WINSTON-SALEM – A limited number of tickets remain for the University of North Carolina School of the Arts’ (UNCSA) Elena Bright Shapiro Scholarship Fund Benefit Performance, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 7, at the Stevens Center in downtown Winston-Salem.

The one-night-only benefit performance is expected to sell out. It is part of UNCSA’s annual Spring Dance production, which runs May 6-9.

The benefit on May 7 will feature Elena Shapiro’s brother, Sam Shapiro of North Carolina Dance Theatre, performing Lacrymosa, a work choreographed by the late UNCSA alumnus Edward Stierle for the Joffrey Ballet.

The benefit performance will also feature UNCSA School of Dance Dean Ethan Stiefel and Gillian Murphy, both principal dancers with American Ballet Theatre, performing George Balanchine’s The Steadfast Tin Soldier. It will be Dean Stiefel’s first time dancing at UNCSA as dean.

The performance will also feature a world premiere by critically acclaimed choreographer and principal dancer Johan Kobborg of the Royal Ballet of London. Other works on the program will include Twyla Tharp’s Country Dances and José Limón’s Concerto Grosso.

“The May 7 benefit performance will be a celebration of Elena Shapiro’s life,” said Dean Stiefel. “She was a young woman possessing great talent as a dancer and exceptional grace as a human being.”

Elena Shapiro, 20, a UNCSA School of Dance alumna, was a member of Carolina Ballet when she was killed in a car accident in Raleigh in September 2009.

More than $53,000 has already been raised toward the scholarship, which was established at UNCSA in Elena Shapiro’s memory. The scholarship will be awarded to a ballet dancer in the School of Dance with exceptional ability and potential as a dancer, and financial need. It is expected to be awarded for the first time in the 2010-11 school year. For more information, or to make a donation, contact the Office of Advancement at 336-770-3330.

Tickets to the May 7 benefit performance are priced at $25-$50 for orchestra seating, and $15-$30 for balcony. All proceeds will benefit the Elena Shapiro Scholarship Fund.

Tickets to the regular Spring Dance performances on May 6, 8, and 9 are $12 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. The regular Spring Dance performances will include the same program as above, except for Lacrymosa, which will not be performed, and UNCSA students will dance The Steadfast Tin Soldier instead of Stiefel and Murphy.

For reservations, contact the UNCSA Box Office at 336-721-1945, or purchase tickets online at www.uncsa.edu/performances (click on Box Office and then Buy Tickets Online).

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts is the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation. Established as the North Carolina School of the Arts by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, UNCSA opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of Arts and Innovation”) in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. More than 1,100 students from middle school through graduate school train for careers in the arts in five professional schools: Dance, Design and Production (including a Visual Arts Program), Drama, Filmmaking, and Music. UNCSA is the state’s only public arts conservatory, dedicated entirely to the professional training of talented students in the performing, visual and moving image arts. Internationally renowned conductor John Mauceri has been chancellor of UNCSA since 2006. UNCSA is located at 1533 S. Main St., Winston-Salem. For more information, visit www.uncsa.edu.

 

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