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Hon. Shirley McCracken, Retired
Anaheim, CA 92801
Hon. Mayor & Council Members
Anaheim City Hall
Anaheim, CA 92805
Re: Anaheim Ballet November 7, 2020
Dear Mayor and Council members,
In the late nineties after a serious fiscal challenge earlier, Anaheim was enthusiastically
working to make Anaheim a “great city” that supported a balance of business, enter-
tainment, sports and the arts. Symphonies, bands and theater wwere brought to parks.
Schools increased program in the arts. The Anaheim Arts Council was a vital organiza-
tion working on an Anaheim Cultural plan.
At a county-wide arts festival, a ballet company performed at South Coast Plaza and I
with Anaheim Arts Council members met Larry Rosenberg, the ballet director. Larry
shared two messages…the ballet was looking for a new home and his experience as a
dance judge for Disneyland he was familiar with talented but untrained Anaheim dancers.
We came back to share the message with Mayor, Council and staff. Thus evolved a
request to the ballet company and school to come to Anaheim with an offer of classroom
space in exchange for services to youth and the community of Anaheim. Their supporters
in South County did not welcome the move.
For over two decades Anaheim Ballet has trained hundreds of young people from
Anaheim and from other nations. It not only provides support for the Anaheim
community but receives international recognition of Anaheim through the dancers
produced and the choreography of Sarma Rosenberg
Even in a fiscally difficult time, please do what you can to feed the spirit of the
community which the arts do.
Shirley McCracken
Hon. Shirley McCracken, Retired.