Royal Winnipeg Ballet hopes to salvage archives damaged in flood

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is hoping to salvage its archive department after it was flooded out during a plumbing mishap last weekend.

RWB executive director Jeff Herd says the archives represent 15 years worth of work by a group of dedicated volunteers.

Alumni have been collecting and archiving everything from historic costume sketches to sheet music used by the ballet company, Herd said.

Herd said the flood restoration company they are working with has moved the boxes of archives out into a space to dry.

"We've taken them all out so that everything gets opened and dried," said Herd. "Everything has been opened up and been put into the drying room. There's a couple hundred boxes at least."

Herd said it was difficult to see all of the memories on the brink of being ruined.

"I walked into the room and I could touch the boxes and feel them damp," said Herd. "[I'm] devastated, but also confident that the majority, if not all of the material, will be salvageable."

The building, and adjacent parkade, flooded when a toilet broke last Saturday night.