Local Youths Help Middle PAC Start Dance Festival

COURT HOUSE – More than 100 youngsters from Cape May and Atlantic Counties helped the Performing Arts Center start its four-month dance festival last weekend in a competition staged by a national dance production company from Las Vegas.
The winning regional contestants now must wait for other regional competitions throughout the nation to determine whether their scores were high enough to make the national finals in Sandusky, Ohio, from July 2 to 5. Also in the offing is the possibility of some of the contestants being selected for the world dance championships in Italy next year.
The national company, called Dance USA, is a family-owned organization that was started 18 years ago. This year’s 17 regionals extend from Santa Clara, California to Exeter, New Hampshire. This marked the first time that Dance USA performed at the PAC. Its owners, all dancers in their careers, include Marie Lynn and her daughters Tiffanie Kalisz and Tawnie Lawrence. The company was started by a son Mark Marino who died a few years ago. Scholarships exceeding $50,000 are being awarded this year
Local 2014 contestants came from the Encore Performing Arts Center in Atlantic County, and the Cape May Dance Company, the Cape May County Performing Arts Academy and the Jersey Cape Dance and Gymnastics Academy, all in Cape May County. Dance USA came to The PAC from a regional in Anaheim, Calif. and is now headed for another regional in Indianapolis.
“We are pleased to have had such a prestigious production company at our state–of-the art theater,” said PAC managing director Kay Aspell, “and we look forward to a further relationship with them.”
Coming up next in the Performing Arts Center’s dance series is the competition of the NexStar Company of Ohio. They will be here from Friday through Sunday, April 11 to 13.