Tiffany's Dance Academy to Host First Annual Benefit Gala, 5/23

Livermore, CA

Tiffany's Dance Academy is proud to announce that it is joining with the nonprofit organization, Raising the Barre, to host their first annual benefit gala, Changing Lives Through Dance. The event will showcase the accomplishments of Raising the Barre candidates over the past year. This benefit gala will be held on May 23rd at the Veteran's Memorial Building, located at 522 S L St, Livermore, CA 94550.

Raising the Barre, is a non-profit organization started by Tiffany Henderson and Tiffany's Dance Academy, which aims to better the community through dance. The organization is geared towards dancers ages 11-18 (5th grade and up) and its goal is to provide Raising the Barre candidates with the skills and opportunities they need to make them compassionate, responsible, confident and strong leaders. Raising the Barre students must complete service and session hours as assigned by a faculty member who mentors them through their projects.

Tiffany Henderson, Owner of Tiffany's Dance Academy and Raising the Barre, said, "Founding and teaching at TDA has been my absolute privilege for nearly 13 years and I'm truly excited about the prospect of giving back to the community. Our first annual benefit gala will be on May 23rd and we are all so excited to celebrate the accomplishments of our Raising the Barre candidates."

The Raising the Barre candidates are broken into teams, and each team works together to give back to the community through projects designed and organized by the candidates. Earlier this month, the Raising the Barre team, REACH organized a dance-a-thon to benefit the dance program at Oakland Children's Hospital. The dancers organized two, one- hour-long sessions, recruited participants, prepared all of the music, as well as choreographed their own "follow- along" dances, which they in turn led at the dance-a-thon. The group raised almost $5,000 for their very worthwhile cause.

Another Raising the Barre team, United Performers (Team UP), raised money for Bay Area homeless through their event, "Hope for the Homeless." For the event, Joshua Jung, Taylor Matsu, Brandon Perez, and Marina and Josh Vergara performed their original choreography and practiced tap improvisation on the street at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. All donations collected were earned directly from tourists and other passer-bys. Then, Team UP sought out an organization that would help them turn their earnings as street performers into toiletry bags for the homeless. In this way, team UP was able to use their ability as dancers to directly affect their community in a positive way.

The A Team has been collecting gently used dancewear, costumes, and shoes from five Tiffany's Dance Academy locations to send to the Children's Dance Foundation (CDF) in Birmingham, Alabama. The team has already collected more than seven boxes worth of dancewear to be donated CDF, which will be sold at the charity's annual September sale. The proceeds of the sale go towards CDF's community-based programs which serve more than 1,000 children each week at more than 20 social service agencies, child development centers, preschools and elementary schools in Birmingham, Alabama.

Over the next two years, the Blue Team will be donating their time and sharing their love of dance with various camps being held through the Taylor Family Foundation. The Taylor Family Foundation hosts camps for children with various physical and mental disabilities as well as life-threatening and chronic illnesses.

Tiffany's Dance Academy offers professional, fun training for dancers ages two through adult. The Twinkle Babies Dance and The Twinkle Stars Dance are acclaimed programs at Tiffany Dance Academy, which combine ballet and tap movement with props such as hula hoops and Twinkle Bears to engage and inspire the littlest movers (ages two-six). TDA also offers classes in Classical Ballet, Tap, Jazz, and Hip Hop.

To learn more about this benefit gala, as well as Tiffany's Dance Academy, visit http://www.tiffanydance.com or call (925) 447-5299.

Background: Tiffany's Dance Academy is a dance studio founded in 2001. TDA emphasizes professional level training in Classical Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical and Hip-Hop. Tiffany Henderson, owner/director graduated from the University of Arizona, Magna cum Laude, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance in 1998. She has performed professionally with the Arizona Jazz Dance Ensemble at the Kennedy Center, in Washington D.C. She has also performed as far away as Amsterdam, and Japan. She currently performs bi-annually with Bay Area Dance Company. Her academies have been featured in Dance Informa, Dance Studio Life Magazine, Dance Teacher Magazine, The Contra Costa Times, The San Francisco Chronicle and have participated in the 2006 Disney's ABC TV Christmas Special with Ryan Seacrest. They have also been awarded the Bay Area Parent Magazine "Family Favorite" award for the last four consecutive years.