BalletMet to take the stage before small audiences beginning in June
Peter Tonguette
Following a 15-month, pandemic-prompted break from live performing, BalletMet has returned to a very familiar stage for a series of performances that began last month: the company’s performance space, a small, black-box theater located at its Mount Vernon Avenue headquarters.
There, the company has been performing “Unlocked,” an hourlong collection of short dances for limited-capacity audiences that, at first, consisted entirely of the company’s donors and supporters.
“Our donors and our board and our patrons have really stepped up for BalletMet to keep us going,” said Edwaard Liang, who wanted to thank the company’s supporters and show the fruits of their investment of “energy, money and heart.”
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BalletMet Tiptoes Toward a Post-Pandemic Season
The Columbus dance company goes small as it returns to the stage.
Peter Tonguette
BalletMet performances are nothing if not grand. Most of the company’s shows take place in the Ohio Theatre, the gilded, 2,791-seat Downtown venue where the troupe practically takes up residence each December for “The Nutcracker.” Now, for its coronavirus-era comeback, the company intends to start small.
For its first performances of any kind since mid-February 2020, BalletMet plans to present “Unlocked,” a program of short works, starting in early May in its performance space, a black-box theater on its campus on Mount Vernon Avenue. In previous years, the theater has been used for occasional small-scale programs, but many seasons come and go without any company productions taking place there.
Guests on the opening day were intrigued. Friends Stacy Lilly and Jessica Torres of Upper Arlington came to investigate.
“It s like the adult plant version of COSI,” said Lilly, who is planning to hold a bridal shower in the space. (Customers can rent part of the space for special occasions.) “It s fun to see Grandview Avenue thriving again.”
“I love the whimsy of it,” Torres said. “We re all at home so much now, and growing plants feels like you re doing something good for your home and yourself.”
Expanding from online shop to brick and mortar
Greendigs, a concept that was developed by a team of associates at Scotts Miracle-Gro in Marysville and took flight from there, got its start online in August last year.