Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/914877
54 | M A C O N M A G A Z I N E D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 8 8 COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF CENTRAL GEORGIA G ladys Lasky was a ballet teacher, choreographer, dance critic and scholar credited with enhancing culture in Macon in the late 1950s. During the last year of Miss Lasky's life, when she was critically ill, the Macon Ballet Guild raised $20,000 to preserve her legacy in support of classical ballet. The Gladys Lasky Fund at the Community Foundation of Central Georgia memorializes Lasky's distinguished career and promotes the study of classical ballet by annually awarding a scholarship to a ballet student to participate in classical ballet instruction or a summer intensive. Miss Lasky performed in Europe for many years before settling in Macon in 1955. She established her dance studio on Mulberry Street and also the Macon Ballet Guild. Through the Guild she produced classical story ballets and invited dance celebrities to perform alongside local students. "She was all about education and the arts, and enriching people's lives with culture," says Laura Lengel of Dance Arts Studio in remembering her mentor. Christopher Crawford received a scholarship from the Gladys Lasky Fund in 2016 to attend a summer intensive at the Boston Ballet, and he wrote a note of thanks describing how he had been "transformed" by the experience afforded him by receiving the Gladys Lasky scholarship. "Thanks to the training and life lessons I learned during the intensive, I walk into my ballet classes with a new mindset and focal point for myself. The intensive not only made me a better dancer but it made me a better person, teacher, student and young adult. Now, I know I have what it takes to be great and very successful at what I do." HER LEGACY LIVES ON Gladys Lasky Fund Scholarship Fund / Bibb County DANNY GILLELAND COURTESY MIDDLE GEORGIA ARCHIVES Gladys Lasky