National Tap Dance Celebration at Music Hall During Wicked

National Tap Dance Celebration 2010

“Preserving, promoting and celebrating America’s unique form of dance”

For the fourth year Dance Council of North Texas and Dallas Summer Musicals join forces to present The Tap Dancing Tribute. Five evening performances, July 15 - 19 before this season’s most requested Broadway hit show, Wicked will be on tap at The Music Hall under the canopy of trees in Fair Park.

Are you ready for some WICKED Tap Dancing?

W onderful

I ntricate

C lever

K ick up your Heels!

Every night from 7:00 - 7: 45 PM before the show

D elightful

Katelyn Harris is choreographing 2010 The Hoofin’ Crew, an exciting group of young people, who serve as hosts at each performance. Katelyn Harris is in her fourth year with Tapestry in Austin Texas, the only contracted tap dance company in North America. Through her work with Tapestry she has studied and worked with some of the finest tap dancing masters in the country including Acia Gray of Austin.

Special guests will be Brenna Kuhn, tap dancer, and Michael Stevens, jazz and r&b bassist. They blend their talents in a musical dialogue through spontaneous and energetic improvisation. Their performances have been called “daring, full of twists and turns” that have the audience holding its breath. Plans are being confirmed to offer two master classes in body percussion.

Back by popular request are The Evening Stars from McKinney performing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” Dana’s Dance Academy of Irving will celebrate their 25^th Anniversary with “A Cappella Tap” by California choreographer, Keith Clifton.

Keira Leverton, winner of DCNT 2010 Gene, Louise & Fred Kelly Teacher Scholarship, will perform as well as Rhythm Delivery Dance Ensemble. Doug Voet, DSM Director of Production and Operations, will serve as MC. Karen Cooper is Stage Manager and Trent Bauer will handle sound.

To close the Pre-Show, everyone in the audience is invited to get in the act and do the National Anthem of Tap, led by Buster Cooper, the 86 year-young-dance-legend. The free Pre- Show features dynamic, fresh and vigorous performers representing the finest area tap dancers:

The Drawbacks Youth Ensemble (Dallas)

Dallas Contemporary Ballet School

Dove Academy of Dance Arts (Richardson)

Class Act Dance Company (Dallas)

Next Step Performing Arts (Frisco)

The Rhythm Junkies (Dallas)

London School of Dance, (Garland)

iNStep Dancers, Dallas

Dance Council of North Texas 2010 Tap Dancing Scholarship Recipients will showcase their awesome skills including

Rheagan Carroll, age 15, from Tyler, Texas and recipient of Gene Pflug Scholarship;

Lauren Kravitz, age 17, from Plano and recipient Margaret Rylatt Scholarship;

Karissa Royster, age 16, from San Antonio and recipient of Buster Cooper Scholarship.

Dancers are available for media appearances. For photos and information contact Pam Deslorieux at Dance Council of North Texas at 214-219-2290. Sponsors for Dance Council of North Texas include Curtain Call Costumes, Sandy’s Shoes & Dancewear, Capezio Foundation, Heritage Galleries and Auctioneers, Downtown Business News, Office of Cultural Affairs, City of Dallas, and Texas Commission on the Arts.

Menopause The Musical coming to The Majestic

Hot Flash!

The Off-Broadway Smash Hit

“Menopause The Musical®”

Comes to The Majestic Theatre in Dallas

June 3-6, 2010

May 2010 – It’s time to kick-up those high heels. The international hit show Menopause The Musical^® is returning to Dallas and will be presented as a subscribers’ special for Dallas Summer Musicals, presented by Comerica Bank, at The Majestic Theatre in Dallas June 3-6, 2010.

Set in a department store, where four women with seemingly nothing in common but a black lace bra, meet by chance at a lingerie sale. The cast laughs at their woeful hot flashes, forgetfulness, mood swings, wrinkles, night sweats and chocolate binges. A sisterhood is created between these diverse women as they realize that menopause is no longer The Silent Passage! It is a stage in every woman’s life that is perfectly normal!

Menopause The Musical^® is the work of writer and producer, Jeanie Linders. The laughter-filled 90-minute production includes parodies from the classics of the ‘60s and ‘70s and ‘80s. Disco hit “Stayin’ Alive” becomes “Stayin’ Awake,” Motown favorite “My Girl” is transformed into “My Thighs,” "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" switches to "In the Guest Room or on the Sofa, My Husband Sleeps at Night,” and “Puff The Magic Dragon” becomes the anthem to exercise, “Puff, My God I’m Draggin’”.

