Directors from dance companies and schools across West Virginia are invited to enroll students in the West Virginia Division of Culture and History’s 2014 statewide dance festival. Directors have until Jan. 7 to submit applications to the division. Scholarship and dancers’ applications are due by Jan. 14. Adjudications are scheduled for Feb. 21-23. 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. The West Virginia State Dance Festival, set for Apr. 25-27, 2014, 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 32nd year. Returning faculty members include Lorraine Elizabeth Graves, former principal dancer at the Dance Theatre of Harlem where she is on the master teacher faculty; Maurice Brandon Curry, creative director at Innovative Arts & Media in New York and a freelance director and choreographer; and Kate Trammel, dance professor at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. New this upcoming year will be Melanie Person, co-director of The Ailey School in New York; Greg Sinacori, a dance instructor at The Dance Department of the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York; and Sunday Homitz, founder of Body Technic Systems and a specialist in performance arts physical therapy. Homitz will offer special workshops on muscle strength, stretching, nutrition and injury prevention. Guidelines and applications can be found on the division’s website at http://www.wvculture.org/dance/index.html For more information, contact Pat Cowdery, events coordinator, at 304-558-0220 or by email at Pat.M.Cowdery@wv.gov. The WV Division of Culture and History is an agency within the WV 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.
