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The 8th annual Celebration of Dance will feature a variety of ethnic dance troupes as well as traditional dancers. The program is part of an ongoing effort to bring dance awareness to the Desert Foothills community.
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Celebration of Dance coming to Cave Creek

CAVE CREEK –– The eighth annual Celebration of Dance is coming to Cave Creek as part of an awareness campaign to bring dance to the Desert Foothills.

The program has been performed in Phoenix and Scottsdale theaters for the last eight years and on May 12, it will be presented at Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center in Cave Creek.

Celebration of Dance was created to bring visibility and recognition to the art of dance in Arizona as part of National Dance Week in April of each year.

In 1999, producer and creator Helena Saraydarian enlisted as Arizona’s delegate for National Dance Week and saw the need to create an event such as Celebration of Dance to support this national campaign in the area.

The entire dance community was invited to participate and industry professionals, family and friends were asked to help launch this new community event.

Saraydarian is a professional dance teacher and choreographer involved in all aspects of dance. To help with the production tasks, Saraydarian formed Golden Lion Productions, Inc., a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to serving the dance community with educational and creative projects for the public to enjoy.

Along with co‑producer Lisa Starry, who is also the artistic director of Scorpius Dance Theatre, Saraydarian each year invites industry professionals to help select the dance pieces to be performed. Dee Dee Wood, a Cave Creek resident for many years and an award‑winning director/choreographer, and Ruth Doering, a professional dancer who has performed in many classical television dance shows, are part of a group involved with the process.

A variety of dance styles will be represented during the program including ballet, modern, hip‑ hop, jazz, flamenco, folkloric, contemporary, classic belly dance and Native American dances.

Companies scheduled to perform are Aaron McGloin Dance, Aashiyaana Arts, Alma Performing Arts, Arizona State University Hip Hop Coalition, Ava Fleming, Ballet Etudes, Corrinne Robinson and Jimi Marinaro, Dancing Earth Creations, Epic –a.k.a. Nebellen, Gravity Jazz Dance Theatre, Joey Hall, Libby Majors, Marvin and Terrance, Motion Theory, Peoria Dance Theater, Scorpius Dance Theatre, Shok, Sue Putzier and Joe Medina, Urmika Devi, Yumi La Rosa, as well as a pre‑concert performance of live flamenco music by Mosaico.

Tickets are $18 and may be purchased online at goldenlionproductions.com. The concert will begin at 7 p.m., May 12, at Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center, 33606 N. 60th St. in Cave Creek. For information, call (623) 465‑2720.

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