WINSTON-SALEM – Mark your calendars now – the light of the dance world will shine on Winston-Salem and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) in the spring!

As part of the school’s annual Spring Dance production, a one-night-only benefit performance for the UNCSA School of Dance’s Elena Bright Shapiro Scholarship Fund will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 7, at the Stevens Center in downtown Winston-Salem.

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 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.

“Her spirit and passion for dance will be honored through the dancers who will receive the Elena Bright Shapiro Scholarship in the future,” Dean Stiefel concluded.
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.

Spring Dance will be presented at 7:30 p.m. May 6-8 and at 2 p.m. May 9 at UNCSA’s Stevens Center in downtown Winston-Salem. It will feature a world premiere by critically acclaimed choreographer and principal dancer Johan Kobborg of London’s Royal Ballet.
 
In addition to Kobborg’s world premiere, other works on the Spring Dance program will include Twyla Tharp’s Country Dances, José Limón’s Concerto Grosso, and Balanchine’s The Steadfast Tin Soldier. (Stiefel and Murphy will dance only on May 7.)

Spring Dance 2010 will coincide with the Dance Dean’s Council meetings on May 7 and 8. The Dean’s Council – a group of individuals who share a love and passion for dance – will host an exclusive dinner for special guests prior to the gala performance. Elena Shapiro’s parents, David and Brantly Shapiro, are founding members of the Dance Dean’s Council.

Tickets to the May 7 Spring Dance 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.

For reservations, contact the UNCSA Box Office at 336-721-1945, or purchase tickets online 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 the Arts”) 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.