Nashville Ballet

“The completed form 990 is reviewed by the finance committee under the direction of the coo. Once their review is complete the finance committee recommends that both the coo 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 coo. 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 2,000 students age 2 to 70 enrolled annually. Our community engagement and educational programs permeate the community and reach over 40,000 underserved children, youth and adults in more than 16 counties across tennessee.”

“Nashville ballet's capital campaign was completed during the current year. Designated contributions were restricted for the purpose of capital expansion and related expenses. The campaign positively impacted contributions shown on this return as follows: prior year: reported on line 8 2,176,988 capital campaign 1,143,621 all other contributions 1,033,367 current year: reported on line 8 3,754,689 capital campaign 1,068,521 all other contributions 2,686,168 in addition, nashville ballet received an exceptional gift to our endowment of $500,000 during the current year. Lastly, nashville ballet receives a large foundation grant ($458,000) each fiscal year for artistic programming. This award was not reflected on the prior year financial statement as it was awarded in the preceding year and restricted for use in the prior year. The grant was awarded again in june 2015 and reflected as revenue in the current year and was again awarded in may 2016 and reflected as revenue in the current year as shown: prior year: adjusted from line 8 (above) 1,033,367 foundation grant not reflected in prior year: 458,000 total adjusted contributions (approximate) 1,491,367 current year: adjusted from line 8 (above) 2,686,168 foundation grant restricted to future year (458,000) exceptional endowment contribution (500,000) total adjusted contributions (approximate) 1,728,168”

“Due to the $5 million capital expansion project of our facility, depreciation expense increased from the prior year (338,400) to the current year (487,411) by $149,011 the expansion of our facility and programming, as well as increased concentration on staff compensation and benefits, resulted in an overall increase to all compensation and benefits from prior year (2,449,579) to current year (2,630,400) of $180,821 interest expense increased by $67,337 from prior year (89,130) to current year (156,467) due to the increase in debt required to complete the capital expansion in advance of capital campaign receipts expected to be received in the next two years. Nashville ballet reduced overall debt at the end of the year (may 31, 2016) by $1.5 million.”

“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 community engagement & education performances.”

“Nashville ballet celebrated its 30th anniversary season by staging the organization's favorite ballets. Simply by celebrating such a monumental anniversary, nashville ballet illustrated its longevity and ability to grow into the future. The 15-16 performance season opened with peter pan, which successfully premiered in 2013. Our season opener is strategically programmed as a family-friendly story ballet to attract families with children, who then might learn about the school of nashville ballet via cross-messaging. New this year, we followed the family-friendly ballet with an "adults only" version of dracula. Our contemporary series have grown in popularity over the last 5 years and we determined that another contemporary piece on the docket would also prove successful. Indeed, dracula generated revenue $35,000 over our anticipated goal. In december, we staged nashville's nutcracker for the 8th year in a row. Each year, we expand some aspect of the production, and this year was no exception. We cast more than 200 children in the production and earned $60,000 more than we anticipated with 13 performances. The popularity of our established contemporary series attitude continued as a collaboration with the world-famous bluebird cafe. Live music from singer-songwriters combined with the revival of 2014's petite mort and the nashville ballet premiere of outerborough choreographed by the renowned james sewell. We closed out the season with carmina burana by carl orff, one of the most recognizable pieces of music in the world. The nashville children's choir, the nashville symphony orchestra chorus, the nashville symphony and featured guest vocalists joined nashville ballet dancers to total almost 300 artists presenting this monumental work. All dances were performed by professional, resident artists from our company of 23 professional dancers and second company (nb2) consisting of more than 30 members who receive professional training alongside our main company. Nb2 dancers perform all of our community engagement performances while also dancing in season productions as the corps de ballet. Our performances alone reach more than 34,000 audience members, while our community engagement & education initiatives reach an audience of 40,000, many of whom may not otherwise experience ballet or a nashville ballet performance. Our school also exhibited growth and success by enrolling 2,000 students ages 2 to 70 across all of its in year-round dance programming. 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. Our enrollment figure of 2,000 demonstrated a 200% growth rate since fy11. Predicting that level of growth motivated us to start the process in 2012 of initiating a capital campaign, which began in earnest in 2014, to grow our building and enroll even more students in the future. That process resulted in $5.6 million in fundraising and an additional 13,000 square feet of studio space in our building. 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 are on our way to accomplishing that goal with the creation of the new young men's scholarship program, which will allow us to attract talented young men to our school and provide the training necessary for them to become professional artists. Even before our recent growth, school of nashville ballet has been the only preparatory ballet school in tennessee linked with a professional company. 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 divisi”

“Change in value of the community foundation of middle tennessee endowment -1,893.”

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