OKC Ballet announces major gift
Christian K. Keesee could feel the spirit of his grandfather, John Kirkpatrick, and legendary ballerina Yvonne Chouteau around him as he stood in sunshine streaming into Oklahoma City Ballet’s new home.
During a break from rehearsals for the company’s upcoming production of “Swan Lake,” Keesee and members of the OKC Ballet staff and board announced Monday a new $2 million gift from the Kirkpatrick Philanthropies to support the nonprofit arts organization’s professional company, school, new building and endowment at the Oklahoma City Community Foundation.
“In 1963 — I was only 2 — Yvonne Chouteau and her husband Miguel Terekhov worked with my granddad, John Kirkpatrick, to found the predecessor of the Oklahoma City Ballet that was called the Oklahoma Civic Ballet,” said Keesee, chairman of the Kirkpatrick Family Fund. “We’re here today in this new building, and what we’ve come here to celebrate … is not just moving the dance company really from one building to another. What I think we’re really witnessing is a refounding of Oklahoma City Ballet.”
Effective immediately, OKC Ballet’s dance school will be called the Oklahoma City Ballet Yvonne Chouteau School, while the organization’s top administrative position will be named the John Kirkpatrick Executive Director of the Oklahoma City Ballet.
“He would have been very happy to see us make this gift,” Keesee said of his grandfather, an influential oilman, banker and philanthropist who died in 2006 at the age of 98. “I think it’s also important for us to remember the spirit of the people who founded the organization … so I was so happy that the board of the ballet allowed me to name the school after Yvonne and the business director’s title after my grandad. It was very meaningful and thoughtful.”
Building the future
The $2 million gift includes $100,000 from the Kirkpatrick Family Fund to help complete the purchase of Oklahoma City Ballet’s new home, the Susan E. Brackett Dance Center, as well as $200,000 from the Kirkpatrick Foundation and $50,000 from the Christian Keesee Charitable Trust for renovations to the new building.
“Less than a year ago, Oklahoma City Ballet was operating out of a cramped building down the street with only three studios. We had leaky roofs … and we had a mere five parking spaces for our entire school. Now, less than eight months later, we are here in the Susan E.
Brackett Dance Center,” said Sally Nichols Starling, president of the OKC Ballet board of trustees.
“With this iconic building and all glorious 28,000 square feet of it, Oklahoma City Ballet now has a facility that matches its excellent brand. … We have created one of the nation’s premier dance centers here, and the building’s only half-completed.”
In February, Oklahoma City Ballet bought the former American Energy Partners Fitness Center and began renovating it into a sprawling, multistudio dance center.
“I think that as the Oklahoma City Ballet has been raising money to move into this great new building that it was appropriate for us to be a part of this gift to Oklahoma City,” Keesee said. “I think it’s also important to remember that Oklahoma City can’t just exist with football and basketball, that it’s important for us to have a full supply of arts opportunities ... and the ballet should be among the best in the region. And I think that this building really assures them that place going forward.”
The rest of the Kirkpatrick Philanthropies gift is bolstering OKC Ballet’s “very minimal” endowment, Starling said. The
Kirkpatrick Family Fund is giving $1 million for the OKC Ballet Yvonne Chouteau School Endowment and $500,000 for the John Kirkpatrick Executive Director Endowment. The OKC Ballet board is conducting a search for a new executive director following the April departure of Shane Jewell.
An additional $150,000 for the state’s oldest ballet’s endowment comes from the Kirkpatrick Family Fund and challenges the organization to match it three-to-one, which means raising an additional $450,000.
“An endowment is a critical lifeblood for any nonprofit, especially an arts nonprofit. So, when ticket sales are down one year, you still have that consistent source of income that’s coming in. And then the next year, when ticket sales are better, you still have that same consistent source of income. So, it gives you the stability to think a little bit broader,” said Starling, who with her father, Larry Nichols, is chairing OKC Ballet’s ongoing almost $9 million capital campaign, dubbed The Turning Pointe Campaign,
“Now, this organization has the ability to think in the future. It’s a transformative time for the ballet in so many different ways.”
Honoring a legend
Chouteau, one of five American Indian ballerinas from Oklahoma who gained worldwide fame in the 20th century, not only co-founded the predecessor to Oklahoma City Ballet, but also started with her husband the University of Oklahoma’s School of Dance. She died last year at the age of 86.
“In regards to the school being named after Yvonne Chouteau, it’s about time,” said OKC Ballet Executive Director Robert Mills. “This is someone that you can read about in the history books growing up in Oklahoma. Everyone is familiar with the five Native American ballerinas from Oklahoma. So, to have our school’s name reflect the founder, I think is significant. … It’s very important to me that you respect the people that have laid the groundwork prior to you.”
In a statement, Chouteau’s two daughters praised the Kirkpatrick family’s “civic vision and generosity.”
“The Kirkpatrick and Chouteau-Terekhov friendships and collaborations endured for decades. Our whole family has great respect for those relationships and the legacy of special work they accomplished together,” they said in a statement. “We are grateful that you’ve chosen to honor our dear mother. She would be humbled.”
As OKC Ballet begins its 46th season Friday with “Swan Lake,” Keesee recalled a story Chouteau and his grandfather told him about its predecessor’s first production of “The Nutcracker” back in 1963.
“They were on the stage rehearsing and they heard all of this noise in the background. Ba-boomboom, ba-boom-boom, ba-boom-boom. They had to stop everything and turn up the house lights, and here I was, going along the back row, flipping all the seats in the house back and forth,” he said with a laugh. “But I’ve grown up liking ballet. … Personally, ballet is magical for me.”