Middle PAC Salutes Award Winning NJ Ballet Company

COURT HOUSE — The New Jersey Ballet, which has performed at the Performing Arts Center of Middle Township for 20 of the center’s 21 years, has been chosen in a state-wide vote as New Jersey’s favorite dance company.
The North Jersey -based company was honored as a result of voting by arts enthusiasts in the sixth annual JerseyArts.com Peoples Choice Awards.
Kay Aspell, managing director of The PAC, said the arts center is especially pleased that the professional company has been honored. It has played at The PAC’s state-of-the-arts facility longer than any other professional attraction since 1993, and has appeared annually with its lavish “Nutcracker” productions as well as in other shows.
The award comes in a year that the emphasis will be on the dance at The PAC. Seven out-of-state dance companies from as far west as Ohio will be coming to the arts center this year for regional and national competitions and six local dance troupes will present their annual shows. The year will climax with the New Jersey Ballet’s “Nutcracker” production during the holiday season.
“It is our goal to make The PAC the cultural center of Cape May County and the New Jersey Ballet has helped us on the way to the achievement of that goal,” said Aspell.
“We’re so pleased to be voted number one,” said Nancy Hartmann, marketing director of the ballet company. ”And it is an honor that we do not take lightly. The Peoples Choice Awards are as much about what we give to our community as it is what they give back to us. We are so humbled by this outpouring of public support.”
The New Jersey Ballet is marking its 55th season this year as the state’s premier classical dance company, and has played before hundreds of thousands of people from Bergen to Cape May Counties as well as in foreign nations.
The Performing Arts Center received its own award last year when it was given the Paul Aiken Encore Award by the South Jersey Cultural Alliance.