Beauty and Elegance: Swan Lake at Pitt-Greensburg

Most people enjoy some quality entertainment once in a while. The Pitt-Greensburg Theatre Company aims to provide such a thing to the university populus with their semesterly productions and events. Coming up soon, however, they will be collaborating with La Femme and Delta Psi Omega to put on a different kind of theater performance—a faculty and staff ballet.

Yes, you read that correctly, this wonderfully flamboyant trifecta of clubs are holding a ballet production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake at Ferguson Theater in Smith Hall on Saturday, April 6, 7-9 p.m.

According to Delta Psi Omega secretary Loryn Roadman, the honors society did not initially think that many campus staff and faculty members would be interested in participating in the event. However, once they started asking people if they would like to volunteer for the ballet, they received much more enthusiastic feedback than they expected. 

“A surprising amount of faculty and staff members actually volunteered to be in the ballet. For professors we have Dr. Sayre Greenfield, Dave Newman, Dr. Martha Koehler, and Dr. Amber McAlister. Some of the staff members we have are both Kelly Safin and Renee Kiner from the library, Jordan Salomone, and even Leigh Hoffman,” Roadman said. “Also, we’re really excited that President Gregerson is going to be in it too.”

La Femme house representative Sarah Luffy is also excited about the event and her organization collaborating with the Theatre Company and Delta Psi Omega. She hopes that La Femme’s involvement will convey the message of supporting gender diversity when it comes to the theatrical arts.

“La Femme’s main goal in helping organize the event is to show people that ballet is not something that’s just reserved for young women or girls only. We want to show people that anyone of all genders and ages can do it, and we think that the show will be a good indicator of that,” Luffy said. 

While the surprisingly large turnout for participating faculty and staff members in the ballet has very much pleased La Femme and Delta Psi Omega, they are still hopeful that more men will volunteer as they agree that it would push their message of theatrical diversity even more. 

“Our last day for recruiting staff and faculty members is April 1, since we’ll need all of that time between then and the show to set up and rehearse and things like that, but even if we don’t get more participants, I’m still very pleased with who we’ve got already,” Roadman said. 

The group of organizations have started planning the show since well before the university went on spring break. And although their limited budget for the production means that they won’t be able to do certain things, like have a live orchestra and extravagant sets, they still very much think that it will be a very exciting and historical moment of campus history. 

“I think that anyone who comes to see the show will get a kick out of faculty and staff members wearing leotards and tutus, but hopefully it’ll also appear to be something very dignified as well,” Luffy said.