photo by Lindsay Browning
The second annual Philadelphia Youth Dance Fest (PYDF) will take place at The Arts Bank, 601 South Broad Street, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 7, 2015 at 7:30pm and March 8, 2015 at 4:00pm. After last year’s sold out performances at the Painted Bride Arts Center, Philadelphia residents can expect another exciting weekend of noteworthy dance from our talented up and coming youth! These performances act as an opportunity to expose as many audience members to the young dance community creating support for the students that end up pursuing dance professionally.
The Philadelphia Youth Dance Fest is a pre-professional dance festival designed to share and celebrate high quality dance training in a supportive and professional atmosphere. This festival unites talented and aspiring dancers by offering them a venue to share their love of dance. Many genres will be presented including Ballet, Contemporary, Modern, Jazz, Tap, and Hip Hop.
Sixteen different companies and 200 dancers ranging from 13 to 18 years of age will be performing this year! Companies are traveling from as far as Butler, PA, Chester, PA, Lancaster County, PA, Wilmington DE, Dover, DE, as well as our very own Philadelphia and it’s suburbs to dance in this festival.
The performances will include the companies of Babylon School of Dance, Butler Center for the Performing Arts, Beat Addikts United, Chester Valley Dance Academy, COBALT Dance Company, Dance Elite, Dancefusion’s fusion2, Delaware Ballet, Delaware Valley Dance Academy, Institute of Dance Artistry, International Ballet Theatre, Janice’s DanceWorks, Metropolitan Ballet Company, Opus 2 Project, Philadelphia Dance Theatre, and Wissahickon Dance Academy.
In addition to the performances, the students have the privilege of participating in three Master Classes in African, Ballroom, and Contemporary Dance at the University of the Arts studios. The goal of these classes is to expose the students to different dance genres, broadening their knowledge of dance. The students also are combined with other peers from different studios, establishing new friendships, connections and roll models.
Jeannine Osayande, founder and director of the Dunya Performing Arts Company will be teaching the students the elements of various West African and Brazilian drum, dance and masquerade traditions accompanied by live drumming! Kate Rast, Artistic and Education director of Dancing Classrooms Philly, and dancer with Dancefusion, SHARP Dance Company and Anne Marie Mulgrew, will be instructing the students in the art of Ballroom dance. And for Contemporary, former Ballet X and Sacramento Ballet Dancer Colby Damon will be teaching an exciting fusion of ballet and modern with live accompaniment from Philadelphia based musician Jonathan Cannon.
The mission of the Philadelphia Youth Dance Fest is to provide young and aspiring dancers an experience that will enrich and inspire their craft through the celebration and performance of dance. It is an occasion that will allow them an opportunity to learn from their peers, unite through dance, and gain a sense of community.
Philadelphia Youth Dance Fest
March 7 at 7:30pm
March 8 at 4:00pm
The Arts Bank, 601 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
$22 General Admission
www.phillyyouthdancefest.com
