The City Is Our Stage will take you, our Artistic Travelers, on an adventure through Cleveland’s wide-ranging neighborhoods to discover a mystery bag of sight-specific artistic performances from the safety of their automobile. As travelers you will be able to purchase a ticket by choosing from an East Side, West Side, Downtown, or “surprise me” starting location. Then you will have the opportunity to see 6-7 different performances of varying styles. As an artistic traveler, you will have no idea what performance you will get to see, truly making this an adventure.

Each artistic journey will take around 2 hours, including travel time. With the purchase of your ticket, Artistic Travelers will be given a starting location and time. Once you arrive you will receive a digital map of your mystery bag performance locations as well as links to live sound streams for some of your destinations.

The event was created and presented by Trad Burns, Sarah Morrison, and Chuck Karnak to celebrate and showcase some of Cleveland’s best Singers, Dancers, Actors, Musicians, and Poets who currently don’t have a performing outlet due to the Covid-19 crisis.

Due to closures of theatres and large gatherings caused by COVID-19, Verb Ballets continues to look for ways to innovate and bring new dance experiences to the community.

Verb Ballets will present a private live stream of an all classical ballet program. The company will perform Raymonda’s Wedding. The ballet opens with the ensemble dance wearing radiant costumes, full of spirited rhythms and waltzes. This thrilling excerpt features many solos including one of the most beloved, and hardest, in the classical ballet repertoire by the lead ballerina. Also, on the program is the only classical ballet Heinz Poll, founder of Ohio Ballet, ever choreographed: Rococo Variations. Costumed in English-style tutus, this ballet highlights the classical virtuosity of the dancers and the beauty of the score on cello and piano. Ticket link will be provided with a donation of $10 or more by July 31, 2020 at noon.

Due to closures of theatres and prohibited gatherings of large crowds caused by COVID-19, Verb Ballets continues to look for ways to innovate and bring new dance experiences to the community. This season will be unlike any other in the history of the company. Verb Ballets is committed to presenting work while ensuring a safe environment for our dancers and patrons while following all health recommendations by the state. For the 2020-21 season Verb Ballets launched a new series, ACCESS/Verb, of private live stream performances. Classical Variations is the first performance of the ACCESS/Verb series.

Photo Bill Naiman

Verb Ballets reinvents its annual Fresh Inventions project to a live stream showing in studio featuring works by the dancers. Fresh Inventions reflects Verb Ballets’ vision to be recognized as a catalyst to promote learning and encourage dialogue about dance as an art form. After the stay at home order due to the COVID-19 pandemic the dancers re enter the studio with new creativity and inspiration. This year, they are challenged to reflect on events over the past few months. The studio shutdown and traditional performances have been cancelled which poses immense financial ramifications on the organization. Verb Ballets continues to look for ways to innovate and bring new dance experiences to the community. We are asking to make a donation of $10 or more to our GoFundMe Campaign by June 25th at 7pm EST to support our live stream performance. We will provide all donors a link to view the Fresh Inventions studio showing as a thank you!