Local arts groups fighting for survival as pandemic drags on

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — On Friday, March 13, Charlotte Ballet was scheduled to debut a new production of “Sleeping Beauty.” The company had invested $500,000 in the adaptation, which had generated strong advance ticket sales and stood poised to turn a profit over the course of a planned 10-day run.

Doug Singleton, the ballet’s executive director, spent that Friday on the phone and in meetings, including an emergency session with his board of directors.

Two days earlier, on March 11, the World Health Organization had declared the illness caused by the novel coronavirus a pandemic. That same day, the NBA stopped its season after learning a player had tested positive. Other sports leagues soon followed suit.

Mass closings of local government buildings and many private offices in Charlotte were still a few days away, but Singleton knew there was no way an audience could safely watch the ballet’s planned debut at the Knight Theater.

The ballet’s board, by unanimous vote, canceled “Sleeping Beauty.”

What Singleton could not know then was that the ballet’s main attraction — its professional dancers — would not rehearse or train inside its uptown headquarters for the next six months. A tumultuous summer included dancers practicing their moves in a converted parking lot and the cancellation of their traditional month-long “Nutcracker” production, the company’s most lucrative and popular production.

CBJ talked with Singleton and others in the arts and cultural scene here to learn how such groups are fighting to survive. Read the full story here.

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