While I’d been coming to Carlisle as a visitor since 2004, my wife, daughter Rory and I moved here in the summer of 2012 to join Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet’s faculty as their school principal. I have always loved Carlisle and even had dreams of living here prior to getting the offer to come here. Having grown up in Los Angeles, CA., lived in cities like San Francisco (2 years) and Seattle (17 years), Carlisle is a place that I am so thankful for. It’s a community of people who care about the place they live, work and play. I feel more deeply rooted here in six years than any other place I have ever lived or visited.

My involvement in Carlisle is multi-layered. I am the Chief Executive Officer for Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet (CPYB). Most people in Carlisle don’t know it, but CPYB is internationally known for its training. You can go to almost any ballet company in the world and say CPYB or Marcia Dale Weary (our founding Artistic Director), and they will know about it with a high regard. It’s simply the best school to train and has put Carlisle on the cultural map for dancing. Not only that, but the training also creates a better community. The kids (ages 3-20) learn discipline, focus, a sense of ownership over their work, resilience and strong sense of values that they take with them outside of the ballet studio and into their everyday lives. CPYB makes for a better Carlisle. We also live in Carlisle, which is wonderful because we are constantly out doing things in the beautiful community and downtown…what a great place for families to live. Lastly, I serve as secretary of the board for the Downtown Carlisle Association, am a Rotarian and a ‘graduate’ of the National Security Seminar at the U.S. Army War College.

Most importantly, I love the people of Carlisle. Whether their my neighbors, friends, colleagues, students, fellow Rotarians, whomever…I just love the people.

Moving forward, I would like to see us come together as a community more often. CPYB shows in Carlisle (at our studios that happen a couple times a year) are beautiful. The Ford parade and car shows are wonderful. Dickinson College events are terrific. I have such a deep respect for our War College. My question is, though, how can we all come together more? Individually we are dynamic community contributors, but how can we tie it together? Still working on the solution.

The answer to that? Well, I think It’s two-fold for me. First (and selfishly), I’d like to see Carlisle become a ballet town, just like Marcia says. I know classical ballet is not for everyone, but what it does for these KIDS….it astonishes me what kind of people and community citizens come from it. Secondly, I would like to see people out even more than they already are. It creates a sense of pride in a community when you are out in it…eating, working, truly living in your community. That’s what allows you to get to know your Carlisle ‘family’. – Nick Ade, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet