The St. Bernard After-School Ballet Program Hosts a Winter Performance

The New Orleans Ballet Association (NOBA), Chalmette Refining, L.L.C., and the St. Bernard School Board invite the community to the 2010 Winter Performance, an Open House featuring the young dancers of the St. Bernard After-School Ballet Program. The free performance, to be held on Wednesday, December 15, 2010, at 6:00 p.m., will mark the culmination of 15 weeks of ballet instruction. Approximately 35 students, ages six to 14, will grace the stage in the W. Smith Elementary School Gymnasium. The performance will also feature students from the award-winning NORD/NOBA Center For Dance pre-professional program who will perform excerpts from The Nutcracker. An awards presentation and reception hosted by Chalmette Refining, L.L.C. for the participants will follow.

The St. Bernard After-School Dance Program is designed to cultivate a child's appreciation for the arts, while building self-esteem through challenges that speak to the child's individual growth. Striving to serve children and their families, the New Orleans Ballet Association and Chalmette Refining, L.L.C., partnered in 1995 to offer this program for the youth of St. Bernard Parish.

"Chalmette Refining and the ExxonMobil Foundation are proud to sponsor NOBA's After School Dance Program in both St. Bernard and Orleans Parishes. Since 1995 we have worked with NOBA to provide an atmosphere that will challenge and inspire our young people through dance, while building self esteem and an appreciation of the arts," said Elizabeth Ellison-Frost of Chalmette Refining.

This program is supported by a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council as administered by the St. Tammany Commission on Cultural Affairs.