Nashville Ballet

“The completed form 990 is reviewed by the finance committee under the direction of the executive director. Once their review is complete the finance committee recommends that both the executive committee and board of directors accept the completed form 990 as presented. The completed form 990 is provided electronically via e-mail to all board members in advance of the filing. Any board members who cannot receive documents electronically are provided with a paper copy.”

“The board president and other board officers review the annual conflict of interest disclosure statements and note conflicts so they can ask select board members to recuse themselves from participating in discussions and votes on topics with which they have previously disclosed a conflict.”

“The executive committee of the board of directors annually reviews the compensation of the ceo and the executive director. They also benchmark the compensation against compensation provided to similar positions in comparable dance companies via information provided on other companies' form 990s.”

“Nashville ballet makes its governing documents, conflict of interest policy, and financial statements available to the public upon request. Annual audits and significant other company information is available through the website www.givingmatters.com.”

“Our mission is to create, perform, teach, and promote dance as an essential and inspiring element of our community. Through our season performance repertory, we create and present outstanding works of art in collaboration with other notable nashville artists, including the nashville symphony, alias chamber ensemble and local singer-songwriters. These inspirational works of art reach more than 34,000 middle tennesseans every year. Our school of nashville ballet is a nationally known leader in classical ballet training and top of mind locally for recreational dancing, with more than 1,400 students enrolled annually. Our outreach and educational programs permeate the community and reach over 40,000 underserved children, youth and adults in more than 18 counties across tennessee.”

“Nashville ballet's capital campaign has positively impacted fundraising efforts beginning in december 2012. This revenue is restricted to the purpose of our capital expansion and other associated expenses. The breakdown of this revenue is as follows: prior year: reported on line 8 4,157,092 capital campaign 2,179,428 all other contributions 1,977,664 current year: reported on line 8 2,176,988 capital campaign 1,143,621 all other contributions 1,033,367 comparison of prior year to current year "all other contributions" reveals a decrease in contributions of $944,297. The majority of this decrease is due to the proper recording of a significant annual contribution twice in the prior year revenue, totaling $916,000. This annual contribution from a single donor was received in the prior year for use in the prior year and then pledged again in may 2014, but restricted for use in the current reporting year. This annual contribution has already been received for the subsequent reporting period, but no such contribution was received nor pledged during the tax reporting period, resulting in an apparent shortfall despite the annual allocation of funds remaining constant.”

“In order to provide relevant, comparative data from the prior year to the current year, estimated expenses attributable to the launch of nashville ballet's capital campaign, for which revenue is delineated above, and depreciation expense (a significant, non-cash expense) are explained below: prior year: reported on line 18 4,377,754 capital campaign 164,586 depreciation expense 278,142 all other expenses 3,935,168 current year: reported on line 18 4,884,181 capital campaign 323,377 depreciation expense 338,400 all other expenses 4,222,404 comparison of prior year to current year "all other expenses" reveals an increase of $287,236. This increase reflects an approximate 7% increase in expenses over the prior year exclusive of capital campaign-related expenses and depreciation. More than $140,000 of this increase is related to an increase in student housing expense at belmont university, which is offset by student-paid room and board fees. With an annual personnel expenditure of over $2 million, a large share of the remaining increase is due to standard salary and wage increases and the increased expense of nashville ballet's health insurance and benefit package, which provides two health plan options at zero cost to our staff and dancers.”

“Nashville ballet's mission is to create, perform, teach and promote dance as an essential and inspiring element of our community. We fulfill that mission by offering a diverse range of dance programs in our season repertory, educating children and adults in our school of nashville ballet and bringing dance into the community through outreach & education performances.”

