By Kathy L. Collins
The 2013 winner of the Richard Munro Memorial Scholarship is 15-year-old Valrico resident, Miranda Augustine, a ninth grade student in the IB Program at Strawberry Crest High School. Augustine is a company member of Brandon Ballet at the “Senior Dancer” level and has been studying dance since the first grade. She has been with the Brandon Ballet for four years.
When asked how she felt when she won, Augustine said, “I was surprised! I really didn’t expect to win the scholarship because there were many other people who auditioned that I saw who had better technique than me, so when they announced my name, I was taken aback! Nonetheless, I was so happy.”
Augustine added, “I decided to use the scholarship for the Brandon Ballet Summer Intensives because it is a program that I have been attending for years, and I love it. Every year it gets better. This year, with the changes that Octavio (Martin, Artistic Director of the Brandon Ballet) and Yaima (Franco, Ballet Mistress) are planning, it will definitely be the best yet.”
The Richard Munro Scholarship was established to honor the late Richard Munro who spent his life nurturing the art of ballet as a Ballet Master, and Artistic Director and a ballet academy founder in Kentucky and Texas. He spent the last six years of his life teaching, coaching, choreographing and performing for the Brandon Ballet.
The $500 scholarship is available to any dancer in the greater Brandon community who is classically trained in ballet and between the ages of 13 and 18. The recipient may use the scholarship to offset the cost of any summer ballet intensive program to which the recipient has been accepted during the year in which the scholarship is awarded.
The Brandon Ballet was established in 1993 as a non-profit regional ballet company that develops and promotes opportunities for aspiring young dancers. The Brandon Ballet provides Brandon and the surrounding communities with an education in the art of dance. The Brandon Ballet serves the community through performances held at public facilities.
For more information, please visit www.brandonballet.org or call 684-4282.
