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Access to Art, Inc.
417 E. Pacific Ave.
Cape May Court House,
N.J. 08210
Press Release/for immediate release
From: Barbara J. Beitel
Telephone: (609) 465-3963
Dance as if your
life depended upon it!
Access
to Art to Presents the award winning
Philadanco! aka Philadelphia Dance Company
on May l7th at the Middle Township
Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m.
Cape May
Court House.. Put May
l7th on your calendar and prepare to watch
an evening of passionate dance as Access to
Art presents Philadanco! as they
unfurl their dancing genius at the Middle
Township Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m.
It is Access to Art’s 11th dance
weekend featuring world class dance in South
Jersey.
The event takes place
at 7:30 p.m. on May l7th at the Middle
Township Performing Arts Center. Ten miles
north from Cape May, a quaint Victorian town
flowering in its delicate Spring colors, and
across from the summer beach town, Stone
Harbor, is the Middle Township Performing
Arts Center. It’s in Cape May Court House,
the county seat, located off Exit l0 E. on
the Garden State Parkway, off Stone Harbor
Blvd.. Take l0 E. one block from the
parkway to the first light, turn right on
Bayberry Rd., and go a few blocks, and
viola, the Middle Township PAC appears on
your left.
Philadanco!
the Philadelphia Dance Company, known for
passion, energy, and an explosion of power,
is coming to perform for Access to Art’s 11th
dance weekend. Winners this year of the
American Master’s award from the National
Endowment for the Arts ( NEA) it has been
chosen as one of three mid-Atlantic arts
groups to be designated as an “American
Master.” It shares the honor with the
Martha Graham Dance Company, and Sweet Honey
and the Rock, from New York City and
Washington respectively. Philadelphia’s
contribution to genius in the mid-Atlantic
region is Philadanco! the 38
year old company that began its career
dancing on the back of recreation trucks in
the city of Philadelphia, and now performs
in such venues as the Kennedy Center, B.A.M.,
in Brooklyn, the Joyce Theatre, N.Y., the
Travis Center in West Palm Beach, Lincoln
Center and across Europe and the world.
It’s their second
appearance for Access to Art, a N.J. not for
profit that presents dance, classical music
and art in the area. Philadanco!
will be down on April l5th as well, with two
lecture demonstrations, introducing students
at the Middle Township PAC, some 600 strong,
to one from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and, in the
afternoon, another at Atlantic Cape
Community College will be open to the public
from l2:30 to 1 p.m. courtesy of the college
.The latter is free. Masterclasses are
available with the company as well. Charter
Tech High School will offer a masterclass
with the company from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.
Charter Tech Performing Arts High School is
on New Rd. (Route 9) in Somers Point.
Classes are $25. individually, and all area
dance students can take a class, and see the
performance for $40., a combo ticket which
saves them $l0. off the straight cost. In
the evening, the company will return to Cape
May environs, to Joanne Reagan’s Dance
Studio on Shore Rd., Cold Spring, where
Access to Art will offer a dance class with
the world class company at 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
All this is a prelude to the performance,
and an opportunity to bring in the “to the
experience that awaits them on the l7th of
May.
“We have presented
dance, since one of our early board members
was the brother of William Dollar, major
male dancer with George Balanchine in the
l930’s. He thought we should present it,
and we began with a Salute to
Balanchine, with three people from
the 30’s who were there the day his school
opened, danced in his movies, and with his
corp, and three from the 60’s including
Edward Villella, Gloria Govren, and Suki
Schorer.
Marie Jeanne, his first
star, in the 40’s came; she had been
partnered by Dollar. That’s how it all
began, and our intention, in South Jersey,
is to bring fine dance companies to the area
and give the locals and visitors an
opportunity to see a performance, take
master classes, and let schools enjoy
lecture demonstrations.” said Barbara
Beitel, Access to Art, Inc. Director. “We
want to open the world of professional dance
to our audiences,” she said. “And we
recognize the fact, that some of these
little dancers who spend their youth dancing
in the area, might want to dance when they
grow up, and we need to develop audiences
for professional dance.” she said.
Individual tickets to
the performance cost $25. and $30. There
will be a reception on May l7th prior to the
event. Tickets to the reception and the
dance event are $60. The reception, on May
l7th, begins at 5-7 p.m. at the lobby of the
Middle Township Performing Arts center will
include hors d’ouevres, and an opportunity
to meet Joan Myers Brown, founder of
Philadanco, and two of her dancers. Jazz
will entertain the guests as well. Call
(609) 465-3963 for tickets and
reservations. Or call the Middle Township
PAC at (609) 463-l924.
This tour engagement of
The Philadelphia Dance Company is funded
through the American Masterpieces program of
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, in partnership
with the
National Endowment for
the Arts American Masterpieces: Three
Centuries of Artistic Genius, a major
initiative to acquaint Americans with the
best of their cultural and artistic legacy.
It is also funded, in part, by the N.J.
State Council on the Arts, Dept. of State,
and administered by the Cape May County
Cultural & Heritage Commission through the
Library Commission. Also supporting the
event is the Sheller Family Foundation,
Sturdy Savings & Loan, Kindle Ford, Cape
Savings Bank and other generous patrons and
donors.
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