What is Magic Butterfly?
Magic Butterfly is a brand-new ballet, set in Africa, that tells the story of a child who has been rewarded with an adventurous magical journey through Africa because she decided not to collect (kill) butterflies anymore. The dance is accompanied by LIVE classical music, telling stories and vignettes from Africa.
The music was expanded from two 15-minute tone poems, African Vignettes to an approximately 80-minute work for mixed chamber ensemble.
Magic Butterfly is a world premiere of a work written, prepared and performed by local community talent.
Who?
Ballet performed by: The Highlands Ballet Company (HBC), directed and Choreographed by Deirdre Cole
Music performance: The Paramount Chamber Players (TPCP), directed by Dr. Craig Combs.
Music composed by: Evelyn Pursley-Kopitzke
Magic Butterfly dancers will include members of The Highlands Ballet Company, students chosen from The Highlands Center for Ballet Arts, and professional danseurs*.
The production is a collaboration between HBC, TPCP, and the composer.
When and Where?
Morning Performance for Schools, K-12: March 15, 2019, McGlothlin Center for the Arts, Emory & Henry College, VA.
Evening Public Performance: March 15, 2019, McGlothlin Center for the Arts, Emory & Henry College, VA.
Evening Public Performance: March 16, 2019, The Paramount Center for the Arts, Bristol, TN
The performance will also include streaming for offsite audience members.
For More Information
What We Need & What You Get
Simply put, the project needs $30,000 to be fully funded. Through the Indiegogo campaign, we are seeking $10,000 to jump-start the project.
Even though we have been awarded a small grant from Virginia Commission for the Arts, this grant requires matching funds and doesn’t come close to covering the costs. Also, if we don’t raise the $$$, the grant goes back.
How Much & Where?
The estimated costs for the project are as follows:
People’s Services: $17,300
Recording, Streaming, Danseurs (*paid male dancers), Creative work – Choreographer and Composer.
Places: - $3,700
Venue Rental and Tech Fees
Things: $8,400
Costumes (Purchased & Materials) for 50+ dancers; Props and Sets, including materials; Backdrop Rental; Programs.
TOTAL - $29,400
Perks
For a limited time, the Streaming Access perk will be included with ALL donation levels.
ORCHESTRA
Our ORCHESTRA sponsorship package is a $100-$249 investment and includes the following:
- 1/8 page black & white ad space in all HBC 2018-19 production programs
- Logo on Highlands Ballet signature fundraiser t-shirt
- 2 Ticket vouchers
- Link for streaming
- Ringtone for iPhone and Android phones
CORPS de BALLET
Our CORPS DE BALLET sponsorship package is a $250 investment & includes the following:
- 1/4 page black & white ad space in all HBC 2018-19 production programs
- 2 ticket vouchers
- Logo on Highlands Ballet signature t-shirt
- Social media mentions throughout the 2018-19 season
- 2 guests invited to attend a private patrons’ reception
- Link for streaming
- Ringtone for iPhone and Android phones
SOLOIST
Our SOLOIST sponsorship package is a $500 investment & includes the following:
- 1/ 4 page black & white ad space in all HBC 2018-19 production programs
- 4 ticket vouchers
- Logo on Highlands Ballet signature fundraiser t-shirt
- Social media mentions throughout the 2018-19 season
- 4 guests invited to attend a private patrons’ reception
- Link for streaming
- Ringtone for iPhone and Android phones
PRINCIPAL
Our PRINCIPAL sponsorship package is a $1,000 investment & includes the following:
- 1/2 page black & white ad space in all HBC 2018-19 production programs
- 4 ticket vouchers
- Logo on Highlands Ballet signature t-shirt
- Social Media Mentions throughout the 2018-19 season
- 4 guests invited to attend a private patrons’ reception
- Link for streaming
- Ringtone for iPhone and Android phones
CHOREOGRAPHER
Our CHOREOGRAPHER sponsorship packages is a $5,000 investment & includes the following:
- Full page black & white ad space in all HBC 2018-19 production programs
- 6 ticket vouchers
- Logo on Highlands Ballet signature t-shirt
- Social Media Mentions throughout the 2018-19 season
- 6 guests invited to attend a private patrons’ reception
- Link for streaming
- Ringtone for iPhone and Android phones
DIRECTOR
Our DIRECTOR sponsorship package is a $10,000 investment and includes the following:
- Full color back cover of Magic Butterfly program + full-page ad in all HBC productions during the 2018-19 performance season
- 8 ticket vouchers
- Premium logo placement on Highlands Ballet signature t-shirt
- Social Media Mentions throughout 2018-19 season
- 8 guests invited to attend a private patrons’ reception
- Recognition as official sponsor of Highlands Ballet's Magic Butterfly on all marketing collateral & program
- Link for streaming
- Ringtone for iPhone and Android phones
**New perks for Magic Butterfly
Free Commission for Custom Original Music by Evelyn Pursley-Kopitzke
$100+ |
Baby/Pre-schooler Name Song* (Child learns to spell their name the way we learned the alphabet – singing it.) |
