Marin Arts School Administrator Steps Down

SAN ANSELMO, CA — The founder of a Marin arts school is stepping down from an administrative role.

Stapleton School of the Performing Arts on Monday announced that Virginia Stapleton will be retiring as artistic director.

Her retirement goes into effect in summer of 2021, the school said in a statement.

Stapleton founded the school in 1988 and a decade later she developed the Stapleton Youth Company to provide a semi-professional experience for the school's advanced students that helped them prepare for the professional dance circuit.

Stapleton’s mission to provide top-quality ballet and performing arts training in an inclusive, supportive environment hasn’t gone unnoticed.

The Marin County’s Board of Supervisors honored Stapleton on the school’s twentieth anniversary three years ago.

“Ms. Stapleton has been a vibrant force in the Ross Valley community supporting dance, theater and the arts beginning in 1980 with the inception of a ballet program for the San Anselmo Parks and Recreation Department…and continuing to this day,” the board said in a statement.
“[We thank] her for her invaluable contributions to youth, to the arts, and to the cultural community.”

“Talent doesn't come in one physical body type, but in many different forms,” says Artistic Director Virginia Stapleton. “We don't force stereotypes on students or discourage them because they don't fit a mold. We just let them dance, and celebrate the gift of our diversity as humans.”

Ms. Stapleton received her professional dance training at the San Francisco Ballet School under the tutelage of American ballet pioneers William and Lew Christensen.

She began touring with the San Francisco Ballet Company and the San Francisco Opera Company in 1961, performing in such works as Swan Lake; Symphony in C and Concerto Barocco, choreographed by George Balanchine; and Caprice and Con Amore, choreographed by Lew Christensen.
Eventually she switched focus from performance to instruction, embarking on an extensive teaching career instructing advanced and master classes for the Petaluma Ballet and Stamps School of Ballet in Albany.
“Talent doesn't come in one physical body type, but in many different forms,” Stapleton said in a statement.
“We don't force stereotypes on students or discourage them because they don't fit a mold. We just let them dance and celebrate the gift of our diversity as humans.”

The Stapleton School for over thirty years has presented annual Nutcracker productions. This year's performance will be held Dec. 4 and 5 at Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium in San Rafael after a hiatus in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Other highlights include a school visit to the USSR in 1988, where forty Stapleton students participated in a Russian Ballet training program.

Stapleton’s production of David McNaughton’s Tom Sawyer earned the distinction of best show of the week at the world-renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland in 1992. In 2018 the school moved into a new, state-of-the-art facility at 70 Greenfield Avenue in San Anselmo.

Ms. Stapleton partnered with North Bay Theatrics’ Director Ashley Kimball in 2018 to offer Youth and Multi-generational Theatre for a comprehensive performing arts program at the school. The next production will be Disney’s Lion King Jr., with performances November 19, 20, and 21 at The Playhouse in San Anselmo.

Wilhelmina Frankfurt, a former dancer with New York City Ballet under the direction of George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, will succeed Ms. Stapleton as the second Artistic Director in the school’s history. Ms. Frankfurt is best known for her roles in the ballets now known as “Balanchine Black and White.”