All posts by Megan Marvel

Raleigh Dance Theatre announces 2015 Storybook Tales

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(RALEIGH) – Raleigh Dance Theatre, under the artistic direction of Mary LeGere, will present its popular family-oriented production of Storybook Tales on Saturday, November 7, 2015 at 1:00pm and 5:00pm, and Sunday, November 8, 2015 at 3:00pm. The program will feature Snow White based on the classic fairytale and The Rainbow Fish based on the popular children’s book by Marcus Pfister. The program will also feature the prologue from The Sleeping Beauty with traditional choreography after Petipa as well as Auguste Bournonville’s Flower Festival pas de duex. Storybook Tales is an enchanting program approximately an hour and a half in length that will be sure to delight even the youngest audience members.

RDT alum, Cameron McCune of American Ballet Theatre will perform in Storybook Tales both as the Prince in Snow White and in the Flower Festival pas de deux. Mr McCune trained at The Raleigh School of Ballet, the affiliate school of Raleigh Dance Theatre, from age 8 and is a silver medal winner of the Youth America Grand Prix Ballet Competition. Artistic Director Mary LeGere has invited Mr McCune to guest with RDT for several years. We are fortunate that he has been able to ‘come home’ each season. “Besides performing beautifully he has proven to serve as a role model for RDT dancers as he has generously shared his time and talents”, says RDT Director, Mary LeGere.
Storybook Tales performances will be held in Fletcher Opera Theater at Raleigh’s Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts. General admission tickets for all performances are $15 in advance and $18 at the door. Group rates are also available.

Fall outreach programs encourage literacy by focusing on early childhood reading, and will include visits to local libraries and triangle elementary schools. RDT will also partner with Girl Scouts-NC Coastal Pines in outreach activities designed to introduce children to different types of dance.

Raleigh Dance Theatre was founded in 1984 by Ann Vorus to provide pre-professional performance training, while promoting and fostering the art of dance in the community. It is an honor member company of Regional Dance America/Southeastern Regional Ballet Association. RDT’s training program has a proven record of success, with alumnae who have gone on to professional careers with American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Carolina Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, and Washington Ballet II among others.

For more information about the Raleigh Dance Theatre, Storybook Tales, or our outreach programs, please contact the company offices at (919) 834-1058, or visit its website at www.raleighdance.org.

Raleigh Dance Theatre announces 30th Annual Spring Repertoire

Press Releases

(RALEIGH) –Mary LeGere, Artistic Director, announces the Spring 2015 season of Raleigh Dance Theatre (RDT).  Raleigh Dance Theatre will present its Spring Repertoire Performances on Sunday May 17, 2015 at 2pm and 6pm in Jones Auditorium at Meredith College. General admission tickets for all performances are $15 in advance and $18 at the door. Group rates are also available.  The performances will feature a new collaborative production of Firebird with the Triangle Youth Philharmonic made possible by a grant from the City of Raleigh Arts Commission. RDT and TYP have successfully collaborated several times in productions of Don Quixote, and Robert Ward’s Lady Kate, and Jonathan and the Gingery Snare.  

Both TYP and RDT’s programs fulfill a specific need in the Triangle community.  Serious young dancers and musicians with professional aspirations need not leave home to study at a conservatory in order to receive the training necessary to succeed in very competitive fields. This RDT/TYP project will continue to enhance the dancers’ and musicians’ development as pre-professional artists right here in Raleigh. Dancing to live music creates an opportunity for the dancers to adjust to varied tempos. Musical nuances are felt differently and, thus, danced differently. The orchestra must learn to adjust to the conductor as he observes the dancers.  In addition to the clear benefit to the Raleigh-based artists, the citizens of Raleigh will benefit from the opportunity to see this exciting, collaborative production.

In celebration of RDT’s 30th Anniversary, directors have chosen three audience favorites to be performed along side the new Firebird. The production will represent the many faces of RDT with Mary LeGere’s Balanchine inspired Vivaldi Pas de Sept, Susan Carlin Galdy’s Fosse inspired This Point in Time, and Megan Marvel’s clever card playing dancers of The Art of Playing Tastefully.

To continue its mission of fostering dance awareness, RDT will present a new outreach program this spring.  In conjunction with the Girl Scouts-NC Coastal Pines, RDT will host the We Can Dance Together workshop on March 15 in which young Daisy and Brownie scouts learn simple dance steps, try their hand at creating their own dance phrases, and get a taste of what it takes to put a production on the stage.

Raleigh Dance Theatre was founded in 1984 by Ann Vorus to provide pre-professional performance training, while promoting and fostering the art of dance in the community. It is an honor member company of Regional Dance America/Southeastern Regional Ballet Association.  RDT’s training program has a proven record of success, with alumni who have gone on to professional careers with American Ballet Theatre, Pennsylvania Ballet, Dayton Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Carolina Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Aspen/Santa Fe Ballet and the New York City Ballet among others.

For more information about the Raleigh Dance Theatre, our Spring Repertoire performances, or our outreach programs, please contact the company offices at (919) 834-1058, or visit its website at www.raleighdance.org.  For more information about the Triangle Youth Philharmonic, please visit their website at www.philharmonic-association.org

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