Leslie Smart – CEO
Louisville Ballet
By G. Douglas Dreisbach
Founded in 1952, the Louisville Ballet is Kentucky’s official state ballet and is a cornerstone of the city’s performing arts scene. Renowned for its innovative choreography and compelling storytelling, the company presents a diverse repertoire ranging from timeless classics to bold contemporary works. With a commitment to artistic excellence and community engagement, the Louisville Ballet inspires audiences through its performances, education programs, and collaborative initiatives. The creative process delivers moving art that respects tradition, encourages innovation, and fosters life-long learning.
We caught up with CEO Leslie Smart, who shares insight about the company, her background, and the benefits of dance for both physical and mental health.
Doug Dreisbach: What are your daily roles and responsibilities with the Louisville Ballet? From a day-to-day perspective, as well as an annual perspective?
Leslie Smart: Annually, I’m responsible for the company’s overall operations, not just the professional ballet company, but also the Louisville Ballet School and the community engagement program with a strong focus on financial stability, which is critically important. I also oversee strategic planning, which currently we are undertaking to ensure long-term sustainability for the organization.
I also have responsibility as it relates to philanthropic leadership. I meet daily with donors, and I provide oversight for all aspects of our development program including major gifts, planned gifts, and annual fundraising.
Another area of focus is critically important revenue streams, including ticket revenue, and not unlike most performing arts organizations today, we’ve seen a dramatic decline in ticket revenue post-pandemic. We are just beginning to see that resurging in ticket revenue.
It’s critically important that we maintain the anchor arts organizations in our community.
DD: In addition to the main performances, what other programs does the Louisville Ballet offer?
LS: We think of the Louisville Ballet as three buckets. The performance aspect of what we do — 52 performances annually and 24 professional company artists. The Louisville Ballet School actually has 900 students enrolled serving children from the age of 3 months all the way to 76 years of age in our mind/body/balance program. We also have students that come from 27 states around the country for our summer internship program, and we provide over $677,000 annually in scholarships.
The last bucket would be the community engagement program that is also critically important. This programming is focused on diversity and really building a pathway of diversity in dance. Last year, we served nearly 22,000 participants and taught over 600 classes with in-school performances, community performances, and before- and after-school programming. We also have adaptive dance programming and, of course, our student matinees for Title I schools. Last year, we served 179 unique locations through our community engagement program.
DD: What percentage of the dancers in your schools end up on the stages, performing with the Louisville Ballet?
LS: We have many dancers that move on into what is called Louisville Ballet Studio Company, which is our pre-professional program that trains dancers every day with the Louisville Ballet. These dancers also perform on the stage, so our audiences see them in performances on the stage with the professional dancers. An overall well-rounded student, learning dance and participating in dance, is so important. We are incredibly proud of the Louisville Ballet School, the quality of our program, the students we draw from around the country, and the impact that dance has on their lives.
Dedication of the Community Healing Garden (Left to Right) First responder, Darrin McCauley, Leslie Smart, Governor Andy Beshear, Karen Tutt, and Maryanne Elliott (Photo credit: Kat Sellers)
DD: What are some of the most rewarding things about what you do at the company?
LS: I’ve spent the majority of my career in health care philanthropy, with a focus particularly on social determinants of health, and there is rapidly expanding research around neuro arts. Neuro arts is a transdisciplinary study of how arts and aesthetic experiences measurably change the body, the brain, behavior, and how this knowledge is translated into specific practices that advance health and wellbeing.
I really think it is an answer to many of the issues we face in this city — educational attainment, homelessness, mental health, and physical health. I really believe a serious investment in the arts is a paradigm shift that we need today, and I encourage our community and leaders in our community to learn more about neuro arts.
In studying ballet, you’re improving mobility, memory and speech, and ballet can release pain and trauma. It can enhance mental health and learning outcomes. It builds resilience. It can prevent disease, and this is part of this all part of the neuro arts research that is expanding. It is even reducing the anxiety in patients and improving motor coordination.
I recently had a meeting with Jefferson County Public Schools and their Community Engagement Program Director, Stacey Blakeman. Stacey is teaching ballet as the first class of the school day, and the math teacher told her that it is absolutely remarkable how well the students perform in math on the days that they have ballet. Their brain is fired up. It’s functioning at a high level, and they’re able to achieve more.
DD: A big part of the success of the Louisville Ballet and most major arts groups is the philanthropic funding and getting contributors and supporters. When you talk to donors and supporters, do you discuss the mental benefits of dance and the arts with them?
