With Arts & Entertainment Editor Kathy L. Collins
The 2017 winners of the Richard Munro Memorial Scholarship are Angelina Curatelli, a student at Brandon Academy and Dana Thompson, a student at Palmetto Charter School. Curatelli has been dancing for 11 years. She is a pre-professional dancer with the Brandon Ballet and has been with them for four years. Thompson has been taking classical ballet for 12 years with Diane Partington Studio of Classical Ballet in Ellenton.
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 founder of a ballet academy. The scholarship is available to any dancer 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.
Curatelli said, “I was very excited and thankful to earn the scholarship. I want to become a professional ballerina and I think this is a step to achieve that.” Curatelli will use the money to attend the Brandon Ballet’s Summer Intensive.
Thompson said, “I am honored and surprised. I was surprised because it was one of my very first auditions that I have ever attended. I was very honored because I felt like all of my hard work had paid off, and it gave me incentive to work even harder.” Thompson will attend Sarasota Ballet’s Summer Intensive program.
The Brandon Ballet’s Summer Intensive program is three weeks of detailed ballet instruction with an emphasis on Technique, Pointe Work, Pas de Deux (certain levels only), Variations, Men’s classes, Character, Jazz, Modern, Flamenco and Conditioning for dancers. Admission is by audition only.
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. For information, visit brandonballet.org.