“In what we consider our most ambitious season to date, nashville ballet expanded our existing programs as follows: nashville ballet created new works and performed essential pieces within the ballet canon, introducing choreography into our own repertory and exposing a new generation of nashvillians to these essential works of art. Our winter contemporary series, attitude, continues to serve as an "audience building" series, attracting new patron households to the ballet each year. World-renowned choreographer christopher bruce set moonshine on the company, which explored the emotional stories of four traveling performers to the music of early bob dylan. Additionally, paul vasterling and graham lustig exchanged works of original choreography to be presented by new jersey's lustig dance theatre and nashville ballet, respectively. Lustig's fanfare joined the lineup for our winter atittude presentation, an energetic, elegant ballet that received rave reviews. We closed our 2014-2015 performance season with our cutting-edge emergence series, which included three brand new works. Emergence featured musical collaborations with the world-renowned fisk jubilee singers (one of their first collaborations with an outside organization), nashville opera and singer-songwriter matthew perryman jones. The success of the school of nashville ballet in fy15 indicates that nashville ballet is always developing a love of dance for generations to come. Enrollment in the school of nashville ballet was more than 1,400 students in fy15. Together with our elite five-week summer intensive training program and master classes, we reached approximately 2,300 students total. By educating students as young as 2 years old, we are contributing to the legacy of ballet as an art form by cultivating future dancers, donors, patrons and arts enthusiasts. The exponential growth of the school of nashville motivated us to conduct a feasibility study in 2012 to assess our ability to raise the funds needed to expand our space and accommodate all of the students who would like to study dance in our school. As a result, our board of directors approved a $5.5 million fundraising goal to fund an expansion and renovation project and the purchase of the neighboring facility, formerly climb nashville. The project was completed in may 2015 and includes 13,000 square feet of additional space with three new studios (for a total of seven), updated facilities for dancers and students, a larger and updated lobby, better traffic flow both inside and outside of the building, and more. As a result of the expansion, more students will have the opportunity to receive personalized, high-quality training. The goal of the expansion is to allow school of nashville ballet to increase its enrollment by approximately 1,200 new students and add new classes for children and adults age 2-70 by fy18. We also hope to increase our scholarships available for students whose families are unable to fund training. School of nashville ballet partners with 25 metro nashville public schools each year through its outreach program and offers 14 scholarships for metro nashville title 1 school students to attend school of nashville ballet at no cost. With the expansion, school of nashville ballet hopes to grow its scholarship program significantly, with a goal of 10% of school enrollment to be scholarship students within three to five years.”

“The performing company: nashville ballet wants to be where nashville meets ballet - where nashvillians are introduced to the art form and where a contemporary music city merges with the fine art of ballet. Last season fulfulled that goal and proved to be our most daring yet. We opened the 2014-2015 season to great acclaim with swan lake. We broke ticket sales goals and saw box office revenues that were greater than our last presentation of swan lake by 51 percent. In december 2014, nashville's nutcracker broke box office records to become the highest-attended performance in nashville ballet's 29-year history. More than 22,000 nashville's nutcracker tickets were issued for 12 performances. February 2015's attitude was a huge success in the box office as well as artistically. Internationally acclaimed choreographer christopher bruce set moonshine on the company, an honor and indicator of nashville ballet's artistic integrity and strength. 2015's emergence series once again utilized meaningful and artistically remarkable collaborations with other local arts organizations and artists, including fisk jubilee singers, nashville opera and matthew perryman jones. This year we presented two showings of peter and the wolf alongside the nashville symphony for the first time. We also presented another children's performance in the spring, clowns and others, which was hosted at the martin center for nashville ballet. All dances were performed by professional, resident artists from our company of 22 professional dancers and second company (nb2) consisting of 35 members who receive professional training alongside our main company. Nb2 dancers perform all of our outreach & education performances while also dancing in season productions as the corps de ballet. Our performances alone reach more than 34,000 audience members, while our outreach & education initiatives reach an audience of 40,000, many of whom may not otherwise experience ballet or a nashville ballet performance. School of nashville ballet: as the only preparatory ballet school in tennessee linked with a professional company, our goal is to set the standard for instruction and performance across the state and to be a nationally known leader in classical ballet training. That unwavering commitment to quality has helped the school grow from 662 students in 2011 to more than 1,400 students in 2015. Together with our elite five-week summer intensive training program and master classes, we reached 2,300 students in fy15. This exponential growth motivated our plans to expand our facility to accomodate the demand for these training programs. Within the school of nashville ballet is five divisions: our children's program introduces ballet to our youngest students (age 2 through 7) through movement, music and creative play, in the hopes that they will become future ballet dancers, fans and advocates who can continue the legacy of the organization into the future. The academy division (ages 8-18) nurtures each student's technical execution, artistic expression and maturity, helping students to develop their own artistry through pure classical technique. Our brand new studio division (ages 8-18), debuting fall 2015, provides the same level of training as in the academy division, but on a more flexible schedule. A wide range of classes are offered, including ballet, jazz, hip hop and musical theater. Our community division is an inclusive environment for adults who are new to dance, rediscovering a passion for movement, continuing their dance education or looking for new ways to stay fit. Our professional training division was developed to give dancers age 16-20 a comprehensive program designed to further develop technique, strength and artistry in a rigorous pre-professional environment. Dancers selected for this program are chosen for their talent and potential to pursue a career in professional dance. Outreach & education: nashville ballet brings dance into the community through performanc”

“Change in value of the community foundation of middle tennessee endowment -2,698.”

“The organization did not change its oversight process or selection process regarding the selection of an independent accountant.”