BalletX gets its biggest donation in a multi-million-dollar gift

No one can recall exactly when Joan DeJean first appeared in the audience — maybe six or seven years ago — and she was quick to become a BalletX regular and indispensable member of the troupe’s fan base.

Her departure, on the other hand, is likely to be remembered for years to come.

DeJean — a scholar of French literature and culture, author, and longtime Penn professor — died in December at age 75 and left BalletX a remarkable gift: $7.4 million.

A donation of that size is substantial for any arts group. To BalletX, a bright but mid-sized star in the Philadelphia cultural firmament, it’s enormous. The company has never before received a gift even approaching $1 million.

Christine Cox, BalletX’s cofounder and artistic and executive director, said DeJean “would come in and peek in the back and watch the process. It was just this incredible friendship — to have this conversation about the work and art and the impact that it has on people and communities. We were aligned. Often in her e-mails, she would just lift the company up.”

Now, Cox said, she feels in one moment “over the moon, excited for the future, and in the next I’m sad for the passing of my friend. It is a complicated experience of joy and loss.”

BalletX leaders knew they were in DeJean’s will. She was a donor to the company, first giving $500 per year, and later much more. But after DeJean was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, she revealed that she had decided to leave the company the value of her retirement accounts.

Even then, ballet leaders were unsure of the scale of the gift until, in one meeting, DeJean “disclosed to us roughly what she thought the amount would be,” said James Ihde, the company’s major gifts officer, “which really floored us.”

“I don’t even think I could hear it,” said Cox. “It was just like, ‘Wow.’”

DeJean — born in Opelousas, La., and raised in a French- and English-speaking household — taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale early in her career, returning in 1988 to Penn, where she was a professor of French and Francophone studies.

She wrote a dozen books. Mutinous Women: How French Convicts Became Founding Mothers of the Gulf Coast documents the stories of dozens of women imprisoned in France on spurious or minor charges who were deported in 1719 to the French colony of Louisiana.

Fictions of Sappho, 1546-1937 is a “brilliant and complex account of the ways in which the poet and woman Sappho has been imagined and described in the European tradition since the Renaissance,” wrote one critic.

French culture was an idée fixe for DeJean.

“What makes a city great?” she asks in How Paris Became Paris: The Invention of the Modern City. In the 2014 book, DeJean argues that the French metropolis in the 17th century developed into a new model for what a city could be: “in the here and now, because of its contemporary architecture, because of its economic life, its cultural activities, and the range of entertainments it offered.”

She showed how, through a series of public-private partnerships and a belief in the public good, Paris became a synergistic mix of culture, fashion, innovation, commerce, and tourism (though not without its social and political turmoil).

DeJean was not a dance expert, but she attended dance performances in Paris, where she kept an apartment, and she frequented concerts at the Curtis Institute of Music, across the park from her Rittenhouse Square home.

She left her Paris apartment to Curtis, a spokesperson for the school said. Proceeds from its sale will be used to establish an endowment in her name in Curtis’ vocal studies department for students to attend programs improving their language skills. DeJean was also involved with Opera Philadelphia, the Academy of Vocal Arts, WRTI-FM, and other groups.

“She was a deeply curious person and very knowledgeable about the arts on a broad spectrum,” said Cox.

She may have been erudite, and in interactions you could get a sense of how accomplished she was, but, says Ihde, “she didn’t hold it over anybody.”

What attracted DeJean to BalletX? The company, founded in 2005 by Cox and choreographer Matthew Neenan, draws on the training and aesthetics of classical ballet, but blends those traditions with more contemporary dance genres. It performs both in Philadelphia and on tour; its next local performances run from July 10-21 at the Wilma Theater.

BalletX dancers “want to be challenged by choreographers and new experiences and new ways of moving,” says Ihde, who, like Cox, was once a member of Pennsylvania (now Philadelphia) Ballet.

DeJean enjoyed being present in the moment that art was being created, and she understood the risks that come with bringing new works into the world.

“She knew that everything wasn’t going to be a hit,” says Cox, “but she loved our adventure.”

DeJean’s millions won’t go toward a new building or initiative. Rather, the donation will support existing programs. The company had already completed a new five-year plan at the time of DeJean’s gift, and mission and means dovetailed.

“One nice thing is we were already being extremely ambitious in these next five years, really going out there. So rather than having to rethink, we got a springboard to make some of these things happen,” says Ihde.

Most immediately, the company will use $1 million of the money to help fund operations in the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons.

The remaining $5 million will become the Joan DeJean Innovation Fund. The plan is to spend only 5% in investment income generated by the fund each year, says managing director Megan O’Donnell.

Additionally, over the past few years the company has built a $3 million cash reserve, which will kick off 4% to be spent each year.

BalletX’s board has not yet decided whether to designate either fund as permanent endowment.

The operating budget will grow to $5.2 million in 2024-25 from $4.2 million in 2023-24. Dancers are increasing to 16 from 13, and their number of weeks employed each year will go to 50 from 48.

Live music will be used in more productions — something DeJean encouraged and supported.

The entire 2024-25 season will be dedicated to DeJean, BalletX’s biggest donor.

Said Cox:

“She worked her whole life, she was frugal. And she said to me, ‘You know, I probably should have traveled a little bit more. But I want to pass this to you.’ I think that gave her peace of mind, knowing that we would steward her gift and it would, for years to come, touch people’s lives.”