Thursday and Friday performances at 8:00 pm

Saturday performances at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm

Sunday performance at 2:00 pm

Single tickets, priced from $16-$50, are on sale now at The Box Office,

542 Preston Royal Shopping Center, and all Ticketmaster outlets including The Majestic Theatre, 1925 Elm Street in Dallas. Tickets are also on sale by calling 214-631-ARTS (2787) or online at www.ticketmaster.com. For groups of 20 or more, please call 214-426-GROUP.

Menopause The Musical^® has launched a women’s movement that has superseded entertainment and become a must-see event. It is estimated that nearly 11 million women have attended a performance since the 2001 opening in Orlando, Florida. Inspired by a hot flash and a bottle of wine, writer and producer Jeanie Linders created the show as a celebration of women who are on the brink of, in the middle of, or have survived “The Change”. "Most women know intuitively that every other woman is experiencing hot flashes or night sweats,“ says Linders. "There is always a close friend or two who can sympathize or identify with her, but when they are sitting in a theatre with hundreds of other women, all laughing and shouting‚ 'That’s me! That’s me on stage!' they know what they are experiencing is normal. They aren’t alone…or crazy. It becomes a sisterhood."

Since its first performance, the show has evolved as a grassroots movement of women who deal with life after 40 and all the challenges that result from the mental, physical, and spiritual freedom of being a woman. “It may not be Shakespeare, but our focus is different. We want to bring women together and empower them. This is an event – a happening,” says Kathi Glist, one of the show’s producers. “It resonates with just about any woman over 40, but it is enjoyed by all. And the men laugh just as hard,” she adds.

Menopause The Musical^® has entertained audiences across the country in more than 250 cities and in a total of 14 countries. Internationally, the show has visited Australia, Canada, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, United Kingdom, Singapore, South Africa, and South Korea. Each week women of all ages and stages find their spirits lifted by the show’s light-hearted look at menopause. No longer is it The Silent Passage! Visit www.MenopauseTheMusical.com or www.dallassummermusicals.org for more information.

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For media information or reviewers’ passes, or to schedule interviews, please contact Jo Ann Holt at 469-363-7371 or email joannholt@gmail.com.

Wicked Lottery - $25 Tickets

WICKED ANNOUNCES LOTTERY FOR $25 SEATS

* * *
PERFORMANCES BEGIN WEDNESDAY MAY 26
AT MUSIC HALL AT FAIR PARK


A day-of-performance lottery for a limited number of orchestra seats will be held daily for WICKED, which will be performing from May 26 to June 27 at the Music Hall at Fair Park, presented by Dallas Summer Musicals. Each day, 2½ hours prior to show time, people who present themselves at the Music Hall box office will have their names placed in a lottery drum and then thirty minutes later, names will be drawn for a limited number of orchestra seats at $25 each, cash only. This lottery is available only in-person at the Music Hall box office, with a limit of two tickets per person.

WICKED is a new musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin, Disney’s Enchanted, Academy Award winner for Pocahontas and The Prince of Egypt) and book by Winnie Holzman (“My So Called Life,” “Once And Again” and “thirtysomething”) based on the 1995 best-selling novel by Gregory Maguire. The musical is directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello (Take Me Out, Love! Valour! Compassion!, The Vagina Monologues) and features musical staging by Tony Award winner Wayne Cilento (Aida, The Who’s Tommy, How To Succeed…). WICKED, the untold story of the witches of Oz, is produced by Marc Platt, Universal Pictures, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and David Stone.

Long before Dorothy drops in, two other girls meet in the land of Oz. One – born with emerald green skin – is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. WICKED tells the story of their remarkable odyssey, how these two unlikely friends grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good.

WICKED begins performances Wednesday, May 26 at 8 p.m. and runs through Sunday, June 27. All performances will be at the Music Hall at Fair Park; for a complete schedule of performances, please visit www.dallassummermusicals.org. Single tickets for the return engagement, priced from $35-$145, are on sale now at The Box Office, 542 Preston Royal Shopping Center, and all area Ticketmaster locations. Best seats are available for week night performances, Sunday evening performances, and for the matinee at 2 p.m. on Thursday, May 27. Tickets are also available by calling 214-631-ARTS (2787) or online at www.ticketmaster.com/wicked. Groups of 20 or more should call 214-426-GROUP (4767).
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