Out and About
Interesting Diversions for March 2000

Carolina Ballet Leaps into the Big Time

If ballet and business aren't often mentioned in the same breath, it's not for lack of trying on Ward Purrington's part. The president of Raleigh's Carolina Ballet likens the two-year-old company to another local success story.

“We're a start-up, and I think we qualify as a good business venture. We're not Red Hat yet,” he says with a chuckle, “but we're trying.”

It's an analogy more apt than you might think. In 1996, Purrington started from ground zero, placing an advertisement for an artistic director in Dance Magazine and, shortly after, hiring Robert Weiss, an alumnus of New York City Ballet. Just shy of two years later — after recruiting top-notch dancers, aggressive fundraising, and ticket sales that would please even well-established companies — Carolina Ballet made its debut to rave reviews.

And that's not just beginner's luck. Carolina Ballet sold 2,600 season subscriptions in its first season and 3,000 this year. Ticket sales to single performances also have been outstanding. The company's staged version of Handel's “Messiah” had a successful seven-show run and exceeded the company's sales goal by 85 percent.

Plaudits, too, continue to pour in. The company recently was featured in The New York Times, which called comparisons between Carolina Ballet and other renowned troupes in bigger cities “increasingly plausible” and described the company as “characterful, well-disciplined and exciting.” Internationally known dance critic Francis Mason gushed over New York's radio waves that the Carolina Ballet was his “favorite new ballet company.”

In an appeal for support from the business community, Purrington characterized the company as a “$2.7 million small business with a great product that makes a real contribution to the local economy.” His argument, and it's one that's rung true with scores of contributors, is that the arts improve overall quality of life, which in turn makes the Triangle a better place to live for current and prospective residents.

“We boast a lot about being world-class this and world-class that, but we're not world-class anything without a full compliment of the arts,” Purrington says.

While the idea might be a bit of a paradigm shift for some, the arts play a part in attracting businesses to the area.

“The most important economic commodity of the 21st century is human intelligence. And unlike rock quarries or forests or good soil, people can get up and leave any time they want,” Purrington continues. “Intelligent human beings — the people who run and work in companies locating here — want the finer things in life available for their families and to live in a society that values art and culture.”

For information about performances and ticket sales, contact the Ballet Line at 919-303-6303. —Suzanne Fischer

Union, Confederate Troops Will Collide Again at Bentonville
The Battle of Bentonville will be fought again when thousands of reenactors and spectators converge on the fields and woods of Johnston County on March 18 and 19.

It will be the 135th anniversary of the state's largest Civil War battle, when Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston made a final attempt to prevent Gen. William T. Sherman's army from joining forces with Gen. U.S. Grant in Virginia. Sherman's troops had been separated during their march up from South Carolina, and Johnston hoped to strike while the Union forces were divided.

The battle, which ended in defeat for the Confederate army, raged over 6,000 acres and resulted in more than 4,000 casualties during just three days in 1865. A month later, at Bennett Place near Durham, the two generals met again as Johnston surrendered to Sherman on April 26, ending the Civil War in the Carolinas.

Costumed reenactors will fight engagements on portions of the original battlefield. There will also be civilians in costumes to perform living history demonstrations throughout the weekend. Staged only once every five years, the Battle of Bentonville reenactment has become one of the most popular Civil War related events in North Carolina.

Tickets are available through Ticketmaster at $10 per person per day, children under 10 are free. All proceeds will be used for preservation of the battlegrounds. Harper House, a private home converted into a field hospital by the Union army — will be open to the public free of charge. Call Bentonville Battleground State Historic Site at 910-594-0789.