Ballet Tech Foundation, Inc.
TheBallet TechFoundation
Since its founding in 1974, Ballet Tech has shared the magic of dance with over 947,000 elementary school children in NYC.
Our Mission
Ballet Tech Foundation Inc. is committed to introducing New York City public school children to the beauty, integrity, and joy of dance. Annually, we provide the rigorous dance training necessary to fulfill and nurture students’ intrinsic dance talents, all tuition free.
We are developing the dancers and leaders of tomorrow by offering young people, who reflect the rich diversity of our city, a world class dance education and enrichment that encompasses a wide variety of genres of movement and choreography, alongside an excellent academic education in collaboration with the NYC Department of Education.
What We Value
Community
Collaboration
- Bonding in fellowship in a space of common ground and shared values where all are nurtured and supported.
Humanity
Compassion, Empathy, Respect, Nurture
- Recognizing and accepting others as individuals with unique needs and perspectives. Showing compassion and giving grace to others based on their intrinsic value as people.
Integrity
Artistic Excellence, Discipline, Work Ethic, Rigor, Consistency
- Working with diligence, purpose, persistence, and dedication to reach a goal.
Creativity
Joy, Beauty, Imagination, Innovation
- Acknowledging that everyone has an innate ability to create and explore. Honoring and encouraging the infinite possibilities in everyone.
Diversity
Equity, Inclusion, Access
- Embracing a full range of racial, socioeconomic, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexuality, and age identities across our student body and staff. Encompassing many varieties of training, thought, teaching styles, conversation styles, and individuality. Recognizing the existence and value of multiple perspectives, and divergent experiences with a commitment to engaging with cultural awareness, sensitivity, and competence.
Our Partnership with the Department of Education
Ballet Tech, the NYC Public School for Dance, provides its students with a high quality academic education and intensive, rigorous dance training.
The school is a public-private partnership between the NYC Department of Education (DOE) and Ballet Tech Foundation, Inc. The NYC DOE provides and pays for all academic instruction and support infrastructure, while Ballet Tech Foundation provides the dance instruction and adjacent programming. Students in grades 4-8 study both academics and dance on-site at 890 Broadway in Manhattan. Dance is integrated into the academic school day, and students receive a dance grade on their academic report card. Co-locating both parts of the school – dance and academics – under one roof ensures a holistic learning experience and eliminates the need to travel between an academic school and a dance school sited elsewhere.
Our
History
Ballet Tech was born in 1974. It started as a professional ballet company, called the Eliot Feld Ballet, which served as the principal instrument for Eliot Feld’s choreography. But much has changed since that day.
Ballet Tech was born in 1974. It started as a professional ballet company, called the Eliot Feld Ballet, which served as the principal instrument for Eliot Feld’s choreography. But much has changed since that day.
Ballet Tech founded a groundbreaking tuition-free school to nurture the dance talents of NYC public school children; transformed the Elgin Theater from a struggling movie house into The Joyce Theater, now one of the foremost presenters of dance companies; and, with the help of American Ballet Theatre, saved 890 Broadway from commercial development and formed the Lawrence A. Wien Center for Dance and Theater.
The organization has grown and changed in fifty years, a sign of the adaptability, health and creativeness of our organization. The ballet company was renamed several times, the academic school was founded and brought onsite, the professional company was dissolved, and Kids Dance began annual performance seasons at the Joyce. In 2021, Eliot stepped down, Dionne Figgins was hired as the Artistic Director, and Maggie Christ became the Executive Director. Our alumni have become professional dancers – as well as lawyers, EMTs, teachers, and at least one chef, one vet tech, and one professional soccer player. Since its founding in 1978, Ballet Tech’s school has shared the magic of dance with over 947,000 elementary school children in all five boroughs and invited over 27,000 to enroll.
The underlying corporation, Ballet Tech Foundation, Inc., is operationally and financially secure and well positioned for the future. Fifty years of metamorphosis has molded the organization into the Ballet Tech we know today.
Eliot Feld
Eliot Feld was born in Brooklyn, New York and studied dance at the School of American Ballet, New Dance Group, High School of Performing Arts, and with Richard Thomas. At age eleven he danced with the New York City Ballet as the “Child Prince” in Balanchine’s original production of The Nutcracker as well as with the companies of Donald McKayle, Pearl Lang, Sophie Maslow, and Mary Anthony. At sixteen he joined the Broadway cast of West Side Story and appeared as Baby John in the movie version, and later danced on Broadway in I Can Get It for You Wholesale and Fiddler on the Roof. Mr. Feld danced with American Ballet Theatre, American Ballet Company, and Feld Ballets/NY.
890 Broadway
Ballet Tech occupies the 6th, 7th, and 8th floors of 890 Broadway – the historic Lawrence A. Wien Center for Dance and Theater on the corner of 19th Street and Broadway in Manhattan, three blocks north of Union Square.
In 1976, in need of a permanent home for his young company, Eliot Feld discovered an ideal space for dance and theater at 890 Broadway. Fifteen-foot ceilings and column free interiors make the space especially suitable for the performing arts. Becoming the building’s first artistic tenant, Ballet Tech rented and renovated the 8th floor.
In 1986, The Ballet Tech Foundation, together with American Ballet Theatre, purchased 890 Broadway, saving it from commercial development. In addition to Ballet Tech and ABT, 890 Broadway is also home to Gina Gibney Dance, which provides affordable rental space to independent choreographers, small dance companies, and Broadway shows.
All floors at 890 Broadway are wheelchair-accessible via elevator. Restroom facilities for people with disabilities are available on Ballet Tech’s floors.
Ballet Tech is located near Union Square; the 14th Street–Union Square (N, Q, R, W and L trains) and 23rd Street (6 train) subway stations are ADA compliant.
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors work to help Ballet Tech meet its educational, technical and financial objectives.
Patricia Crown
Glenn K. Davis
Laurel Durst
Jilian Cahan Gersten*, Chair
Suk Han
Bill Heinzen
Carol Zerbe Hurford, Vice Chair
Karen Levinson
Mimi Lien, Secretary
Rachel Moreno*
Patricia Tuthill Pazner*
Edgar Peterson*, Treasurer
*Ballet Tech alum
TRUSTEES EMERITI
Cora Cahan
Gregory Hines**
Howard Klein**
LuEsther T. Mertz**
** in memoriam