Are tickets available? Please advise.

We are encouraging community attendance at the premiere showing/performance. It's not a traditional "Tickets" system - your name will be put on a list at the door (no tickets will be mailed).

You can request tickets through this form http://wvi...quest.html or by calling (570) 602 1150.

Thanks.

I had taken tap, ballet and acrobatics since age 5 when my family moved here from Indiana. I loved it and my parents searched for new classes for me here in the Wyoming Valley. It wasn't long before they found Miss Barbara's studio. The ballet was much more intense than I was used to but I grew to love it. I remember taking the bus into "town" every Saturday for classes. That was the highlight of my week. Classes were demanding and serious. Miss Barbara asked for our best and we did not want to disappoint her. Praise from her was high praise indeed. I especially felt fortunate to experience the "productions", the big ballets with the costumes and makeup and all the excitement of having professional ballet dancers and choreographers work with us. We felt so special. My great love and appreciation for dance and dancers remains with me to this day. Miss Barbara's professionalism, her work ethic and quest for perfection in all she did left an indelible impression on me. She certainly is a large part of who I am today. I will always be grateful that I had the opportunity to know and be taught by her.
Miss Barbara, thank you and best wishes as our community honors your life and work on the WVIA special program. You are truly deserving.

My name is Maria, or as my Ballet Master called me, "Marisha!" I studied classical dance for about 20 years with a colleague of Ms Weisberger, the late Alexi Ramov. He too was a Balanchine student and went on to perform professionally with Ballet Russe, the Lehman "Opera on Tour" and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. He and Ms Weisberger founded the National Association of Regional Ballet, now known as Regional Dance America Northeast. In 1959, They organized the very first regional festival in Scranton and Wilkes Barre with performances in the Irem and Masonic Temples. This 4 day event received National attention and attracted 900 socialites to dinners and some 3,500 enthusiasts to performances, including then Congressman Dan Flood.

In 1995,while serving on the board of Directors for the Scranton Civic Ballet, I handled publicity and public relations for the Regional Dance America NE Founders Festival. There, founders, Barbara Weisberger and Alexi Ramov were honored. This too was a 4 day long extravaganza of intense training, seminars, adjudicated performances and a black tie Gala. All were held throughout Scranton's grand ballrooms and stages. That was 13 years ago. But I'll never forget the magic on that final night as hundreds of us re-lived what once flourished here nearly 4 decades prior. I still have some background information, including a copy of an extensive feature article published in the July 1959 issue of Dance Magazine. Pictured were co-hosts Alexi Ramov, then Director of the Scranton Ballet Guild; and Barbara Weisberger, then Director of the Wilkes Barre Ballet Guild. As quoted from the article, "At times, the Festival reminded us of the kind of week-end that Louis XIV organized at Versailles...this came to mind especially at the Saturday night post- performance dinner." Perhaps, one day I may be graced with an autograph.

Madam Weisberger, May your elegance, grace and beauty continue to illuminate us and may your legacy live on forever within all of whom you've inspired througout your life. With heartfelt appreciation and admiration, "Marisha"...

I remember Miss Barbara as a very young girl, when I began my journey in ballet with Miss Jozia at the Wilkes-Barre Ballet Theater. Miss Barbara would come to teach master classes in Wilkes-Barre and I was most impressed even at that age with her elegance and sense of reverence about ballet. We observed her spiritual approach to the artform, and whether in class, in rehearsal or on stage, I learned from Miss Barbara that it is a dancer's responsibility to bring this spiritual life to the movement and to the audience. This understanding followed me through my training at Pennsylvania Ballet and New York and my experiences working for Miss Barbara in Carlyle. I am forever indebted and grateful for your graciousness and love of dance. Wendy

I was five years old when I first met Barbara. My Mother took me to her ballet studio in Wilkes-Barre which was over a store on the town square.
I remember Barbara being so graceful and seemed to just float across the studio.
She did not have any "sound systems" for our classes but rather a woman who played an upright piano.
My Mother along with all of the other Mothers sat in the rear of the class watching as we had our class with Barbara.
I am now 55 years old and can still remember those days in her class in Wilkes-Barre.
My daughter is now 19 and a devoted ballet student.
I owe my love for the art and my daughter's love for dance to Barbara!!!!!

As a student of Miss Barbara's in Wilkes-Barre from 1956 to 1962, I learned to love dance and music for the rest of my life. I remember Miss Barbara arranging for several of her students to go to New York City to dance for Balanchine. He sat on a folding chair and watched us; I suppose she was giving him an idea of the progress she was making at the school. Some of my classmates went on to become professional dancers (Susan Hendl @ NYC Ballet and Rosemarie Wright @ Twyla Tharp), but my life path led in other directions. In my twenties, I worked for San Francisco Ballet as administrator in their professional training school. I'd come full circle to watch the process begin with a new generation of young dancers. I spoke with Miss Barbara on the phone after she left Pennsylvanie Ballet, and I told her she had always been a guiding force in my love of the arts, my awareness of movement and grace, my self confidence. Her tenacity and passion for dance influenced so many young people in so many ways. She was a wife and mother who lived in a dinky town to raise her family, yet she blazed trails to expand ballet to a much wider audience. An amazing feat! It was a privilege to be her student. Mary Rinehimer Street