Festival Ballet Providence - Center for Dance Education

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 29, 2003

Festival Ballet Providence, 401-353-1129

Center for Dance Education student Erin Gildea accepted to
Royal Winnipeg Ballet School For Senior Year

Providence, RI - Early Saturday morning East Greenwich native Erin Gildea will board a plane to begin studies at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, one of the premire ballet academies in Canada. Ms. Gildea is a talented dancer who has been an advanced student at the Festival Ballet Providence Center for Dance Education and member of the Festival Ballet Providence Junior Company for the last two years.

Ms. Gildea finished 4th grade in the East Greenwich school system, then attended the Hamilton School at Wheeler and then matriculated to The Wheeler school for the last three years. She received her early dance training in North Kingstown at Rhode Island Ballet Arts Academy with Nancy McAuliffe, and came to Festival Ballet Providence two years ago. She was drawn to the opportunities to train with more experienced dancers, and to dance with professional role models.

At Festival Ballet Providence the highlight of her performing career was dancing the role of Clara in the Company’s production of The Nutcracker at PPAC. She has danced in the corps de ballet in a number of the professional Company’s productions, enjoying dancing in "Winter" and as a Gold Lady in Cinderella, and finding the most difficult role to be that of a Wili in Giselle. She enjoyed the experience she gained two years ago competing in the Youth American Grand Prix. As a child Erin was diagnosed with dyslexia. That condition made her work even harder to achieve her current level of dancing. She was recently the focus on NBC10 of a Student of the Month profile.

Ms. Gildea feels the experience at FBP that best prepared her was the level of professionalism at the School and Company. She found Winnipeg to be very strict, a place where rules are absolutely enforced. Festival Ballet Providence made the transition much easier than it might have been.

Always serious and very focused on her dance career, Erin also spent the last four summers attending prestigious intensive summer dance programs including Walnut Hill School (5 weeks), National Ballet School of Canada (4 weeks), Pacific Northwest Ballet School (5 weeks), and Royal Winnipeg Ballet School (4 weeks). It was this past summer at Winnipeg that she considered attending a year round ballet program. At the end of the summer program she was offered the opportunity to join the school’s 5th level and will complete her studies at level 7 to receive a Ballet Certificate and be considered a "finished" dancer, ready for professional work.

Erin will live in dormitory housing connected to the dance facility with 60 other boarding students. She will study ballet technique, Pointe, Partnering, Modern, and Spanish/Character 6 days a week from 8 am to noon, and rehearse in the late afternoon and evening. The year ends with exams in all classes, including dance classes. Students also perform as part of outreach to the Manitoba school system. She will finish her senior year of academic studies in the early afternoon at the University of Winnipeg Collegiate High School, five blocks from the dormitory. And there are still SAT’s to take, just in case college becomes the next step.

Erin is thrilled at the opportunity to study in Winnipeg where the student body is very international. Of course the Canadian cold is intimidating, and she will miss her friends and especially miss her dog Rosie. Nonetheless she looks forward to finishing her ballet training in such an excellent academy and finding a position dancing professionally with a company in Canada, the US or beyond.

Mihailo Djuric, Festival Ballet Providence’s Artistic Director knows how hard Erin has worked and is very happy that she is so intensely focused to fulfill her dreams to dance.

The Festival Ballet Providence Center for Dance Education is currently registering students for fall classes that begin September 2nd. Partial scholarship is available to students at an intermediate level and above showing talent and financial need.

For information contact Festival Ballet Providence, 401.353.1129 or email info@festivalballet.com.

Erin has two siblings, a sister who is in her sophomore year at Furman University on a full Golf Scholarship, and a brother who is finishing his senior year at Carnegie Mellon University as a musician. Her parents are Ann Marie and John Gildea.

The Festival Ballet Providence and the Festival Ballet Providence Center for Dance Education are together a not-for-profit arts organization whose EIN is 05-0377245 and whose Rhode Island Corporate ID number is ND-27-137.