Ventura County ballerina dances her way to $40,000 college scholarship
Tina Vervoorn
August 20, 2009
Last spring, Goldstone, a resident of Ventura, sent in an audition tape to InnerSpark´s dance department at the CalArts campus in Valencia and was selected to participate in its California State Summer School for the Arts summer program for high school students.
She danced away with a $40,000 scholarship to use at any college or university of her choosing.
Each year, InnerSpark and the Herb Alpert Foundation award scholarships to 18 students in six categories: animation and film/video, creative writing, dance, music, theater, and visual arts. In each category, two students receive single-year awards of $2,500, and one outstanding student receives up to $40,000, awarded in equal installments of $10,000 over the course of four years.
Dancers in the program study ballet, modern, jazz, pointe, pilates, anatomy for dancers and master classes in injury prevention, flamenco, and African dance.
"This scholarship has made it much more likely that I will be able to fulfill my dream of studying in New York City at Columbia or Barnard," Goldstone said. "I am very grateful to everyone at the Ventura County Ballet Company and Ballet Academy Ventura, who have been crucial in shaping me as a dancer."
"Hana has worked very hard for many years to maintain a high level of academic achievement and to excel as a dancer," said her mother, Leaf Monroe. "We are so grateful for the professional level of training she has received and for the extraordinary opportunity this scholarship from the Herb Alpert Foundation and Innerspark 2009 has given her."
Goldstone is a student of ballet and modern dance at Ventura County Ballet Company, home of Ballet Academy Ventura founded by Kathleen Noblin. There, she is mentored and technically trained in the fine art and nuance of ballet by Artistic Director and instructor Colleen O'Callaghan and Marina Fliagina, Associate Artistic Director, choreographer and ballet mistress.
"I love Hana´s spirit and her beautiful smile, she is infectious and audiences cannot help but be drawn to her," Noblin said. "She is a prime example of a well-taught student who is physically conditioned, confident, outgoing and ready for the stage – the kind of student and professional Ballet Academy Ventura strives to produce."
"Our academy is responsible for preparing many dancers who have gone on to professional status over the years and the doors are wide open for Hana to pursue her dreams," Noblin said. "Students gain unparalleled experience by working with professionals who also dance with the Ventura County Ballet Company."
Ventura County Ballet Company and Ballet Academy Ventura are at 2750 East Main Street in Ventura. Call (805) 648-2080 for more information about enrollment, programs or sponsorship opportunities.
About the Ventura County Ballet Company and Ballet Academy Ventura
The Ventura County Ballet Company presents two to three large scale productions each year. The productions feature professional dancers as well as VCBC pre-professionals, students from Ballet Academy Ventura, the official school of the VCBC. Information: www.balletacademyventura.com
Kathleen Noblin, a recipient of the City of Ventura 2008 Mayor´s Arts Award, founded Ballet Academy Ventura, as the official in-residence school of the Ventura County Ballet Company in 1992. She has served as executive director of the company since its inception. Students are taught creative movement as early as 2 to 3½ years and pre-ballet to the age of six. A complete and graduated ballet program, beginning through pre-professional, including adults is taught. Other classes include modern dance, flamenco, and jazz.
About The Herb Alpert Scholarships for Emerging Young Artists
The Herb Alpert Foundation, a non-profit, private foundation established in the early 1980s, makes significant annual contributions to a range of programs in the fields of Arts, Arts Education and Compassion and Well Being. Information: www.herbalpertfoundation.org
About InnerSpark
In 1982 a three-year effort to establish an educational environment for young California artists began. Legislation sponsored by former State Senator Alan Sieroty launched a planning to create the California State Summer School for the Arts (InnerSpark) to enable artistically gifted and talented students, broadly representative of the socioeconomic and ethnic diversity of California, to receive intensive training in the arts through a multidisciplinary program. Now embarking on its twenty-third summer of operation, the California State Summer School for the Arts school has trained more than 10,500 highly- talented students. Information: www.csssa.org
Interview Contact:
Kathleen Noblin, founder and director
Ventura County Ballet Company
805) 377-6901 cell
TRNOUT@aol.com
Media Contacts:
Consortium Media Services
(805) 654-1654
PR@consortium-media.com
Tina Vervoorn, ext 117
Melissa Healy, ext. 116
Print
Email
