01 & 14 (65)Public Comment
From: Charles Andersen <
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2021 5:19 PM
To: Public Comment
Cc: info@anaheimballet.org
Subject: Anaheim Ballet
Dear Mayor Sidhu and Council Members,
My name is Charles Andersen and I am a proud alumnus from The Anaheim Ballet. The arts have an enormous impact on
every community. The Anaheim Ballet has impacted my life more than any other organisation offering me education for
a lifelong career.
I joined The Anaheim Ballet as a young teenager and was immediately welcomed into this wonderful dance family. The
Anaheim Ballet offered me a scholarship so I was able to attend classes daily. This generous gift and support allowed me
the amount of training necessary to become a professional dancer.
Upon graduating High School I was awarded a full scholarship to The Royal Ballet School and was then offered a contract
with the renowned Royal Danish Ballet where I danced professionally for 11 years.
I now work with critically acclaimed choreographer Christopher Wheeldon staging his ballets for companies around the
world. This has allowed me to work for some of the largest international ballet companies such as the Bolshoi Ballet in
Moscow. I am proud to name The Anaheim Ballet in my biography in Playbills around the world.
I recently accepted a position working with the education department of The Australian Ballet company. The outreach
work The Anaheim Ballet offers was a huge part of my education and I am eager to use the experience I gained from The
Anaheim Ballet in this new role for The Australian Ballet.
The Anaheim Ballet's free community based after school programming, bus in presentations, lecture demonstrations
and concert performances are a point of pride for the city of Anaheim.
The Anaheim Cultural Arts Center, the home of The Anaheim Ballet, is an architecturally unique building to the city and
perfectly designed for a ballet studio. Removing this building would be removing culture and heritage from the city of
Anaheim. World class companies strive for studios with the same standards. The large rooms and high ceilings are truly a
treasure and offer students and professional artists alike the required environment to execute proper ballet partnering
and the freedom to dance past their limits.
I credit my career to the start I received from The Anaheim Ballet. I urge you to vote in support of the Cooperative
Agreement with The Anaheim Ballet. Thank you for your consideration and for your support to educating the next
generation of artists.
Kind regards,
Charles Andersen