LS: Yes, most definitely. Also, parents should really understand that if their child is involved in arts education, on average, they’ll score an average of 150 points higher on their SAT. They’re five times more likely to graduate from high school, and twice as likely to graduate from college. There’s less violence in a classroom with children involved in dance movement, and their overall mental and physical health outcomes are better when a child is involved in dance.
DD: What are some things that you would like to implement at the Louisville Ballet that you might have seen other ballet companies do?
LS: As the official state ballet for Kentucky, we would love the opportunity to tour throughout the state. I had the privilege of being a former dancer with the Louisville Ballet in the 1970s, and during that time, we were performing throughout the state, and we used to occasionally dance on concrete. But today, our dancers are exceptional athletes, and that is not allowed today. We need what is called a harlequin stage — a spring floor — and we’re hoping to raise dollars to allow us to tour throughout the state. That would be critically important to the work that we’re doing.
DD: What does a floor like that cost?
LS: To be up and running as a full touring program, it’s a large investment. The floor itself is about a $200,000 investment for us to be able to perform throughout the state. Obviously, there are plenty of theaters throughout the state that we have the opportunity to perform in, but being able to take productions on the road, transporting sets and costumes, it certainly is an investment, and we are hoping to achieve it in the future.
DD: With the classroom dancing benefits for students and triggering their mind and brain, I’m sure the benefits of traveling around Kentucky will be great and overall make people feel better just by watching it live and in person.
LS: Absolutely. There are health benefits for just watching ballet, referred to as mirror neurons, and it does benefit you, just watching ballet. You don’t have to be taking a ballet class, just attending a ballet program is beneficial to your health.
DD: What are your thoughts about the arts and their impact in Louisville?
LS: David Jones Sr. used to say that we’ve built Louisville as a city of arts and parks, and I agree. I am a very proud Louisvillian, but I am saddened over our lack of progress in our city to think big over the years, and I think we have fallen behind our peer cities. I look at peer dance companies that are sporting $30 million, state-of-the-art facilities for their professional ballet companies and school. I am reminded of the work that Miami City did recently, implementing a program called Yes2Arts. It was a voter-approved $159 million general obligation bond program for arts and culture. Sadly, Louisville Ballet actually did not receive any city funding this year, and I think I’m right on these stats, but the Kentucky Arts Council at one time was ranked 27th in the country in terms of government funding available for the arts, and today I think we’re ranked 47th. I think we have fallen behind in the arts, and it is critically important to the quality of life and economic development, and I am hopeful that the community will step forward and continue to support our anchor arts organizations.
DD: One of the buckets of revenue that you mentioned helps a lot are ticket sales, and coming off a strong holiday season with another traditional Nutcracker, what are you excited about for the rest of the season?
LS: It is going to be fantastic. We have the performance, A Time Remembered performing February 1st and 2nd marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust. It really tells the story of the healing power of the human spirit to overcome great tragedy. It is a concert of arts, music, and movement, and offers a powerful perspective on both the darkness and the light of humanity. It is in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Louisville and the Kentucky Opera, so the production will actually feature two poignant works, like the Holocaust and Humanity project, which was originally choreographed by Ballet Austin’s artistic director/choreographer Stephen Mills, a Kentuckian, by the way, as well as Another Sunrise, which is a 30-minute chamber opera that’s performed by Kentucky Opera.
It is commissioned by an organization called Music of Remembrance, a Seattle-based performing arts organization, focused on human rights and social justice.
I am also incredibly proud of the nonprofit arts organizations that have stepped forward to participate in programming — the Filson Historical Society, Speed Museum, Louisville Orchestra, and The Kentucky Center for the Arts, and all of that will culminate in February with our performance of A Time Remembered.
It’s important to us, because 30 years ago a great Kentuckian, Minx Auerbach, commissioned a ballet to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust for the Louisville Ballet, and this is truly a tribute to her in honor of the impact she had in Kentucky. We are hosting the Remembrance Dinner on Sunday, February 2, to honor her legacy.
DD: For someone who has never been to a Louisville Ballet performance, what should they expect, and why should they give it a try?
LS: Not all cities have a professional ballet company, and certainly not the caliber of the Louisville Ballet. We are the only regional company Baryshnikov performed with twice, so that should tell you something. There are tremendous benefits to watching ballet, including music, the storytelling, broadening your thinking, and your social connection. I would also say that ticket prices, compared to other forms of entertainment, are reasonable, and they will witness some of the greatest athletes in the world performing on the stage. I know some folks may not have seen one of our most recent ballets, 502, to the soundtrack of Jack Harlow and choreography by Ching Ching Wong, but it drew national attention, so I would really encourage people not to miss the next opportunity to witness this caliber of dance in your community and help us keep the lights bright!
For more information and tickets for Louisville Ballet, visit louisvilleballet.org
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