South Bend, Ind., Jan 18, 2020 / 04:00 am (CNA).- Raffaella Stroik loved beauty.
A devout Catholic and a talented professional ballerina, Raffaella felt she experienced the beatific vision when she was performing for others. She hoped her art could be transformative in their lives.
But Raffaella’s short life ended in tragedy. On Nov. 14, 2018, her body was found in a lake some 140 miles from St. Louis, where she was a member of the city’s ballet. She was 23 years old.
Authorities ruled that there seemed to have been neither foul play nor self-harm.
“…the only thing that seems to have happened, could have happened, is some kind of an accident,” Duncan Stroik, Raffaella’s father, told WNDU News in South Bend, Indiana in November. “We don’t know what could have happened.”
In order to honor and continue their daughter’s legacy, Duncan and his family have decided to create a traditional ballet in honor of Rafaella, loosely based on her life and incorporating the elements of beauty and art that their daughter loved about ballet.
“We were trying to figure out how to remember her and how to memorialize her,” Stroik told CNA. “And I’m an architect, so I think buildings, monuments, tombstones, all kinds of things. And my wife actually had a dream that we would remember her through dance.”
“The goal was to continue her work, which was as a ballerina, in a way that we could, which is to create a new ballet,” he said.
Creating a new ballet is no easy feat, particularly a traditional ballet, which includes more in the way of sets and costumes and artistry than the minimalistic style of most contemporary ballets.
For help, the family set up an online fundraiser in order to raise the necessary money to hire professionals who could write the music and the choreography and help design the sets and costumes of the ballet.
“There’s a lot of cooks in the kitchen,” Stroik said. “There’s a lot of artists that are part of this. And I’ve been calling myself the impresario, the producer in movie terms, who’s organizing all of it, but then trying to hire the best people that would share our vision for this ballet.”
Stroik said they went with a traditional ballet because that was Raffaella’s favorite style, and they believed it would be the best way to create a more timeless ballet that could endure through the ages. Raffaella was inspired by the romantic, fairy-tale style and themes of traditional ballets and believed it could do more to portray beauty than the style of contemporary ballet.
“Raffaella’s passion was to bring beauty to the world in many ways,” Stroik added. “Her prime strength was in dance and she really was trying in her own way to do things that were glorifying to God through traditional ballet and the beauty of the human body and what it can do.”
Stroik and his wife are writing the story of the ballet, which will loosely follow their daughter’s life – friends and family of Raffaella will be able to recognize the similarities, he said.
The story takes place in Italy, one of Raffaella’s favorite places to visit and the language that she studied. The story will take place in the 18th century so that it can incorporate some of the elements of traditional ballets – kings and queens, princes and princesses, peasants and village life.
The character of Rafaella will be a princess who grows up wanting to be an artist like her parents, meets interesting people in her life, and interacts with both a good prince and a deceptive prince who vie for her attention.
“(She’s) really searching for the true prince, and she sees him from time to time in her life. And then the other prince who comes along sweeps her off her feet and is very attractive, and she’s totally compelled by him but he turns out to be a deceptive prince,” Stroik said.
Stroik noted that the theme of superficial beauty and its deceptive power is a common one in other traditional ballets.
The ballet’s ending, of course, cannot be given away.
“My hope is it’s the kind of story with the kind of good and evil love, joy, hatred, fighting, peacemaking that will speak to people for generations. That’s my goal,” Stroik said.
The desire for a ballet that transcends generations is an idea that comes from his Catholic faith, Stroik added.
“We want to do something that’s timeless, that’s universal. And I think that relates to our Catholic faith. We’re not doing something just for today…but we also want it to – if it’s really good – hopefully, it will speak to future generations as well. So we’ll see, but that’s our goal,” he said.
Rafaella’s Catholic faith was always central to her life and her art, Stroik said, and he noticed it in how she interacted with others as well as in her passion for her art.
“It caused her to try to always put other people first, which we saw a lot in her life. It caused her to forgive…and she tried, as best she could, to live the Beatitudes,” he said.
“She told us that when she danced and danced really well, she felt like she was experiencing the beatific vision. She really felt that it was a very religious, spiritual experience, especially performing,” he said. “She was experiencing a taste of heaven.”
The Stroiks have raised $115,000 of their $250,000 goal, and Duncan said he has been surprised and touched by the way this project has touched the hearts of people who knew Raffaella and those who did not.
“One of the things that’s really surprised me in a good way is how many notes I’ve gotten from people – people that I know, but also people that I don’t know – telling me they love the idea. They said, ‘What a beautiful tribute to your daughter.’ And, again, people that I don’t even know will write me notes and say, ‘This is fantastic that you’re doing this.’”
Stroik said he hopes the ballet will be ready to premiere in spring or summer of 2022. He said they are still exploring options as to where it will debut, but they are hoping to recruit dancers from Rafaella’s life – from her time at the St. Louis ballet, her college ballet at Indiana University, and her high school ballet – who are professional dancers and friends of Rafaella to perform in it.
“I’m hoping that some of them will return to be part of this production,” he said.
Stroik added that he hopes people who come to see the “Raffaella” ballet will walk away with a new appreciation for the beauty of the art form and with a sense of hope.
