I love fresh looks at old leads so I saw this post on Webre and the Washington Ballet. Webre, well he likes dead animals. And he likes them young, too. He also likes kids (I guess).

Webre was at the Washington Ballet for 17 years. In that time, after initial success and wild years he ran it into the ground. Intense labor disputes, huge management turnover, failed prestige shows - a mess. But, even though his company shrunk to barely viable, the YOUTH department expanded fourfold to over 1.000 kids of all ages over 5.

So, his first team selection has come down to the smallest of line-ups, while his youth system churns out hundreds of dancers a year. All for The Nutcracker? Where do they go? Or should we ask, where were they from? Well, all over the world. Underage ballet dancers are the easiest trafficked minors. While a ballet student is usually older than 12, with the right connections earlier 'talent' is often easily moved in.

And Webre has the easiest access of all to visa for his dancers: Geofrey Smith is a lawyer specializing in visa for dancers. He is also a former WB chairman of the board, and a close friend in any case. So Webre gets hundreds of visa a year for free for minors older than 12, and sometimes younger, from anywhere in the world.

Deborah Sigmund is well acquainted with Webre. Sigmund's on the board of the WB too. She's the founder and CEO of Innocents at Risk, where Izette Folger is on the board. Sigmund is also a Soroptimist.

Sigmund's husband Donald was director of Meltzer Group Insurance Services. But at his death in 2014 gifts were to be addressed to three different non-profits: Innocents at Risk, the Washington Ballet, and the Bishop John T. Walker School for Boys.

Now those names I recognized because they connected to earlier research into THEARC - Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus - a "cultural and social services campus in Washington, DC’s Ward 8 (SE)'. Its initial building cost: $27mn.

THEARC is a 16.5-acre campus across the Anacostia in SE Washington, developed by DC Realtor Chris Smith and his associate John Ritz in 2005, via non-profit BBAR (Building Bridges Across Rivers) with support from LISC, an entirely Clintonite outfit called the 'Local Initiatives Support Organization (spot the paradox?).

Alefantis is on the Host Committee of THEARC fundraisers, "after dark@thearc", which feature many usual suspects.And yes, despite its billing as a 'social and culltural campus", THEARC's focus seems to be almost exclusively on (young) children.

THEARC houses the Washington Ballet, the Corcoran Gallery (now defunct), Covenant House DC, the Washington School for Girls, Levine School of Music as well as a medical, dental and psychiatric clinic for children.

A $34 million expansion will see a new facility to be finished this year will also house the John T. Walker School for Boys, the Children's National Health System clinic, the Phillips Collection, the Appletree Institute, and the David Lynch Foundation. It's a prestigious project with a lot of prestige attached.

On THEARC: "The celebrated Mississippi Avenue SE venue has hosted President Barack Obama twice. Its story was narrated by Gen. Colin Powell. Yoko Ono premiered her "Imagine Peace" exhibit there. NASA hosted its 50th anniversary event there. Doug E. Fresh gave a lesson on health there. It is home to nine nonprofits and a 365-seat community theater, and serves roughly 85,000 individuals annually."

Now I am not saying there's anything untoward about elite DC social circles sponsoring and supporting facilities for underprivileged children - even if I find the role of this Christopher J. Smith - who not only built and runs the facility through BBAR but also partners it with his WJ Smith Inc - rather dubious. Well I guess he has much bigger fish to fry now anyway.

However, most if not all of the non-profits involved have numerous intricate ties to the particular circle under investigation in Pizzagate: Alefantis, Maccoby-Folger, Webre, Sigmund etc, as well as the institutions (the Corcoran was founded by a master freemason, Phillips Gallery was run by a CIA operative). I could go on.

So I considered this worth a post, even if rambling at times, even if only for archiving purposes (I only archived locally, too tired now).

[Edit: typos, some details]