2011-12 Season

Diane K. Mosier, Artistic Director

Fresno's Lively Arts Foundation is a non-profit presenting and support organization founded in 1989 to help establish the Fresno metropolitan area as a major cultural force in California - by providing a variety of world-class music, dance and dramatic entertainment and by fostering a challenging and enriched environment for talented local students in the performing arts. Through its arts education progarm: DISCOVER DANCE outreach, Lively Arts invites 4500 of the Central Valley's underserved young people and families to experience the magic of live theater.

The Foundation has presented major international dance companies such as Stars of the Bolshoi Ballet from Russia, the Shanghai Ballet from China, The National Ballet of Caracas from Venezuela, Veriovka--the Ukrainian National Dance Company, Ballet Flamenco Jose Porcel from Spain, and Forever Tango from Argentina, as well as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Joffrey Ballet and San Francisco Ballet, all from the United States. During the 2007-2008 season, the GEORGIAN STATE DANCE COMPANY in September and the TCHAIKOWSI-PERM BALLET'S "SWAN LAKE'" both stimulated enthusiastic audience response.

The Foundation's resident Central California Ballet company has mounted over three dozen original ballets, with evening-length productions of "Alice in Wonderland," "Beauty and the Beast," "Coppelia," "Midsummer Night's Dream," and "Cinderella."

The late tap legend Gregory Hines launched the Foundation's DISCOVER DANCE effort with a benefit performance in 1989 and made one of his final public appearances at the William Saroyan Theatre in the year of his death, 2003.