"Swans" to grace Vermilion as Cleveland Ballet glides into town to open season

VERMILION — The renowned Cleveland Ballet will open its 2022-23 season with two special performances of "Swans on the Lake" in Vermilion this month. The performances are excerpts from the iconic "Swan Lake," which will be the company's premiere performance this October in its Playhouse Square home. Last fall the ballet company announced it would make Vermilion's Harbourtown Fine Arts Center in Vermilion its summer residence. "To have the Cleveland Ballet kick off their season here in Vermilion is phenomenal," said Jim Chapple, president of the Harbourtown board. The performances will be at 6 p.m. Aug. 26 and 27, and in the latter's case the venue might vie for the elegance of the performance. The Aug. 27 performance will be an intimate evening hosted at the Waterwood Estate, the former waterfront mansion built for the late Vermilion inventor Don Brown and his wife, Shirley. The exclusive home, hidden from view on West Lake Road in Vermilion Township, spans 38,000 square feet on 160 acres. It's reported to have at least 100 rooms, a private beach, marina, greenhouses, a pier, and the driveway is a half-mile long. The Browns, who had a heliport and a private hangar on the property, died in 2010. DiGeronimo Cos., a construction and development company based in Independence, bought the home and several parcels around it in 2020. Chapple said a representative from the DiGeronimo family expressed interest in allowing local organizations access to the property to hold events, a perfect opportunity for the Harbourtown and Cleveland Ballet partnership. "They wanted to allow for nonprofits and people who are doing big things, good things for the community, to work with them," he said. "Of course my mind was going 100 miles an hour. This is going to be a fabulous event." Harbourtown was founded in 2018 and fittingly is housed in the historic red brick Old Town Hall and Opera House that dates back to 1883. It used to house the city's municipal offices and a grand performance space that still houses the seating, curtains and stage from its original heyday. It was started expressly to provide fine arts to the people of the community, according to its mission statement. The event at the estate will be a high-end event, with limited attendance. Only 150 tickets will be available, at $300 apiece. It will be catered with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres served at 6 p.m., and the Cleveland Ballet taking the stage at 7:30 p.m. Desserts and coffee will be served following the performance. "Hopefully we'll be on the terrace with the lake in the backdrop with the sunset," he said. The Aug. 26 performance will be offered in the HFAC Village Park, 736 Main St. Chapple said it will be the same performance but the event is for a more budget-friendly price. Tickets are $100, with light catering offered. An outdoor stage will be set up, and limited tickets are available to that event as well. Both will raise money for both the Cleveland Ballet and the HFAC, which is restoring the building and maintaining the 1883 building where it is housed. "We have a lot of people from Cleveland coming, renting hotels and bed and breakfasts. It's just good for our economy. It's funny because as much as we've been announcing that Vermilion is the Ballet's summer residence, I think people are finding ballet to be a new art form and now they have it in their own backyard." Part of bringing "Swans on the Lake" to town has been housing performers, which residents have volunteered to do to save on costs. "The dancers are going to be here for two days and we've needed places for them to stay and people in Vermilion have volunteered to house the dancers, they're hosting the dancers and staff. I'm going to have three here myself. You're really connecting," he said. The Cleveland Ballet also will teach a master class from 9-10:30 a.m. Aug. 27 at the HFAC for students ages 12-18. Registration is $25 and spots are limited. For tickets to the performances, visit clevelandballet.org or harbourtownfineartscenter.org or call (216) 320-9000, ext. 107. To register for the master class, you may also call Jim Chapple at (440) 225-1547. Contact Rini Jeffers at rinijeffers@gmail.com.