The National Honor Society for Dance Arts Florida

FootNotes

FDEO Artistic Merit, Leadership, and Academic Achievement Award The Florida Dance Education Organization, is pleased to announce the winners of the 2017 FDEO

Artistic Merit, Leadership, and Academic Achievement Award for Florida.

Natasha Schmid, 1st place NHSDA Award Rachel Blitch, 2nd place NHSDA Award Natasha Schmid from Douglas Anderson School of the Arts was the NHSDA 1st Place Winner for high school, and Rachel Blitch from Calvary Christian Academy was the 2nd Place Winner. Though NDEO does not have a process for middle school students, Florida does recognize them at the state level. Kaela Larrieux from South Miami Middle School, has been chosen as NJHSDA 1st Place Winner and Emma McCue from Bak Middle School of the Arts has been selected as NJHSDA 2nd Place Winner of the 2017 FDEO Artistic Merit, Leadership, and Academic

Achievement Award for Florida. The first place winners for both the high school and middle school categories received $300 scholarships for summer study, and the second place winners received $150 scholarships. We applaud the efforts of all of the applicants this year, and celebrate their accomplishments. This year’s Florida committee was Jin Lee Hanley, Florida Atlantic University and FDEO board member, Michael Foley, South Florida University, and Tina Santos Wahl, retired New World School of the Arts. These highly qualified adjudicators from Florida dance programs bring a broad experience in concert and commercial dance. FDEO and the NHSDA committee appreciate their participation in this process.

Seminole Ridge Community

High School

Chapter No.

1036 FL

Volume VII, Issue 1

Spring 2017

All of the applicants were adjudicated in three categories:

Artistic Merit: The candidate demonstrates technical and artistic excellence in dance as evidenced by performing original choreography and a choreography essay.

Leadership: The candidate demonstrates outstanding leadership in and outside the field of dance at the school, community, state, and/or national level as evidenced by a strong resume, recommendation letter and leadership essay.

Academic Achievement: The candidate demonstrates academic excellence with a high cumulative grade point average and two essays detailing future plans and the impact of dance.

NDEO Artistic Merit, Leadership, and Academic Achievement Award

Akylah Cox, 12th from Dr. Phillips High School Dance Magnet was named the National Winner of the 2017 NDEO Artistic Merit, Leadership, and Academic

Achievement Award. Akylah was also adjudicated in the three categories of Artistic Merit, Leadership, and Academic Achievement. We applaud her success!

Chapter Spotlight

Cypress Lake High School Center for the Arts

Cypress Lake High School Center for the Arts Chapter FL 1001 had a year filled with artistry, community outreach, and leadership. The chapter that began in 2006 held 20 members with five officers: Eden Collier –President, Chloe Morris-Vice President, Bethany Cason-Secretary, Madissan Ham-Treasurer, and Mikayla McMahon-Historian.

Our chapter brought awareness to the battle of Pulmonary Fibrosis by performing a piece titled “Every Breath Counts”. The chapter was also able to fundraise and donate money to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. Pulmonary fibrosis is a family of more than 200 different lung diseases that all look very much alike. They have also been able to raise funds through their dance concerts to contribute to Autism Speaks, Broadway Cares, and the Galisano Children’s Hospital Intensive Care Unit. Additional outreach and community service has included working with a local inner city middle school program to prepare their dancers through a mock audition class, performing for the local nature center, and performing for Veteran’s Day Symphonic Concert.

Our dancers participated and performed in several events locally and throughout the state and nation. We traveled to St. Petersburg, Pinellas County School for the Arts at Gibbs High School to participate in both the Florida Dance Performance Assessment and the Florida Honors Concert. We were extremely proud of our dancers receiving a Superior at FDPA. The dancers represented Cypress Lake High School Center for the Arts at our 10 th Annual All County Dance Festival. We were also afforded the opportunity to perform at the Regional High School Dance Festival in Norfolk, Virginia. The piece titled “DeCode” was choreographed by alumni Lexi Campbell, who is currently a dance major at North Carolina School of the Arts. Our dancers were also offered numerous scholarships for summer dance programs including American Dance Festival, Cornish College Summer, University of the Arts Summer, and Pointe Park Summer programs and post-secondary dance programs including New World School of the Arts and Cornish College.

Bak Middle School of the Arts Chapter

For our first event of the year, four of our members performed at The Duncan Theatre in the 2016 Very Special Arts Holiday show with special needs students from Forest Hill Elementary school. Each year we host a silent auction to raise funds for Very Special Arts dance residencies at several elementary and high schools. This year we raised over $4,800.00. This is our 8th year collaborating with VSA of Palm Beach and our 4th year performing with the students from Forest Hill Elementary school. The student’s dance teacher Dee Mac choreographed a dance routine to “Oliver” for the show. Their performance was a crowd pleaser as always. We are very proud of this annual collaboration. We inducted 24 new members, which was a record breaker! 15 dancers represented Bak at FDEO’s Beyond the Test: Mentoring for Artistic Engagement by performing in the 2017 Honors Concert in St. Petersburg. Our own Emma McCue, 2nd place winner of the Artistic Merit, Leadership and Academic Achievement Award performed her solo at the concert. Way to go Emma! On March 4th, the members volunteered for the annual Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) One Walk West Palm Beach. Their team “Dancing Away Diabetes” danced, passed out water and cheered on the walkers!

