Gold Barre Members Honored at Reception

On October 18th, Boca Ballet Theatre’s Gold Barre Members gathered at a special “Thank You Reception” sponsored by The Residences at Mandarin Oriental Boca Raton, which is a part of Via Mizner, an urban resort in the heart of Downtown Boca Raton currently under development by Penn-Florida Companies.

Blake Smith, Loretta Parker, Seton Smith, and Lee Parker

 The event took place at The Residences Sales Gallery, where the hosts gave the Gold Barre guests tours of the special rooms in the sales office while enjoying fabulous hors d’oeuvres and drinks. The hosts also presented an in-depth video of the upcoming plans for The Residences.

 The highlight of the evening was special guest Elena Stein. In this intimate setting, she described growing up in Russia and taking ballet as a child before moving with her family to New York. She spoke of classes at The School of American Ballet, where several of the instructors were Russian, and of being accepted into the professional company at New York City Ballet.

Roger Stein, Elena Stein, Andrea Virgin, and Greg Woulfe

During this time, back at Boca Ballet Theatre, Steven Caras, a professional dance photographer and former dancer, gave a backstage photograph of a beautiful dancer to BBT as a gift. It was hung on the studio wall were it has been for 15 years.

 After she was married and had two daughters, Elena described how she and her family moved to Boca Raton, where she looked for a ballet school for the girls. Elena came to Boca Ballet Theatre and while Ms. Jane was giving her a tour of the studio, she saw the amazing photograph on the wall. She asked, “Where did you get that photograph? That is me!”  The mystery of the dancer in the photo was solved! That was how Elena came to be a member of the Boca Ballet Theatre family!

Staff pictured here with BBT’s dancers at The Residencies at Mandarin Oriental Boca Raton

Boca Ballet Theater’s Co-Artistic Directors Jane Tyree and Dan Guin thanked all of the Gold Barre members for their attendance and participation. To become a Gold Barre member, one gives a donation of $1,000.00 or more to support the programs of Boca Ballet Theatre. To learn more about how you can become a Gold Barre Patron, click here!