Forum Dance Theatre held a car wash yesterday at Ace Hardware of Libertyville and had a great time making sure cars were not on the road dirty!  The fundraiser was a day of team building and Forum dancers showed each other and our community that we understand how hard work reaps reward as we kicked off our 2015-16 fundraising efforts.

Special thanks to Ace Hardware of Libertyville for allowing us to host our car wash at their place of business, as well as to Dunkin' Donuts of Libertyville for donating six dozen donuts to our car washers and customers!

This year, Forum will be raising funds to bring new choreography to our repertoire and help pay for myriad expenses that crop up as they approach Dance Forum 2016.

Thanks to all who came to the Forum car wash fundraiser!

The Young!Tanzsommer Solaris tour was spectacular.  Forum Dancers were in seven performances in five Austrian cities, traveling from Munich to Bregenz, Bregenz to St. Johann and St. Johann to Innsbruck.  We stopped in a few extra locations, including Absam, Salzburg and Venice, Italy.  To top things off, we had a great experience in Munich upon our arrival, just in time to celebrate the 857th anniversary of Munich!

We joined Allegro Ballet of Houston and Dallas Ballet Company on our tour and had a fantastically rich experience.  We even found time to go paragliding, zip lining or rafting in the Tyrolean Alps, visit the Swarovski Crystal Factory, tour Venice and spend a day in Salzburg.  How awesome is that!  

Thanks to parents, instructors and directors, and also a special thanks to the folks at Young!Tanzsommer, for making this an experience of a lifetime for all of us.

For the second consecutive year, Forum Dance Theatre attended Regional Dance America's MidStates Ballet Association's Festival in Skokie, Illinois, during April -- complete with three days full of classes, evening performances, scholarship auditions and college recruitment.  The experience was rewarding for everyone, including Forum Ballet Master Brent Caburnay, recipient of the National Choreography Recognition Award for his work entitled "Coda."   Below are a few photos from the action-packed weekend, as well as a photo at the bottom recognizing our company's award and scholarship winners.

Forum Dance Theatre participated in a Culver's of Libertyville fundraiser designed to raise funds for the company.  Company members, along with Culver's management and employees, served a steady stream of diners throughout the evening of November 19th, raising money for Culver's who, in turn, donated a portion of the profits to the company through its outreach program.  

Forum Dance Theatre company members worked three shifts throughout the evening, squeezing in time for each company member to participate in dance classes too.  Forum members had a great time introducing themselves to both the Culver's family and its patrons.  

Thank you to Culver's for this opportunity, and to Culver's customers for dining out Wednesday night!

Our Fall chrysanthemum fundraiser took us one step closer to our fundraising goal.  Special thanks goes company-wide to all Forum dancers, as well as to Forum friends and families, for supporting this effort.  

A total of 1,130 mums were delivered to the parking lot of Talent Forum on September 27th, and were ultimately delivered to or picked up by the purchasers.  Our dancers and their parents filled sales orders as the flowers were pulled off of the delivery truck upon its early morning arrival.   

A Wine-Tasting was recently held at "Just Plum Paradise," a private property retreat.  The event, which took months of planning by parents of Forum Dance Theatre company members, as well as Forum Executive Director Shelley Page-Hoselton, was deemed a success by guests, parents and by hitting our fundraising mark.  Many guests declared the event the "best wine-tasting event" they'd ever attended.  We owe a special thanks to all Forum friends and families who helped or attended.  

Forum Dance Theatre company members and other area dancers are congregating at Talent Forum once again for a summer dance intensive training program.  Talent Forum's Dance Intensive brings aspiring dancers together with amazing talented instructors.  

For ballet, students are inspired by Fabrice Calmels from the Joffrey Ballet; Kathleen McCann, Founder of Chicago's Dancing in the Park; Elizabeth Luce of the Chicago Lyric Opera; Laura Wade, a premiere Ballet Mistress in Chicago,  and Catie Deitz-Griffith, Director of Forum Dance Theatre 2.

Students are enjoying Chicago's own brand of hip hop from Suave', Director of Hip Hop ConnXion and Cait Jones, Director of TranscenDance Studio.  Cait Jones is also teaching lyrical classes, as is Sinead Gidea, Director of Motions Dance Company.

Contemporary, Jazz and Modern master teachers include Preston Miller, Director of Enemy Within, a United Artists Initiative 'new genre' narrative dance film; Monique Haley, a River North Dance Chicago dancer and choreographer; Elijah Gibson, formerly of Giordano Dance Chicago and now a professor at Sam Houston University in Huntsville, Texas; Gina Walther, a Wright State University Modern Dance faculty member; Lizzie McKenzie, Director of Extensions; Laura Wade, Rehearsal Associate of Visceral Dance Chicago; Kimberly Fletcher-Stibal, Artistic Director of Forum Dance Theatre; and Richard Smith, Director of Forum Training Company and Artistic Director of Inaside Chicago Dance.

Summer Dance Intensive specialty workshops include classes from Corinne Dawson, an 18-year veteran Pilates instructor, and Muscles and Movement taught by Beth McNeill, a certified Rolfing SI instructor.

In addition to Talent Forum summer dance intensive program, many of our company members earned scholarships to dance training programs throughout the country or were awarded participation to additional dance training programs through auditions.  

Kudos to our dancers for seizing dance opportunities, gaining additional experience and working hard this summer.  Katie Kummerow attended Alonzo King Lines Ballet in San Francisco.  Kummerow also plans to attend Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's program later this summer.  Kelli Gunn will be attending The Rock School of Ballet in Philadelphia, PA.  Wilow Pae received a scholarship to Visceral Dance Chicago.  Karaline Black, Amanda Mudd and Emelia Fields attended a 4-week program at the Hubbard Street Dance Summer Program at Iowa State University.  Kayla Fiore, Tessa Kaupilla and Emory Orlando will attend River North Dance Chicago.  Maddy Silbar will attend Glenda Brown Choreography Project.  Ali Wilson is attending the Debbie Allen intensive in southern California.   Kayla Fiore also attended the Ruth Page School of Dance and Tessa Kaupilla attended Giordano Dance Chicago.  Meredith Cashman is attending Ballet Magnificat in Jackson, Mississippi.  Finally, a number of our dancers are heading to the city this August to attend Inaside Dance Chicago's summer intensive.

Members of Forum Dance Theatre and Forum Dance Theatre 2 performed at Regional Dance America's Mid-States RDA Festival at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, Illinois, on May 23 and May 24, 2014.  Festival performances included Forum Dance Theatre's performances of (into) the Arcane, choreographed by Ahmad Simmons, and Lodestar, choreographed by Eddy Ocampo.  Forum Dance Theatre 2 performed Sodality, choreographed by Kimberly Fletcher Stibal.

In addition to the three performances, dancers were able to attend nine master classes, audition for scholarships and meet with representatives from colleges and universities over a three-day period.

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