PARIS – The Art Moves Dance Project has officially arrived.
The project, which joins four different Art Moves ventures, will present an evening of dance at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 17, in Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School Auditorium.
“It’s exciting, and at the same time it’s pretty scary,” said artistic director Debi Irons, owner of the Art Moves Dance Studio on Cottage Street in Norway.
The project combines the Art Moves Dance Group – high-school-age dancers Irons has been teaching – with a new professional dance group called the Art Moves Dance Company. It also involves Art Moves into the School, a four-year effort to bring dance to elementary-age students, and the Maine Dance Project, featuring Maine dancers Nancy Salmon, Trish Harms and Bruce Tracy, with poet Martin Steingesser and music by Kevin Masse.
Irons said she’s excited to be able to provide a venue for professional dancers, especially since the closing of the Ram Island Dance Company two years ago. She’s equally excited about the growth of opportunities for dance in the local school district. Saturday’s show will feature the Waterford Memorial Rec-Dancers. Dance is offered as part of the regular recreation program at Waterford’s elementary school, Irons said.
Support for the effort to bring dance into the schools has come from grants from the Maine Community Foundation and the Maine Arts Commission.
The growth of the Dance Company and the Maine Dance Project came after performances in Portland and the Norway Summer Festival last summer. Members of the dance company are Erica Carson, Emily Carter, Debi Irons, Joanna Patterson, Andrea Pike and Amy Scott.
Irons said Norway Savings Bank has signed on as “our first sustaining corporate sponsor” in support of Saturday’s show.
Members of the high school Art Moves Dance Group, which dances for schools, festivals and civic events, are Samantha Brown, Hannah Brown, Sasha Campbell, Charles Howes, Jenna Johnson, Christa Langbehn, Dana Ryerson and Stephanie McCoy.
Tickets for Saturday’s show, at $15 for adults, $10 for students and seniors, are available at the door and in advance at Pick-A-Lily in Norway and Books ‘N Things in Oxford.
For more information, people may phone 743-5569.
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