Nashville Ballet Invites You To A Community Conversation
As part of our annual Attitude series coming this May, Nashville Ballet’s Artistic Director and CEO Nick Mullikin will present his groundbreaking World Premiere of Erase the Night. This emotional production will explore the profound themes of addiction, isolation, and the power of community support, weaving a tale of struggle, hope, and connection through breathtaking and narrative dance.
As a prelude to Erase the Night, Nashville Ballet will be hosting a series of Community Conversation events, that will serve as an opportunity to create inroads in our community. In partnership with state and local addiction and mental health resource organizations, we are offering educational programming and community conversations like these to spread awareness, provide resources, and share a message of hope.
“The purpose of this art is to inspire us, heighten our emotions, and give us a visceral experience,” said Nick Mullikin, Artistic Director and CEO. “Sometimes these stories reach into the depths of struggle, sorrow, and how someone can be lost in the spiraling of addiction. But these stories also bring to light how strength can be discovered, how support can be shared, and how there is grace and profound beauty in the journey of recovery.”
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Wednesday, April 23, 2025 from 6-7:30 p.m.
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
3421 Belmont Boulevard
Nashville, TN 37215
Our panelists will be
John McAndrew, LADAC, Recovery Music Specialist & Music Therapist. He is the Music Services Co-Ordinator at Cumberland Heights (a 177-acre campus recovery center for drug and alcohol addiction offering residential and outpatient treatment). John has toured world-wide performing his own music for recovery audiences. He is a recording artist at “Quarto Valley Records”. He has been in recover himself for 41 years and has agree to open up this final community conversation with one of his own pieces on keyboard, which will help us focus our recovery conversation on the healing power of the arts.
Don Loiacano, MA, Chief Program Officer at the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Davidson County. John’s masters is in sociology and he is a peer with mental health conditions, too. The National Alliance on Mental Illness is a large grassroots mental health organization dedicated to helping those with mental illnesses lead a better life. While it has a broader focus than addiction, they will speak to the overlap of mental illness and addiction.
Lifeline Representatives from the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. The Department MHSAS is a Department of the State of Tennessee with a mission to create collaborative pathways to resiliency, recovery, and independence with Tennesseans living with mental illness and substance use disorder. The Lifeline project aims to reduce stigma related to the disease of addiction and increase access to substance abuse recovery support.
This project is made possible thanks to support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sandra Schatten Foundation, and Nashville Ballet’s generous donors. For more information on how to support this project and help bring the vision of Nick Mullikin’s Erase the Night to life on stage, please visit our website.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction or mental illness, you are not alone. There are many support services and treatment options that may help. Visit our website for a list of resources.