Inaugural New Albany Dance Festival to feature classes and professional companies
If you love to watch dance — or are eager to get moving yourself — New Albany is the place to be this weekend.
The debut edition of the New Albany Dance Festival will take place throughout Saturday at the Hinson Amphitheater, 170 W. Granville St. in New Albany.
The event will boast free classes for aspiring movers of all ages as well as a pair of ticketed events featuring student dancers and professionals from Greater Columbus and beyond.
“This festival is a celebration of dance and why we love dance and health and fitness,” said Melissa Gould, whose own troupe, the New Vision Dance Company, is hosting the festival.
For those who plan to trot, twirl or pirouette to New Albany, what follows is a guide to all you need to know about the New Albany Dance Festival. For more information, visit https://www.newvisiondanceco.org/new-albany-dance-festival.html.
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The day begins with free dance classes
The festival will kick off on an interactive note with numerous free dance classes taking place from 8 a.m. to noon. “We have something for everybody,” Gould said, including: a Vinyasa flow yoga class for age 14 and older (8 a.m.); a “Mommy and Me” class for parents and children of all ages (9 a.m.); a Pure Barre Columbus class for age 18 and older (9:30 a.m.); a hip-hop class for age 8 and older (10:30 a.m.); and a musical-theater dance class for age 8 and older (11 a.m.). Those who wish to participate can register in-person or on the New Vision website.
Students to be featured
Following an early-afternoon break, 14 local dance studios will share the spotlight in the Central Ohio Dance Studio Showcase at 4:30 p.m. Students from BalletMet, Broadway Bound Dance Centre, Dublin Dancer Center and the New Albany Ballet Company and more will be featured. “The real important thing about it for me is that this is a chance for students from all of these different studios to share stage space in a noncompetitive environment,” Gould said. Tickets cost $10.
Professional companies to perform
Members of 11 local and national dance companies will take the stage at 7 p.m. for the New Albany Dance Festival Concert. Greater Columbus troupes to be featured will include Columbus Modern (CoMo) Dance Company, Cultivate Dance Project, New Vision Dance Company and Tru Kingdom Mega Crew. Out-of-town guests include Dancing Wheels of Cleveland, which is a “physically integrated” dance ensemble, Gould said. “They have performers who perform in wheelchairs, and they have performers who don’t use wheelchairs,” she said. Tickets cost $25.
Want to see both the studio showcase and dance concert?
An all-access pass is a real money-saver: $30 will buy you a pass to attend both the studio showcase at 4:30 p.m. and the dance festival concert at 7 p.m.
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What about parking?
Finding a place to park won’t be a problem: The amphitheater shares a lot with the adjacent McCoy Center for the Arts. “The parking lot is right there on-site,” Gould said. (The McCoy is also a backup location for the festival in the event of inclement weather.)
Where can I grab a bite to eat?
In addition to area restaurants in the vicinity, including Hudson 29, Mellow Mushroom and the Rusty Bucket Restaurant and Tavern, the festival will have food for sale from Aladdin’s Eatery from 3:30 to 7 p.m. People can bring food in a picnic basket or tote, but alcohol is prohibited this year. “Probably next year we’ll do wine and beer,” Gould said. “But for this initial, inaugural festival, we had many pots we were cooking, and that was one more I didn’t want to take on this year.”
Will the festival return next year?
Most definitely, Gould said. “It’s absolutely going to be a yearly thing,” she said. “We already have dance studios and dance companies reaching out who want to be part of this next year.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: New Albany Dance Festival to debut Saturday at Hinson Amphitheater
