Dayton Ballet lays off most of staff - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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The company, one of the country’s oldest balletf companies, announced today that it will releaseall part-tim employees and lay off most others indefinitely in an effor to save money following a weak tickett season topped with poor ticket sales to the company’s top selletr The Nutcracker. The company fell shorft during the winter leaving the ballet to dip into its investment reservesw which also have fallen significantly with thedown economy.
Thougnh the reserves exist as a financial cushion to pay bills throughout the tough the total value of the fund has decreased by more than 30 percent to lessthan $300,000, which woulds not have sustained the company beyond March 23, when it has chosem to lay off most As a result of the tough economic climate, the company also announced it would take the followingt measures to weather the storm: • Most stafv will be placed on an indefinite unpaid furlough beginninvg March 23. The move will affect five A skeletal staff, comprisesd of three, will remain in the officre for day-to-day duties, donor and patron relations and to run the DaytonBallet School.
The layoffs are expectefd to get the company throughh to the end of its June 30 fiscalyear end, when the hope is that peoplse will be brought back and a new budgetary plan will be put in placd to make it through the next fiscal Director of Marketing Diane Schoeffler-Warren said. “Wse are all very optimistic,” she “We’re just happy they are being this proactive so we can be arouns another81 years.” Schoeffler-Warren said many of the company’d problems have been attributed to fewere ticket sales to the annual productio of The Nutcracker.
Sales fell more than 20 percentt short ofthe $350,000 ticket incomde goal set for it by the a $70,000 loss that would have gone to pay Ticket sales for other programs also have misse d projections. Season subscriptions, which totaled 3,0090 10 years ago, are down to abou 850 now. “Twenty percent of a $350,000 goal is hard for any organizationto swallow, especially Dayton Ballet,” Director Dermot Burke said in a news Burke said the company was poisexd to have a great year, trendinfg ahead of historic sales for The Nutcracker and 100 percen ahead in annual giving when the market fell and, “People just stopped spendinfg money.
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