Festival Dance and Performing Arts Association

At Festival Dance and Performing Arts Association, we endeavor to use imagination and creativity to achieve our mission. By imagining a future rich in the arts, and striving to achieve that vision, we enhance the quality of life for the communities we serve. Festival Dance is the largest private non-profit arts organization in the Palouse/Valley region in terms of budget, number of people reached and extent of programs.

National, state, and local grants allow us to provide free educational arts programs for 5,000 students a year including those from the rural communities of Potlatch, Tensed, Troy, Deary, Genesee, Kendrick, Julietta, Lapwai, and Colton, and for the Nez Perce and Coeur d’Alene Reservations. There is no greater joy than to see the busloads of smiling students arriving, often for the first time in their lives, to experience a live stage production. What other organization offers students the opportunity to see a professional production of the world’s most popular ballet? Our educational programs are indeed a community treasure.

We are now in our 19th Great Performances Season and over the years, Festival Dance has brought seventy-seven exciting attractions to our area. We have been in residence at the University of Idaho since 1972, and we are in our second year of providing the ballet program for Lewis Clark State College through a collaboration that is jointly beneficial.

It is to our past and present volunteer board of directors, our past and present contributors, and our founders that we owe deep gratitude for their dedication to the vision of what Festival Dance could be.

Remember, everything that Festival Dance is, was once imagined.

Yours in the arts,

Cindy Barnhart
Executive Director
Festival Dance and Performing Arts

For the New Dancer: click here

Chair

• Sue Hinz, UI School of JAMM

Vice Chair

• Gerald Henry, Lapwai Idaho

Treasurer

• Roberta McPherson

Secretary

• Mauricio Featherman, WSU Information Systems

Board of Directors

• Johna Boulafentis, Nez Perce Tribe Air Quality Program
• Joel Hamilton, UI Ag Econ, Retired
• Janet Kendall, Director, WSU Distance Degree Program
• Mauri Knott, Coordinator, Latah County 4-H
• Roberta McPherson, Moscow Public Schools, retired
• Ruthie Nellis, Univ. of Idaho
• Gabriela Roemhildt, Volunteer
• Terry Whipple, Teacher, Lapwai Public Schools
• Dinah Zeiger, UI School of JAMM

Honorary Board of Directors

• Doug Baker, UI Provost
• Dianne & Steven Daley-Laursen
• Candis Donicht, Moscow Public Schools Superintendant
• Michelle Hovey, US Bank Corp.
• Dene Thomas, President, LCSC
• Susan & Bill Weed, owner/manager Hit Radio & NewsTalk

Festival Dance & Performing Arts has a rich and colorful history of accomplishments and service in the arts. In 1970 a young and very talented couple came to Moscow to pursue degrees at the University of Idaho. Carl Petrick and Jeanette Allyn Petrick opened a small dance school, the Moscow Dance Theatre, on 3rd St. in downtown Moscow and they started putting on elaborate dance productions with their students. The great successes of these productions inspired a dream to start a professional ballet company. In June 1972, Ballet Folk of Moscow was established with the aid of a grant from the Idaho Commission on the Arts. In 1974, Ballet Folk became company in residence at the University of Idaho with dance classes and company rehearsals held in Ridenbaugh Hall.

The company began touring, first in Idaho and then nationally. Eventually Ballet Folk, which was later renamed American Festival Ballet performed in 32 different states, and in 1976 represented Idaho at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. In the 1980’s the company was moved to Boise, Idaho to increase financial support, and a school was opened there in addition to area dance schools in Moscow, now in the UI Physical Education Building, and in Pullman and Lewiston. In 1989 the Boise and Moscow portions of the organization separated. The company, eventually renamed, Ballet Idaho, remained in Boise, and in Moscow-Pullman, Festival Dance & Performing Arts was established to continue providing dance performances, education and outreach for the Inland Northwest area. Now, with the mission of “Bringing the Arts to the People and the People to the Arts, Festival Dance reaches 15,000 people annually in eighteen communities in north central Idaho and eastern Washington.

