Having earned national recognition as one of the 10 best places for artists to live, Kingston will soon be noted for the quality of its ballet.

Thanks to a $60,000 donation by an Accord couple, a new adaptation of William Shakespeare’s classic “A Midsummer’s Night Dream,” has been commissioned for the Catskill Ballet Theatre (CBT).

Peter and Judith Hauser, who own VisionPilots, a global business meeting and special event production company in Stone Ridge, made the donation. Judith danced the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in the 1985 CBT production of “The Nutcracker.” At the time, she was a dancer with the Feld Ballet in New York City.

With money from the Hauser donation, along with other funding, the CBT hired a dramatist to adapt “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” for the company. Noted New York City-based choreographer Davis Robertson, a former dancer with the Joffrey Ballet, was hired to choreograph the work.

“It was important for us to tie the literature to the dance,” Peter Hauser said at a press conference held to announce the commission. “We hired the dramatist because we wanted to be true to the story.”

But, not only will dance lovers benefit from this new work, so too will school children, Peter Hauser said.

In addition to holding performances for children, schools throughout the county are being contacted with offers to bring the teaching of the play and the dance into the classrooms, said Theresa Vanyo, CBT board president.

Commenting on the grant from the Hausers, Vanyo said, “Our company is well known for its holiday productions of “The Nutcracker” and this large gift will enable us to expand our repertoire and reach out to the community.”

Many of the younger dancers in the annual “The Nutcracker” productions and for the newly commissioned piece come from the Kingston-based Anne Hebard School of Ballet, which is closely associated with the CBT. However, the principal dancers for “A Midsummer’s Night Dream’’ will be professionals from the New York City dance community, Vanyo said.

Music for the dance will be from Mendelssohn, Judith Hauser said.

For students at the popular dance school, which has been a part of Kingston for 35 years, it means, “mentoring,” Hebard said.

The younger dancers will have the opportunity to learn from the experienced New York City dancers, Hebard said. She has been teaching dancing for more than 40 years, having worked with the Royal Academy of Dance in England.

“Dancing with professional from New York City will give the dancers at the school who might want to pursue dancing professionally a chance to work at a higher level,” Hebard said.

Students at the dance school and hopefully in the county’s schools will get a chance to experience an education in the classical arts,” said Sherri Brittain, director of the Ulster County Arts Council. “We are developing a culture of the arts and through programs such as this one, we will be able to engage more of the community.”

“Artists are a catalyst in a community,” Vanyo said. “A change is needed in Kingston and maybe we can be a part of that change,” Vanyo said about the crime and quality of life issues affecting a portion of the city.

“We feel that there’s not enough support of the performing arts today, especially for the creation of new work,” Peter Hauser said. “We wanted to help the region’s art community, especially ballet. We hope this gift will inspire others in our community to support local arts organizations.”

Robertson said “several things are relevant about the opportunity for something like this to happen in your community. We have major urban cities were this type of thing happens on a more regular basis.”

“But,” Robertson said, “if you invest yourself in your community in several ways it only builds upon itself. This type of cultural activity where you have new work happening and it is exciting for those large major metropolises to have something like this is coming out of your own small home community and to not support that would be absolutely horrendous.”

Rehearsals for the premiere of “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” have begun. The ballet will be performed at the Ulster County Performing Arts Center on Broadway in Kingston on April 25, 26 and 27.