Valley Performing Arts Council

“A copy of the 990 was provided to the organization prior to submission to the government.”

“Currently, the latest filed irs form 990 is on www.guidestar.org and the national center for charitable statistics at http://nccs.urban.org. Anybody requesting information usually writes a requests to the organization so that organization can comply.”

“Valley performing arts council (vpac) was established in march of 1997 as a non-profit educational organization providing local grade school students with exposure to the classical performing arts. Vpac believes in educating children in classical arts - arts that have survived the test of time which provides lasting value to society. Vpac's primary mission is to expose children to the beauty, wisdom and truth that classical arts impart to us. In this modern world of technology, it seems as though the focus of education has shifted further from a curriculum concerned with building character. The arts have long survived as a way to better the understanding, expression and future of our race. Learning, studying and mastering different forms of classical arts helps teach our children the value of compassion, integrity, personal strength and respect for ourselves and others. Great classical art focuses not only on the technical mastery of painting, dancing or playing an instrument, but also teaches the history and philosophy of great and influential thinkers. Art means many things to many people. Under the direction and philosophy of artistic director yukari thiesen, we believe that art should have a beneficial impact in our society. We strive to materialize our belief and pass it on to a new generation of ballet students who are members of fresno dance theater sponsored by vpac. Art education for grade school students in the central ballet has been steadily declining over the last 11 years. There are many reasons behind the problem, but the fact is the arts are next to non-existent in the lives of our children. They are growing up without knowing the existence of any of our great classical music compositions, ballets, operas or visual arts; this is not the case in europe, japan or other advanced countries. As a result, we now have children uneducated in the arts becoming educators who do not know the names of famous classical operas, ballets or music. They call "the nutcracker" a play. They are waiting for ballet dancers to speak. In this depressed economy, unless concerned citizens step forward to address the situation, we will be guilty of creating art illiterates among our next generation. At vpac, our goal is to find our grade school children at least "one" opportunity while they are in school to see a ballet.”

“Fresno ballet theater: in 1997, yukari thiesen founded the fresno ballet theater (fbt), formerly named fresno dance theatre. This student ballet company is open to all ballet students and non-ballet students (provided there are roles) in the central valley. Growing up at the matsuyami ballet school, affiliated with matsuyami ballet, then the largest professional ballet company in tokyo. It provides the students a clear understanding of the goal to be achieved by observing and working with the professionals. Fbt provides opportunities to all ballet students to work with the sacramento ballet and its artistic director mr. Ron cunningham, every fall and mr. Rodney gustafson artistic director of state street ballet of santa barbara and his company each spring. Cumulatively, this organization has reached 132,000 school students from 25 school districts throughout this california central valley. The fresno ballet theatre, sacramento ballet and the state street ballet of santa barbara collaborated to draw on dance and artistic forces within the san joaquin valley community for a united presentation; building a stronger foundation for ballet and dance while reaching out to approximately 10,000 grade school students annually. The executive director of the organization maintains an independent dance studio where some children/relatives of the board of directors participate on a fee basis as students. The executive director has allowed for the organization to owe a balance for past services rendered in excess of many years. Board members and relatives provide services/products to the organization.”

“Guest dancers 81,971 0 0 choreographer 251 0 0 technicial director 2,500 0 0 public relations 5,500 0 0 total 90,222 0 0”