“We want to do this ballet in order to bring a whole new audience to ballet, for a broader audience,” he said. “And because ballet can be very beautiful, very powerful, and it can speak to all the issues that concern our lives and give us…in this case, it’s a tragedy, but the way we’ve written the story is it’s also full of hope, because Raffaella was a girl with a lot of hope and a lot of faith.”
[…]
Pam…beautiful job defending common sense and what for 250 years has been the AMERICAN way of life. The country has never been so endangered and so resembling a communist dictatorship as it has the last 4 years.Weaponized govt departments. Attempts to attack Supreme Court Justices, assassination attempts against Donald Trump and the lawfare attacks against him too . Free speech suppression by social media and the major press, DEI, Men in womens sports. Crazy crazy stuff I have never seen in my whole life. WE badly need fairness and the system to return to treating ALL citizens equally. Thought you did a fabulous job today.They tried to pin you down and only ended up looking crazy. Bravo to you.
“Study: Nearly 400 Million Christians Persecuted Globally, Islamism and Communism Main Drivers”
https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2025/01/15/study-nearly-400-million-christians-persecuted-globally-islamism-and-communism-main-drivers/
You also haven’t seen a president, when he’s visibly angry go in front of the country and verbally encourage on site citizens to “take back” the country in physical ways, destroy our capital building at taxpayer expense, then pretend he’s totally faultless. I am not questioning your political views. I am not a pure party supporter because both parties have positions that are not in line with Catholic Christian moral code. It amazes me( as a 60+ yr old, college educated Catholic) after having worked in education for 30 years to see how many behaviors of DJT are like a child who says whatever they think, with disrespectful to nearly everyone in his path. The assassination attempts have been by men who themselves have been bullied. Bullies either join bullies (proud boys), have someone help them grow out of it or violently go after bullies. I have prayed diligently for 10 years that Trump turn around his speech, choices and hateful approach. I will keep praying! Trump isn’t supporting Catholics, he’s using them to get votes and more power. He wouldn’t be accepted by Catholics in the era before Roe V Wade. Catholics in the 1960 would have been appalled by his attitude, personality and unchristian views!
Jan 6 didn’t occur in a vacuum. That riot was preceded by the 2020 “Summer of Love” riots that caused far greater loss of life, destruction of property, and duration of rioting. Former VP Harris was involved in raising bail for the 2020 “Summer of Love” rioters. The Jan 6 riot has been the subject of much selective outrage.
If only she could stop Francis’ persecution of Catholics.
The FBI was correct in following leads and tracking down radical terrorists. If following those leads takes them inside the TLM movement then so be it. American Catholics cannot tolerate terrorists hiding within Holy Mother Church.
The predominantly Catholic FBI should not be cowed by radical enemies of our great nation or those schismatic’s trying to destroy the church from within.
Right. Except that the investigations found nothing. Not sure you should claim to be Catholic while celebrating the police state.
Orthman William Scott,
If the FBI had credible leads from real intelligence gathering it would be one thing but lifting a “hate group” list from the SPLC doesn’t say much about the FBI’s resourcefulness tracking down radical terrorists.
I love the TLM & I’ve never encountered a single terrorist at any TLM gathering. I have encountered some weird conspiracy narratives & the occasional antisemitism/generational racism you can find almost anywhere. I’m pretty sure I can find more racists at our local Walmart & more anti-Semites at a university than at a TLM Mass but it’s still very disappointing when that happens.
Most FBI & law enforcement agents are good, decent people who put their lives on the line daily to protect us. The trouble isn’t so much about those on the beat but more about those behind the desks.
A single memo from one individual does not represent FBI policy. I do not believe the FBI was ever going after Catholics. I do believe the FBI probably has many good Catholics in its ranks.
People from multiple field offices were involved in writing and approving the memo. Publishing an FBI memo is not like posting on an internet forum.
The leaders of the FBI proceeded to tell Congress that it was only one person, and then gradually admitted the rest only after the Congressmen questioning them found out about it. That by itself is a clear indication of an institutional problem.
Proof of the pudding is in the eating! Trump needs to pardon the prolifers first, then we will see the truth behind statements and promises which can so easily promised in the heat of an election and yet can all too quickly be fairy dust in substance!
It’s utter nonsense, a lie, and an intention to deceive for anyone to say that the FBI and other “intelligence” agencies of the Biden Administration were not targeting Catholics. They targeted those who were pro-life which is synonymous with targeting Catholics. The truth is you cannot support killing innocent and defenseless babies in their mother’s womb and still be a faithful Catholic (despite what Bergoglio and his minions in the episcopacy say to the contrary).
Thank you author Tyler, for this great news article. Yes, she deserves congrats, LJ, and I agreed with your words, Mrs Cracker and Athanasius. I watched most of Atty General nominee Ms Pam Bondi deftly navigate the party-line questioning, as a calm voice of reason. Particularly appreciated the Republican Senators reminding we the people of the criminal behavior& narrative of many Demoncrats & their despotic regime tactics. Thanks be to God for #47 President Trump finally freeing the Jan 6 hostages & seemingly putting America first- simultaneously setting the world straight.
Please protect our leaders of integrity,Our Lady, Patronness of the Americas, and our American Guardian Angel (-no, not Mr Elon Musk, but he’s a close second)!🙏Rosaries and Divine Mercy continue🎶