Le Bal de Ballet’s 50th anniversary class Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314, partiwriter @hotmail.com and @joannedavidson on Twitter.
With some very active high school years behind them, the members of Le Bal de Ballet’s 50th anniversary class — 32 debutantes and 21 Young Men of Distinction — could be excused for deciding to do little more than take it easy in the weeks leading up to their respective departures for college.
To be sure, some did. Others, however, filled their days with community service and exciting adventures.
Boettcher Scholar Molly Little, who’d been a five-sport athlete and high honors graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School, hosted A Ball at Their Feet, a free soccer clinic and new ball giveaway for 30-plus immigrant and refugee children. She’ll soon be taking off for Boulder, where she will be the 20th member of her family attend the University of Colorado.
Madeline Bronson’s parents, Jeremy and Kristin, met in Florida in the late 1980s when they were working on Bob Graham’s successful run for U.S. senator after having served as the Sunshine State’s governor from 197987. Carrying on what could be described as a family tradition, Madeline, a graduate of the Denver Waldorf School, departed Denver soon after her presentation to drive to Florida with her father, the owner of Occasions Catering, to work on former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham’s gubernatorial campaign. Gwen Graham is Bob Graham’s daughter.
Madeline, whose mother is Denver’s city attorney, plans to take a gap year before enrolling at Goucher College in Towson, Md.
Her love of travel has taken Keiana Naiman to destinations far and near; the summer between her freshman and sophomore year at Kent Denver School found her in China, working with children at a migrant school in Beijing. In the weeks before her parents, Lauren and Marc Naiman, send her off to Bucknell University, where she will study marketing innovation and design, they treated her to a road trip with stops along the Western United States.
Young Man of Distinction Cole Smith, who was co-president of Colorado Academy’s Investment Club, has participated in school-sponsored trips that took him to Mexico, Cuba, Switzerland and the south of France, where he lived with a family while completing a service project and honing his ability to speak French. He will study engineering at his parents’ alma mater, Cu-boulder.
Kari Stewart chaired the 2018 Le Bal de Ballet, which began with the presentation of honorees at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and ended with dinner and dancing at the Sheraton Denver Downtown. Denise Nalen was the honorary chairwoman, and 2018 co-chair Julie Bearup will head the event in 2019.
Former chairwomen who were there to help mark the Golden Anniversary of this event put on by Denver Ballet Guild as a benefit for programs that advance the art of dance were Marla Gentry, Anne Curran, Anita Harrison, Pam Gatz, Pamela O’neal, Debbie Raeder, Hillary Adams, Denise Nalen, Christian Reid and Jane Buckley.
The 2018 debutantes, in addi- tion to those mentioned above, were:
Patricia Abbott, Olivia Baglieri, Grace Berlind, Erin Buckley, Kailey D’ambrosia, Estee Dechtman, Genevieve Emerson, Harper Finch, Mackenzie Fisher, Abigail Hale, Claire Hutchison, Annabelle Johnson, Payton Kuchman, Katharine Leede, Carley Lockton, Molly Mcdonald, Savannah Mease, Payton Moody, Jillian Murphy, Fiona Neylon, Caroline Oudet, Chloe Richards, Carolyn Robbins, Alyssa Schmidt, Natalie Shelden, Kali Soudani, Sydney Turner, Halle Walker and Clare Weisiger.
In addition to Cole Smith, the Young Men of Distinction were Brady Anderson, Gregory Cain, Charles Dinegar, Walker Hamilton, Jackson Harvey, Stryker Lewis, Adam Mcdaniel, Charles Mckissick, Christian Mellon, Seth Mellon, Max Nelson, Jonathan Obregon, Charles Reid, Cooper Sampson, Lucas Sawyer, John Schabacker IV, Hunter Sherrard, Skee Springman, Noah Vansickle and Grant Whittelsey.