The spelling of your child’s name set to music. Score only. *Composer retains copyright. |
$250+ |
Baby/Pre-schooler Name Song* + Recording (Child learns to spell their name the way we learned the alphabet – singing it.) |
The spelling of your child’s name performed and recorded by composer. . *Composer retains copyright. |
$500+ |
Short poem set to music* |
Short public domain poem of your choice, for voice or guitar or piano, (~2:00 minutes), score only. (Composer reserves right of final choice of lyric. *Composer retains music copyright.) |
$1,000+ |
Poem set to music* + Recording. |
Short public domain poem of your choice, for voice and guitar or piano, (2-4 minutes) performed and recorded by composer. (Composer reserves right of final choice of lyric. *Composer retains music copyright.) |
$5,000+ |
Poem set to music* + Recording |
Public domain Poem of your choice for voice and piano, (4-6 minutes) performed and recorded by composer. (*Composer reserves right of final choice of lyric. *Composer retains music copyright.) |
$10,000 |
Poem(s) set to music* + Recording |
Up to 3 public domain poems of your choice for voice and guitar or piano,
(6-12 minutes) performed and recorded by composer. (*Composer reserves right of final choice of lyric. Composer retains music copyright.)
|
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Original lyrics, other accompaniment instruments or all-instrumental works are available. |
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What if we don't reach our goal?
If the entire goal of $15,000 is not met, any funds raised will go to the project and a reduced budget will be implemented. Several reduced budget scenarios have been planned out in the case of fundraising goals not being met. It is the sincere hope of all collaborators that the goal will be met and that the success of this fundraising campaign will garner more enthusiastic support in other fundraising efforts for the project. A grant in the amount of $4,200 has been secured from the Virginia Commission for the Arts as of the launch of this campaign.
About the Collaborators
Highlands Ballet Company
The Highlands Ballet Company (HBC) is a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the fine art of classical ballet and dance. The mission of HBC is to provide entertainment, educational and cultural opportunities in dance for Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee and to promote the understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of dance. HBC offers young dancers training in theater arts and gives them opportunities to perform in live theater. HBC thrives on new choreography for classical and contemporary works.
The Highlands Ballet Company and its primary feeder school, the Highlands Center for Ballet Arts, work together to help educate, provide support, and to prepare aspiring young dancers for whatever future they may desire! The school provides the foundation during the childhood years; while the Highlands Ballet Company offers advanced students the opportunity for further study and to share the special training and performing opportunities of a civic dance company.
Evelyn Pursley-Kopitzke, Composer
Evelyn Pursley-Kopitzke (MM in composition, University of TN, and over four decades of experience) is a Tanzania-born, active freelance composer and master musical story-teller who lives in northeast Tennessee. Her extensive and varied oeuvre has been heard from coast to coast in the US, and in Europe. She has repeatedly been commissioned to write for The Paramount Chamber Players.
From the composer, Evelyn Pursley-Kopitzke: "The music I write always tells stories. The most wonderful thing about this project is that I get to tell my favorite tales from my childhood in Africa – some true, others make-believe. Every new musical work I write comes with homework: I study forms, instruments, and performers. This time, I researched ballet, and had a marvelous time attending Highlands Ballet Company’s productions. I’ve watched stories — told in dance — that are old, but somehow have become brand new. I’ve sat, mouth open, watching a cat-person that you’d swear was a real cat."
The Paramount Chamber Players
The Paramount Chamber Players (TPCP), a 501(c)(3) organization, celebrates its 14th season in 2018 - 2019. TPCP is the premiere chamber ensemble in southwestern Virginia and northeast Tennessee, and presents twelve concerts each season (three each in Bristol, Kingsport, and Johnson City, TN and Abingdon, VA.)
TPCP has commissioned and premiered 11 new works from local composers. Dr. Combs began commissioning new works with the call for composition in which Evelyn Pursley-Kopitzke was a winner. The ensemble brought her unusual and delightful African Vignettes to the concert stage. When Dr. Combs and others suggested that that a ballet was the logical next step, Pursley-Kopitzke identified Deirdre Cole and the HBC as the visionary ballet company in the region capable of this project.