Florida Ballet Conservatory The Florida Ballet Conservatory's chapter for NHSDA in Jacksonville, Florida had an extremely busy year. The Chapter began the year with our very first election of officers. The students then initiated and organized a “Hope for Haiti Drive” seeking supplies for the people of Haiti after the devastating hurricanes. At the end, we were able to send a big box of supplies full of donations from our families. Throughout the year students participated in various performances including, our annual production of

The Nutcracker, performing "Firebird" and "Sea Interludes" with The Jacksonville Symphony to hundreds of school children, as well as other outreach opportunities within the Greater Jacksonville Community.

Our NHSDA members’ biggest project this year involved producing The Florida Ballet's very first Student Choreography Concert. 100% of the proceeds from this concert were donated to the Laurie Picinich-Byrd Scholarship fund. At the close of our concert we had our NHSDA induction ceremony for our new members. The concert was an overwhelming success and it was very exciting to see the work of these talented young choreographers come to life.

Osceola County School for the Arts

Students from the Osceola County School for the Arts have been busy re-envisioning their NHSDA chapter under the direction of Dr. Kathryn Austin who is new to the school this year! Ten OCSA students participated in the Florida Dance Performance Assessments this year accompanied by dance faculty, Nealya Brunson and Dr. Austin. After a year filled with exciting opportunities, technical growth and many performances, the students are thrilled to announce the induction of 13 High School and 7 Middle School members at the annual Dance Banquet on Wednesday, May 17th.

Pictured are four NHSDA seniors going on in the field:

L to R Jada Delgado (Boston Conservatory), Gabriela Figueroa (Valencia and then transfer), Angelica Syring (New World), and Isabella Succi (University of South Florida). Congratulations goes also to senior, Shalece Huegas who will attend Point Park University. This chapter is looking forward to greater involvement in NHSDA leadership in the 2017-18 school year.

St. Brendan High School

St. Brendan Sabrette Recital Group photo of our Dance Honor Society Members:

Director: Sahara Munoz

Wellington High School Chapter

Dance Clinic

A&M NHSDA members performed “Connected…?” by:

Karin Bejerano at the FDEO Honors Concert in Tampa.

A&M NHSDA members with scholarship certificates

at the Regional high School dance Festival in Norfolk,

VA.

A&M NHSDA members performed “Yo vengo de todos partes, and toward

everywhere I go” by: Santha Pazos, at the Regional high School dance Festival

Norfolk, VA A&M NHSDA members at the FDEO Friday

evening mixer.

More from Wellington High School

Dance Marathon

Members of Wellington High School NHSDA Chapter

Flagler Palm Coast High School Sponsored by Janice Monsanto

More from Flagler Palm Coast High School

Lehigh Senior High School

On March 21st, 2017, dancers from the Lehigh Senior High Dance Department visited Veterans

Park Academy of the Arts Dance K-8 program for an afternoon of master classes. The event rounded out with a question and answer session about the LSHS Dance Department. The masterclass event was the first time that the LSHS Dance Department brought its teaching talents into the community and it has received a significant amount of positive feedback. The LSHS Dance Department will continue with this specific event again in the future. The masterclass event at Veterans Park was created not only to introduce and showcase what the LSHS Dance Department has to offer but also to demonstrate various styles of dance that are not often being taught at their school. Since every dancer isn’t able to afford or attend classes at a local dance studio, we decided to give back to the community by doing this project. We wanted to prove that dance isn’t just for those with a background or history in dance. As long as someone has their mind set on it, anyone can make dance their life. -Christy Dorfils, LSHS Chapter President

The Lehigh Senior All County Dance Team was recognized during a live Lee County School Board meeting for their participation in the Florida Dance Performance Assessment and National Honors Society for Dance Arts Concert.

Boca Dance Studio

Boca Dance Studio’s chapter of NHSDA organized a Valentine’s Day “Have A Heart” food drive to benefit Boca Helping Hands

Earlier in the season members participated in a U18 Adolescent Sports Medicine Wellness Day, presented by Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital and held at Boca Dance Studio.

Dr. Phillips High School

From Kathy Follensbee, Dance Director: “I always task our NHSDA members to think about how dance can be used in the community on a daily basis. 2 years ago, Destiny Dallas, a member of our NHSDA, took this to heart and decided to start a dance program for underprivileged students who might not otherwise have any exposure to dance. She called this group the ‘We Girls Dance’ and had 3 girls for the year. This past year, her group grew to 10-12 students, and it became part of the service that NHSDA members participated in for DPHS. The We Girls took part in their first proscenium formal concert on our stage in January for our annual Celebration of Dance and danced in two numbers with costuming (see photo with colorful skirts) and had a backstage tour. They filled bags for Haiti relief (see photo with brown bags) as a means to help others. They got their ‘own’ pink t-shirts. Destiny was able to have several fellow NHSDA members share choreography or help with other ‘We Girls’ outings throughout the year. Currently they are working on their end of the year ‘recital.’ This is one of my favorite ongoing stories!!!!”

FDEO applauds all Florida Honor Society Chapters for their 2016-2017 season’s successes! We look forward to celebrating next year’s events, and hope to see all of the sponsors at the October conference:

Registration and all sessions at: Miami City Ballet 2200 Liberty Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33139