Chairman
Mary Sours is a Denver native born into a large Hispanic family. She retired as the Swansea Elementary School principal after spending 30 years working with at risk students. Mary’s love for ballet began when her two daughters, now adults, started taking classes as children. She had the opportunity to provide this dance experience for her students when she partnered with director, Ilena Norton, to offer affordable classes at Swansea Elementary School. Some of Mary’s interests as a board member include having a culturally inclusive company and making an effort to reach out to as many Colorado communities as possible.
Vice-Chairman
Janet MacFarlane – toured Europe with the short-lived Los Angeles Ballet. She attended the School of American Ballet under George Baldachin, taking company class with the great ballerinas Maria Tallchief and Melissa Heyden. As Mr. Ballanchine did not select her to join the company after one year in SAB, she attended Barnard College and later Stanford Law School. She practiced law in Denver and is now retired. She is a founding member of Ballet Ariel Board of Directors.
Secretary
Jane Potts brings to Ballet Ariel a broad range of experience in the arts, events, nonprofits, historic preservation, conferences and planning. She helped turn-around and boost the economic revival in both Old Town Fort Collins and Uptown Denver and managed conferences for Colorado Council on the Arts, the Colorado Arts Consortium and Intertec Publishing. From 2001 – 2011 she was the City of Denver’s first SCFD Tier III administrator giving her the opportunity to work with over 100 local arts, science and cultural organizations. As a board member of the Inter Neighborhood Cooperation Jane is co-chair of the Climate & Sustainability committee. She and her husband George are ballroom dancers and, she loves to bake cakes.
Treasurer
John Richardson is a Senior Principal for Insight Enterprises’ Cloud and Data Center Transformation Consulting Services group. John has been principal bassoon of Stratus Chamber Orchestra since 2002 and is a founding member of Gossamer Winds. He has been on the board of Ballet Ariel since (year), and has also served on the boards of Augustana Arts and Colorado Mahlerfest.
Members
Joan Casey has been committed to animal welfare throughout her career. After attending the University of British Columbia as an English and French major, she took some time off to teach skiing. She then spent several years as a veterinary technician, working with both small animals and horses. As Director of Animal Services for the City of Sandy, Utah, she served as president of the Utah Animal Control Officers Association and as a National Animal Control Association director, and certified as a police officer and an EMT. Joan moved to Colorado to accept the position of Director of Operations and Animal Services with the Dumb Friends League. She then worked as Assistant Director of Shelter Services for the American Humane Association and as Director of Programs for the Animal Assistance Foundation. Joan is a board member of Animal Charities of America, The Summerlee Foundation, St Joseph’s Hospital Volunteer Board, Ballet Ariel, The Feline Fix (emeritus) and Animal Help Now (advisory). She has volunteered at Saint Joseph’s Emergency Department for 7 years. Joan is also on the Outreach Committee, Prayer Chain and Pastoral Care Committee, and participates in the choir and bell ringers at her church. Networking, community and national connections, management skills and a passion for the mission are Joan’s greatest attributes.
Sally Augden – retired from 33 years of classroom teaching into a volunteer career lobbying for student/heacher supportive education legislation at the state Capitol, and working to improve public school funding in Colorado through ballot initiatives. Dance and music have been high on her priority list forever. She began taking a mother/child ballet class with her daughters, Nicole and Erica, almost 40 years ago. Erica continued with ballet, attended the Denver School of the Arts, studied at Alvin Ailey in New York for two years, and danced with Ballet Ariel. Serving on the Ballet Ariel board gives Sally a chance to continue supporting arts education as well as beautiful ballet performances for our Denver community.
Ilena Norton is founder and director of the Ballet Ariel Company since 1998. She has produced and co-choreographed many original ballets for Ballet Ariel including A Tale of Molly Brown, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, and Ballerina by Degas. The Ballet Ariel Director has a Bachelors Degree from Stanford University and postgraduate education from Yale University and the Univ. of Colorado in health and psychology. She is current enrolled in the graduate certificate program in nonprofit management at the Univ. of Colorado.
Peter Strand has danced with several companies: Oakland Ballet, Minnesota Ballet, Granite State Ballet in New Hampshire, Micheal Mao Modern Dance Company, Les Ballets Trocaderos de Monte Carlo, the Connecticut Ballet, and as a principal for “Pirouettes” International, the Lexington Ballet (KY), and The Quad Cities Ballet. Locally, he has danced with Zikr Dance Ensemble. Currently, he is the Department Chair for the Multimedia Graphic Design program at Pikes Peak State College and designer/photographer for Ballet Ariel.
Barb Watson is a new member of the Board of Directors.