would lead to an award-winning committee and an internationally renowned ballet company more than 70 years later.
With a vision to create a ballet company in Canada, Sydney Mulqueen, Pearl Whitehead and Aileen Woods began raising funds to bring what would be The National Ballet of Canada’s co-founder and first artistic director, Celia Franca, from England to Toronto, and to eventually realize the first performance of the company at the Eaton Auditorium on November 12, 1951.
This forward-thinking group spent an initial year with other female supporters, laying plans for the founding of a formal “Women’s Committee.” Known as the National Ballet Guild, the mandate was to encourage interest in the ballet, and The National Ballet in particular.
Seven decades later, the National Ballet of Canada is celebrating surviving a global pandemic, the opening of Karen Kain’s Swan Lake, and their Volunteer Committee has just been awarded the June Callwood Outstanding Achievement Award for Voluntarism.
“It is no exaggeration to say that if there had been no Women’s Committee in those early days, there would be no National Ballet,” said Diana Reitberger, director of development at the National Ballet of Canada.
“Although the Guild never succeeded in its aim in having a fully national structure, it did, in its heyday, have active branches in Toronto, Hamilton, Oakville, St. Catharines, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Windsor, Belleville, Montreal, Sherbrooke, Quebec City, and even Buffalo.”
This ingenious group of women included key members of Toronto society, such as Betty Cassels (Mrs. P.), Helen Balfour (Mrs. St. Clair), Betty Douglas (Mrs. C.R.), Joan Fox-Revett (Mrs. S.), Judie Tait (Mrs. B.), Nina Overbury (Mrs. M.), and Mary Mingie (Mrs. P.). Today, the spirit of these first fundraisers lives on, with their generosity brimming over into new generations of volunteers who want ballet to thrive.
“In 1952, the volunteers were women who had sufficient personal wealth and time to be able to organize fundraising on a full-time basis,” said Reitberger. “Today’s volunteers, both men and women, may have professional careers, or may be ‘retired’, but are still willing to direct time and energy to raise money for interesting new choreography for The National Ballet of Canada. The Volunteer Committee continues to be valued for its contributions to the artistic health of the Company.”
Their infrastructure provided support for the company in their communities and conducted year-round activities to raise money to finance the company’s tours to their community.
In early days, volunteers helped with dancer lodging and selling tickets
The local Guild would sponsor the company’s appearance, doing advance publicity, selling tickets, handling arrangements with the local theatre, and – in those early days – provide lodging and hospitality for company members. The branches also provided scholarships to dancers within the Company and at the National Ballet School.
Unfortunately, this network of volunteer guilds did not survive, but the constitution and standing rules of the Toronto branch were rewritten to become The Volunteer Committee, The National Ballet of Canada in 1972.
Money raising efforts over the years were many and varied, including fashion shows, supper dances, ballet lectures, demonstrations, dance teachers’ fairs, and a gala ball.
In 1963, the visionary and enterprising Marg Morgan approached the developers of the Colonnade to include “Paper Things,” a stationary shop, in their plans, granting the shop free rent by convincing management that the store would draw quality shoppers to the complex.
The Volunteer Committee planned and undertook the Colonnade’s opening as a fundraising project, and proceeds from the opening paid for the initial stocking of the shop, which sold out in the first day of operation.
Ten years later, Paper Things moved to Cumberland Court at 99 Yorkville, and throughout many expansions and 50 years of business, the shop provided custom printed orders, stationery and gifts in support of The National Ballet of Canada. The shop was unique in that it was the only retail organization in the country that existed to support an arts group.
Equally successful, and also from the crafty minds of the Volunteer Committee, is the company’s Ballet Boutique, founded in 1974. It began with a card table displaying homemade wares created by the volunteers themselves.
Today the Ballet Boutique is an integral part of the theatre-going experience and is open during all performances of The National Ballet. Goods have expanded to music and rare DVDs, including exclusive National Ballet and hard-to-find titles, National Ballet of Canada branded merchandise, jewellery, gifts, and whimsical items that attract the attention of the volunteer buyers.
In recent years the committee has also devoted considerable energy to promoting the company and its dancers by creating merchandise bearing the company’s name and logo, including T-shirts, tote bags, posters, pictures and garments.
The Ballet Boutique moved into the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in 2006, and its contribution to the Build-A-Ballet Fund has grown and is now the sole fundraising project of the Volunteer Committee.
Build-A-Ballet Fund helps fund new repertoire for the National Ballet
Perhaps most important has been the committee’s creation of the Build-A-Ballet Fund, the purpose of which is to purchase new repertoire for The National Ballet of Canada. To date, the Volunteer Committee has proudly sponsored, in whole or in part, 52 new productions and two refurbishments for The National Ballet of Canada, and it all began with giving $150,000 for Sir Frederick Ashton’s La Fille Mal Gardée in 1977.
“Nothing could be of more importance to the dancers, and therefore to the future of the Company, than funds to produce new works,” said Judie Tait, the committee’s president, at that time.
Tait’s words are still part of the committee’s philosophy. Some of those 54 productions that the committee brought to the company are still part of the repertoire, and their fundraising contributions over the years add up to over $6 million dollars.
“Karen Wierucki, current president, is deeply moved that the Volunteer Committee received the award that represents the hard work of hundreds of volunteers over seven decades, who have stood by the company from its inception as a fledgling organization to the world class company it is today,” said Reitberger.
“Volunteers were involved with many aspects of the company, from acting as ushers and ticket sellers, to providing meals for dancers in green rooms across the province and occasionally billeting the dancers. To be formally recognized with this prestigious award is so uplifting especially as we emerge from the pandemic with the commitment of these amazing individuals intact.”