Meet the Inlet Board Members!

“I was first introduced to Inlet Dance Theatre in 2007. At the time, I lived and worked in Columbus but was back in my adopted hometown of Cleveland for the week. A friend invited me to attend their performance at Cleveland Public Theatre. A mutual friend was going to be there and, wanting to surprise him, I readily agreed to go. I was a lover of the arts. In fact, I once ran a statewide arts festival that involved over a thousand teenagers. But dance was still largely foreign to me. I wasn’t exposed to much of it, and frankly what I had seen over the years kind of freaked me out.

I started becoming concerned over what I was going to see this Inlet group perform. After surprising my friend upon entry to the theatre, I was seated and began reading through the playbill. I could quickly see that there seemed to be a moral point to the pieces that were going to be performed, some of them even based on books I had read. When the lights came down and the company performed their first piece, I was absolutely enraptured. I spent the next two hours with my jaw on the ground. My heart was so full as I left the theatre that night that I had to find out more.

The more I discovered about Inlet, the more inspired I was. I had never seen anything in the arts and culture world that endeavored to, yes, make great art, but even more importantly invest in the lives of those in it. The dancers were not cogs in a wheel, mere machinery that could be replaced at a whim. “Using dance to further people” was not a catchy slogan; it was their way of life. Success was not only found in creating memorable performances or even serving in the community (which is fantastic), it was leaving the dancers better than they find them. That’s why Inlet Dance Theatre matters to me.”