Life & Work with Robin Fiddes of Ohio

Today we’d like to introduce you to Robin Fiddes.

Hi Robin, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
In 2006, E. John Busser started a small ballet scholarship in honor of his late mother, Lillian’s, memory. Lillian was an avid supporter of the arts, particularly ballet, and ensured all her children grew up to appreciate the arts as well.

John shared that passion and carried it into his adulthood ny volunteering for the Cleveland Ballet for over 15 years. Wanting to do more to support the local community of dancers, John began a 501(c)(3) to provide resources for young dancers with either clothing, pointe shoes and/or monies to help pay for dance training. The Cleveland community was incredibly responsive and helped John build the program’s base.

Since this time, the scholarship has grown beyond the local community to reach dancers around the world! Ironically, the biggest growth in the program actually happened during the COVID pandemic. Everyone was home and we knew that we had an opportunity to grow our presence online. We began to build a small following on social media (Instagram) and made connections with corporate sponsors who could help provide other needed resources for dancers like clothing, dance shoes, training tools, and much more. 2020 was our watershed year where we awarded (up until that time) the most scholarships ever in our history. And, we have continued to grow each year since.

2026 marks our 20th Anniversary where we will be awarding our 100th scholarship. To celebrate we are awarding our largest scholarships and have also partnered with 15 different coroprate sponsors who are providing an amazing package of resources for our recipients. This year, not only will the recipients recieve the scholarships, they will each recieve a gift package valued at over $2500! We are incredibly honored and humbled by the way the dance community has stepped up to help us to help our recipients.

To date, over 40 of our previous recipients have gone on to dance professionally at companies all over the world. We are so proud to know that our program has recipients in 15 countries and on 6 continents so far. As we look forward to our next 20 years, we are hoping to grow the scholarship to help more and more dancers and their families by providing critical resources.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road to growing the scholarship has had many highs and lows. Gaining recognition, and donations, was very slow in the beginning. Originally, the program supported dancers only in the Cleveland area. As social media began to take hold, we began to see and identify other talented dancers for scholarship awards. The skepticism of a small scholarship program offering scholarships was deep for many years (until COVID). Many talks were had with parents validating the “realness” of the program.

Fundraising was, and still remains, the biggest challenge for the Scholarship. Between funding for the arts continuing to be cut, more dancers pursuing the dream but needing assistance, no tax benefits for charitable giving for most people (when the standard deduction changed), and people being uber skeptical of giving to charities – we are trying our very hardest to locate sources of funding to provide as much support as we can.

We are a small team. There are only three of us; 2 in Ohio and 1 in Texas. Mr. Busser is retired, however, the other two Board members have FT professional careers and fundraising takes a FT committment. The board ensures 100% of donated monies go straight to the recipients/scholarship awards. All other administrative costs are paid for by the Board members personally.

If we could voice our big-audacious dream, it would be to grow our donations and/or pledges to allow us to “hire” a self-funded, PT fundraiser/grant writer to find larger gifts which would allow us to support even more dancers as well as develop a program which would provide stipends for early-career dancers. The early pro years are so tough financially for many young dancers, as they often have to find a PT job (or two) to manage living expeneses. If we could help alleviate some of that stress, the dancer will have a better chance of success and longevity in their career.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The program’s main work is the funding of scholarships for young dancers training to have professional careers in ballet. Much of our time is spent working on finding funding sources as well as staying connected with the ballet community as a whole. Once a year, when we open applications, we become laser-focused on the process of selecting our recipients. We are incredibly blessed to have a panel of adjudicators (all former professional ballet dancers at the highest-level) who help us with this process. This year’s 20th Anniversary application pool was our largest ever, over 300!, with dancers training in over 20 countries. It is a very humbling experience to know our program is reaching the far corners of the world.

What sets us apart from most other scholarship/foundation/grant programs is our connection to our recipients. We have worked so very diligently to create a sense of community with our alumni (we call them the “EJB Family”). This year we have created a mentorship program for our recipients. The mentors are all past recipipents who have gone on to dance professionally all over the world. This community, and connection to others who have walked the path before, is critical in the dance world as it is so small and so insolated from much of the “regular” world outside of dance. Developing connections and support systems earlier is just another brick in the foundation of a young career.

Additinoallty, as the day-to-day manager of the program, I am a business woman who has a particularly unique perspective on how to make this program as impactful as possible as my daughter is a professional ballerina and former recipient (2017). This experience has helped me while I have guided the program in its growth, as I know first-hand the challenges associated with having a young dancer who wants to pursue a career in a space that is even more competitive than getting drafted in the NFL.

What we are proudest of is that we know the work we are doing is helping young dancers reach their highest potential. Helping to facilitate someone’s success is such awesome feeling. To learn more about our mission, our recipients, and our team please visit our website (www.ejohnbusserballetscholarship.org) or Instagram page @ejbballetscholarship or Facebook page @E.JohnBusserBalletScholarship.

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
The dance, and ballet in particular, industry faces the biggest challenges ahead in: the contiued retraction of public funding to support the arts (unlike the systems in Europe and Asia with strong governmental support); and so many dancers wanting to dance professionally but so few jobs available as companies are continuing to close every year.

Sadly, one of the most recent trends in the last 5-10 years or so is the growth in number of schools and ballet companies across the country creating post-graduate (PD) and Trainee programs. Though, on the surface, this seems like so much more opportunity, many of these programs aren’t attached to ballet companies which could potentially give dancers a path to a professional position or, if they are, there are so few positions available to move into. These schools and companies are using these tuition-based programs as revenue streams to fund the schools/studios or ballet companies. This has thousands upon thousands of dancers every year realizing their dreams will just not be happening, even after dedicating 12-15 years to training. The good news is that currently there is open dialogue in the community admitting to how the system is “broken.” The challenge now is to figure out how it can be fixed in an industry/profession which has no one, unifying professional organization or set of standards.

There is good news though – while we are waiting for the changes to happen, there are so many more resources available to parents who are trying to help their young dancers navigate through this process. Groups on Facebook like “Parents at the Barre, “Parents of Pre-professional Ballet Dancers,” etc. along with resources like The Ballet Scout and Ballet Helpdesk provide invaluable resources for both parents and their dancers. It really does take a village.

Pricing:

• $25 donation is bronze level supporter
• $100 donation is silver level supporter
• $500 donation is gold level supporter
• $1000 donation is platinum sponsor
• $2500 is Director’s Circle sponsor

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ejohnbusserballetscholarship.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ejbballetscholarship/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ejbballetscholarship