News…

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Directors of dance companies and schools across West Virginia are invited to enroll students in the West Virginia Division of Culture and History’s 2017 statewide dance festival.

Directors have until Jan. 6 to submit applications to the division. Dancers’ and scholarship applications are due Jan. 13. Adjudication DVDs are due Feb. 10, and the adjudications will be held Feb. 24-26, 2017.

Student applications are accepted only from directors affiliated with full-time dance establishments in West Virginia. Dancers must be at least 12 years old and have at least one year of training in classical ballet with two lessons per week. All performers must be enrolled for classes at the festival.

The West Virginia State Dance Festival, set for April 28-30, 2017, showcases the talents of West Virginia dancers who come to the Culture Center at the State Capitol Complex in Charleston each spring to perform and take classes from nationally acclaimed dance instructors. This will mark the event’s 35th year. The festival’s evening performances will take place Friday and Saturday, April 28-29.

Lorraine Elizabeth Graves, former principal dancer at the Dance Theatre of Harlem where she is on the master teacher faculty, will return as lead faculty and adjudicator for the festival. Other faculty members will be announced at a later date.

Applications and guidelines, along with additional information about the festival, can be found on the division’s website at http://www.wvculture.org/dance/index.html.

For more information, contact John Morrison, events coordinator, at (304) 558-0220 or by email at John.D.Morrison@wv.gov.

The West Virginia Division of Culture and History is an agency within the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts with Kay Goodwin, cabinet secretary. The division, led by Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith, brings together the past, present and future through programs and services focusing on archives and history, arts, historic preservation and museums. For more information about the division’s programs, events and sites, visit www.wvculture.org. The Division of Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

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