Boys and Girls Clubs dancers to perform April 23

April 9, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Springfield, IL – Springfield Ballet Company’s Boys and Girls Clubs Ballet Outreach Program will culminate with a spring recital at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, April 23, at the Hoogland Center for the Arts, Theatre II, 420 S. Sixth Street.

The dancers, between the ages of 6 and 12, have been attending hour-long ballet classes every Friday evening since January and are eager to demonstrate what they have learned. In addition to basic ballet terminology and skills, participants in the program have gained poise, discipline, self-esteem, and an appreciation for fine arts. The recital will be followed by an awards ceremony and a brief reception.

The Springfield Ballet Company sponsored the program this season and provided dancers with classes, tights, leotards, ballet slippers and dance bags at no cost to the participants. After the recital, students will get to keep the bags, and will receive a special SBC T-shirt.

SBC Ballet Mistress Gina DeCroix oversees the Boys and Girls Clubs program, now in its seventh year; and company dancer Tiffany Riech served as lead ballet instructor for the program and choreographed the recital pieces for this season. SBC company dancers Kathleen Brandt, Kaitlin Fear, Claire Martin, Sami McElwee, Rosa McKenna, Page Nagel, Caragan Phillips, Mary Regan, Lindsey Siders, Rachel Weitekamp and Rachel Woerner also served as instructors for the class.

SBC is a civic not-for-profit ballet company that has been entertaining and educating area audiences since 1975. The company offers three major productions at the University of Illinois at Springfield’s Sangamon Auditorium each year, and also performs at festivals, schools and nursing homes throughout central Illinois. SBC is committed to providing equitable opportunities for company dancers to be trained in and to perform the art of dance, and to offer opportunities for all members of the central Illinois community to be educated and entertained.

Upcoming SBC events include Men in Tights, Friday, April 30, at the Hoogland Center for the Arts.

For additional information, contact SBC at (217) 544-1967.

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