Davis had three of her ballet students perform for the audience, and also had Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities program participants energize the entire room with an interactive movement demonstration.
She explained how the MVBT program has grown over the years and is now flourishing in the historic Journal-News building in downtown Hamilton.
“We are a non-profit ballet company and we have about 200 students now and we have six women on our faculty,” Davis said. “In 2008, I took over as the artistic director of the company, and I rented space in a dance studio called Tanze and Performing Arts in Fairfield - Susan Moser is the owner there.”
Davis added that she started with 30 students and the dance company, “grew and grew and grew,” to more than 120 participants.
“We began to search for a new space,” she said. “I live in Hamilton, and I really wanted to bring the studio here. All of the sudden, quick things happened with the Journal building and we moved there in August of 2012. Since that time, we have grown to over 200 students and a lot of class offerings as well.”
Davis flashed before and after photos of the building - featuring the printing press areas that once dominated the space - to the new pristine dance studios that currently are housed there.
Ian MacKenzie-Thurley, executive director of the Fitton Center, called the MVBT another important piece of the arts scene in Hamilton.
“This city, for what it has in terms of its depth all around the city in terms of economic development and social development and for the arts, is quite incredible,” he said “We have the City of Sculpture, we have RiversEdge, we have the Artspace Lofts, we have Pyramid Hill, and we have this incredible dance studio and a symphony orchestra. There is nothing that we do not have, and it is all of great quality and getting bigger and stronger and better every day. That is an incredible resource for any city, but especially for a city this size.”
Fitton's Celebrating Self luncheon series features regional speakers and performers that cover a wide variety of topics and is open to the public.
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