Mississippi Dance Festivals Third Annual Concert Set For Sept. 6

The Mississippi Dance Festival Concert will be held Saturday, Sept. 6 at 7 p.m. at Studio 115 of the Theatre and Dance Building on the Hattiesburg campus of The University of Southern Mississippi. General admission is $5.

This year's dance festival, sponsored by the Southern Miss Department of Dance, features performances by festival guest artists and faculty, including Rhonda Cinotto, a jazz dance specialist from Seattle, Wash.

“This is the first year a specific guest artist will come in and the first year we are creating a certain theme—jazz dance,” said Elizabeth Lentz, director of the festival.

Founded by Lentz and fellow dance instructor Julie White, the festival is designed to serve middle and high school pre-professional students and K-12 professional dance educators who seek to further their knowledge of and experience in dance through a diversity of master dance technique classes, and other educational, social and performance experiences.

“We want to answer the need we've heard from the dance educators of the region,” Lentz said. “We want to instruct and teach jazz dance and have it relate to the K-12 curriculum.”

It is the mission of the festival to support the many K-12 dance programs and studios throughout the region by providing an additional training opportunity for those who are invested in quality dance education in Mississippi and surrounding states.

White said the festival is a place to connect and contribute to the state's collective efforts to share all that dance is and can be in its schools, studios and communities.

“What it offers—that is difficult to find elsewhere in the Gulf South—is an affordable, high quality, and intimate setting where providing diverse experiences in dance instruction, dance performances and all other festival events is at the forefront of our efforts,” White said.

For more information about the Department of Dance, call 601.266.4161 or visit www.usm.edu/dance.