Festival Dance & Performing Arts Association
Dedicated to the Arts, Our Youth and Our Quality of Life

Public Performances including Great Performances Series – 6 performances
Great Performances Series: Three performances by touring companies and three original self-produced performances, and two performances by Missoula Children’s Theatre.
Total audiences: 3,780

• One performance by Momix Dance Company – October 2008
• Three performances of “A Magical Peter Pan Christmas” - December 2008
• One performance of “Swan Lake” by Eugene Ballet - March 2009
• One performance by Ache Brasil – April 2009
• Two performances of “Alice in Wonderland” by Missoula Children’s Theatre, - April 2009.

Free Programs for Local Youth – 26 programs
Free programs for schools reaching 3,460 students from 13 area communities:
Moscow, Troy, Potlatch, Lapwai, Kendrick, Tensed, Juliaetta, and Genesee, Idaho and Pullman, Colton, Uniontown, Garfield, and Palouse, Washington.

• 6 Youthreach programs by professional companies: Rainbow Dance Theatre, (3 programs,) Eugene Ballet, (1 program,) and Ache Brasil (2 programs.)
• 16 Discover Dance classes taught by professional instructors in African, Jazz Dance, for Moscow, Genesee, and Lapwai 3rd through 6th graders.
• 3 Drama Workshops taught by Missoula Children’s Theatre professional actors
• Hip Hop/Jazz Master Class taught by Rainbow Dance Theatre co-artistic director, Darryl Thomas for intermediate and advanced students.

Ballet Master Class taught by Rainbow Dance Theatre co-artistic director, Valerie Bergman for intermediate and advanced students.
Festival Dance Academies – classes 12 months of the year in 5 locations
Schools in Moscow, Troy, Lewiston, Genesee and Lapwai – 210 participants
Classes for ages 4 through adult in kinderdance, preballet, ballet, jazz, tap, and Irish Dance

New Program: Building Cultural Bridges- Nez Perce Tribe/Lapwai and the Palouse
With the assistance of grants from the Nez Perce Education Fund, Inland Northwest Community Foundation and the Idaho Commission on the Arts, Festival Dance was able to work cooperatively with the Nez Perce Tribe and Lapwai School District to do the following:

• Teach ballet and jazz summer classes as part of Lapwai Summer School Program
• Establish ongoing ballet instruction for beginning students in Lapwai.
• Bring educational programs by Rainbow Dance Theatre and Ache Brasil to Lapwai Elementary School.
• Cooperate with Nez Perce dancers, high school students and Palouse Drum to bring a Building Bridges educational program about Nez Perce dance and music for students of McDonald Elementary school.

Summer Programs – 5 workshops

Summer programs for beginners, intermediate and advanced students – 88 participants

• Dance Idaho! Special intensive training in ballet, jazz and modern dance with guest teacher from Eugene Ballet: for intermediate and advanced dancers.
• Imagination Arts: workshop for beginning and intermediate dancers.
• Princess Ballet workshop for young beginning ballet students in Moscow
• Celtic Dance Workshop for all ages in beginning Irish Dance held in Moscow
• Hip Hop workshop held in Moscow

Collaborations and community service – Reaching 3,800 community members

• Six programs by Festival Dance students at area malls in Moscow and Lewiston.
• Two performances at Latah County Fair.
• One Imagination Arts performance at Friendship Square, Moscow
• One performance of Jazz Hip Hop at Friendship Square, Moscow
• One Workshop Showcase public performance by Dance Idaho students
• One performance at Eastside Car Show –jazz and hip hop
• Two programs of an original dance version of “Wizard of Oz” by students of Festival Dance Academy: one at Lewis Clark State College and one at Univ. of Idaho Hartung Theatre
• Dance recital program, “A Night on the Town” at Hartung Theatre in Moscow.
• Performance by Genesee dance students at Genesee Jr. Miss program.
• Champagne Benefit Fund Raiser at University Inn Best Western, Moscow
• Irish Dance performance at Lewis Clark Center for the Arts Irish Tea, Lewiston
• Jazz dance performance as part of Kenworthy Performing Arts Center Anniversary Celebration.
• Dance performance at East City Park as part of Moscow Community Walk
• Holiday Open House program at UI Dance Studio, Moscow
• Valentine Dance Program at Lewis Clark State College

TOTAL AUDIENCES: 11,638     INCLUDING YOUTH AUDIENCES: 4,435