P.O. Box 632 Findlay, Ohio 45839 Phone: 419-420-9327

Rose Roccisano
Local Ballet Dancer Selected for Nationwide Program
By Rose Roccisano
Apr 30, 2007, 19:58

Eve Hay could have spent her summer vacation last year swimming, shopping and sleeping.

Instead, she spent several weeks at the Boston Ballet's summer program, learning more about the ballet dancing she loves. She was one of about 300 dancers selected nationwide for the program, which immerses young ballet dancers in technique and performance.

"You have ballet literally all day. You get a variety of different teachers, which helps you look at things in a different way," said Hay, 17. "I'm definitely stronger when I come back (from summer programs)."

But not all aspiring ballet dancers can afford such programs, which can easily cost a few thousand dollars. Add in regular classes during the year and special ballet shoes and the costs can suffocate a young dancer's dream. That's why Hay's ballet teacher, Judy Reading, and a group of parents have formed the Chance to Dance Scholarship Committee.

The scholarship is part of the T.R. Shoaff Scholarship Endowment Fund, administered through the Community Foundation. The goal is provide financial assistance to local dancers who might have the desire, but not the money, to continue their dance studies.

The committee recently sponsored "The Pointe of the Evening," a fundraising performance by Reading's most advanced classes at Winebrenner Theological Seminary Auditorium. 

Hay is one of seven dancers in Reading's Level 6 class, the most advanced class at the Findlay Academy of Ballet. While Reading has about 70 students in six levels ranging in age from 4 to 18, it is the girls in Level 6 who take five or six classes a week and go through a pair of $100 point shoes a month.

And it is these girls, and those in some of the lower levels, who need to go away to study. While Reading has brought guest instructors to the academy, which is housed at Becky's School of Dance, the girls can benefit from a different environment and different teaching styles.

"They need to go away to improve," said Reading, who danced professionally for 20 years. "We wouldn't go forward as quickly and then I'm not interested in teaching."

While the committee exists to potentially help with any cost associated with advanced ballet study, the summer programs are the most expensive. Barb Hay, Eve's mother, said last summer's Boston Ballet program cost more than $4,000 between tuition and housing - not including the five pairs of pointe shoes her daughter took with her.

So far the committee has helped pay for several of Reading's students to go away for further study, as well as smaller expenses such as pointe shoes and local classes.

"Everyone should have an equal opportunity to go away for the summer or take classes from Judy," said Eve Hay. "You shouldn't have money holding you back."

For more information on the committee, call Reading at The Findlay Academy of Ballet, 419-423-7423.