TPCP will provide the live music accompaniment for Magic Butterfly at no cost to HBC as part of TPCP’s concert season.
The Impact
Magic Butterfly, the ballet, will have a multi-faceted positive impact on its southwestern Virginia, northeastern Tennessee, and online audiences, its ballet dancers, and the musicians. It will even affect non-audience members through the extensive media campaign that is planned.
Community Benefit: Magic Butterfly brings to the region a cultural collage that is innovative and unprecedented. It will include new classical music with newly choreographed dancing, performed to live music, in collaboration with the composer. It tells a story set in an exotic locale from a child’s point of view, while retaining the engagement of adult audience members. The story, which includes love and loss, danger and rescue, beauty and sorrow, demonstrates the African experience and yet retains the universal human condition.
Students and Teachers: Students and teachers from surrounding schools will be invited to the morning performance at a very low cost. For many, this may be their ONLY experience with a classical chamber ensemble or ballet. We are thrilled to present to them this unparalleled performance – especially if it’s their only exposure.
Dancers: The Highlands Ballet Company dancers will be inspired by the Paramount Chamber Players’ rich, soul-feeding musical interpretations in real time. Since the classical music they have previously danced to has solely been recorded, the “magic” that only live music provides will be new territory for the dancers. They will FEEL the difference and that difference will translate into an artistic experience of the highest order. That feeling will also produce new levels of “magic” in their portrayals onstage, which will in turn be transmitted to the audience.
Musicians: The Paramount Chamber Players (TPCP) are also exploring new territory. They, as an ensemble, have never before played for a ballet, or played from the orchestra pit. They will also be performing in a new-to-them venue, the McGlothlin Center, VA. In addition, performing for school children is new to TPCP. Performances for school children have not been part of their usual season. Even for an ensemble that regularly commissions and premieres new music, this collaborative production is new and exciting. They will be performing seven all-new movements and the preexisting 30 minutes will be rewritten longer.
Beyond SWVA & NETN: We are excited to present the world premiere of Magic Butterfly to the region and plan to tour the production, especially to under-served VA regions, in the future. After HBC and The Paramount Chamber Players (TPCP) have premiered Magic Butterfly, almost all the elements will be in place for future performances, with or without live music.
Magic Butterfly will also be available for licensing by other ballet companies. Since the music only requires six musicians it would be more financially affordable for them to have live music--without hiring an entire orchestra (100+ musicians). The recordings will also be available for production licensing.
Magic Butterfly adds a distinctly viable option to ballet repertoire as a whole, and does so in a way that is innovative and culturally significant.
Risks & Challenges
As with any "new" project, especially within the genre of the performing arts, there are inherent risks in the production of such a work. Due to the nature of this production - live music with original ballet choreography - this region has rarely been exposed to the performing arts in this form. The uniqueness of the project offers great benefits to the region, as well as presenting risks for all involved in the project. All collaborators on the project recognize the risks and negotiated budget constraints, venue prices and ticketing fees to lower costs and risks associated with the project.
Because the Southwest Virginia population is low density, made up of small communities widely scattered across the mountains and valleys of "coal country," performances of this scale, especially with live music, are rare. People who frequent Barter Theatre or Music Department performances at Emory & Henry College will be expected to attend, as well as people who have never been to a major stage performance of chamber music or ballet.
Audience at the Paramount Center performance will expand the faithful Paramount Chamber Players' audience, including many from Bristol, VA, and Abingdon, VA. Because Highlands Ballet Company will be guest performers with The Paramount Chamber Players, Highlands Ballet Company will not control ticket prices. The Paramount Chamber Players' ticket prices are usually $15 for adults, and often, free for students. The Paramount Chamber Players is able to keep prices low to attract a wider demographic through the generosity of their many patrons. The overall low-cost and value in the ticket prices reduces the risk of venues being left "half-sold."
Other Ways You Can Help
Even if you can't contribute monetarily, that doesn't mean you can't help:
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Share, share, share the campaign on every social media tool you use. The more people who know about the campaign and Magic Butterfly, the more likely it is to succeed.
- Share the YouTube link https://youtu.be/DCU0IbNjBvE to the promotional videos so that others can learn about this unique and exciting ballet coming to the region. The more people who see the video, the increased number of ticket sales the production will have.
- Use the Indiegogo share tools right from the campaign page -- it's that simple!
