The Southwest Voice

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Eleven dancers from the Imagine Ballet Company travelled to Long Beach, CA, on May 28th to represent Bakersfield at the Regional Dance America Festival. They were invited by the national organization to be a guest at the four day festival, hosted by Long Beach Ballet. All of the classes, seminars and performances took place at Cal State Long Beach. A luau kicked off the event, where they met dancers from all over the West Coast roasting marshmellows over a bonfire. They took  four classes a day from nationally recognized professional dancers and teachers, including world-renowned Gelsey Kirkland from New York City Ballet. They danced side by side with some of the top young dancers today who have earned presidential scholarships and national awards. And they saw performances from companies based in California, Arizona, Utah, Washington, and Oregon.

The highlight for the dancers came when one of the teachers, Armando Luna, a prominent teacher at the Atlanta School of Ballet, offered each one of them automatic acceptance into the 2008 Atlanta Summer Intensive Dance Program. According to Hannah Warren, an Imagine Ballet Company dancer, "It was a surreal experience. I was not expecting to be presented with such a fantastic opportunity."

The Imagine Ballet Company (IBC) is Bakersfield's only non-profit youth ballet company. They hope to continue attending the Festival and have applied to become members of the RDA Organization. To see more of what  IBC is up to or to get involved, visit their website at imagineballetcompany.com.