Footlight Dance Company, under the Artistic Direction of Hilarie Neely, is proud to announce our Senior Company premiere performance at the WRHS Performing Arts Theater, Community Campus, Hailey “NoMoreBullies”, Acceptance, Responsibility, Empathy….Saturday, February 9, 7:00 pm. The company of 12 dancers will present the topic of Anti-Bullying through the art form of dance. This performance is a partnership with the School District about bullying, which is a reoccurring problem in our schools, with families, and communities. The project is taking place due to a generous grant from the San Francisco Ballet/Sun Valley organization. For over twenty years Footlight has provided for our Blaine County students, a free professional educational dance tour at the end of January. We will present this show to all eight school district schools and finish with a community performance with proceeds benefiting The Advocates. Our mission has been to expose dance and other collaborating art forms in an exciting and educational setting to help expose children to all of the arts. This evening performance allows adults and families to see a quality dance experience at a pre-professional level.
This one performance only evening show will include local and regional collaboration. The Ballo Capesso performing ensemble from Idaho Falls, under the direction of Deborah Bean and Dirty Feet Dance Company, under the direction of Alysha Oclassen, will also join Footlight in support of this important subject. Each student in the community will receive a bracelet saying NoMoreBullies, so when we enter each performance we are all standing together to recognize the issue, find ways to feel safe and confront the issue. The dancers will interpret this subject though ballet, modern, jazz, tap and hip hop dance forms.
Tickets are $10.00 for adults, $5.00 for students, available at Iconoclast Books, Ketchum, from Footlight Company Dancers and at the door. Proceeds from this performance will go to The Advocates. Our tour of the schools will take us to Hailey Elem. School, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 9:10am; Community School, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 12:30pm; WR High School, Friday, Feb. 1, 8:35am and Woodside Elem. School at 1:30 pm; Carey School, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 9:45am and WR Middle School, 2:30pm; Hemingway School, Friday, Feb. 8, 8:15 am and Bellevue Elem. School 1:30 pm.
Nine dancers from Wood River High School will be dancing in the performances. Four seniors, Emmie Altermatt, Alberta Jefferson, Emily Seiller and Karina Rangel will be participating in their final year of performances. Emmie and Alberta have been dancing with us since they were four years old. Alberta plans to major in dance at college. Emmie plans to study Elementary Education. We also have one dancer who attends Sage School and two from WR Middle School. Many of our dancers train as athletes taking 5-6 classes per week and are required to study Pilates Conditioning. They also rehearse weekends for 6 weeks prior to the performances. These performances are always a highlight for the Senior Company dancers, as they assume the life of a touring professional, but still keep up their class work at school. It is a wonderful experience to perform for their peers and younger students as they discover dance as an art form.
For more information contact Hilarie Neely, 578-5462. www.footlightdancecentre.com
