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8th Annual Masquerade Ball GALA "The DREAM" - Press Release
DanceSport Education • Jan 09, 2019
8th Annual Masquerade Ball GALA "The DREAM" - Supporting DanceSport Education
The 8th Annual Masquerade Ball GALA hosted by Imperial Ballroom Dance Center and Dancesport Education was held on December 16, 2018 at the Scottsdale Resort at McCormick Ranch in, Arizona.
“This event exceeded our expectations. We are so thankful for our many sponsors, who generously donated and 300+ people who attended and supported the event and DanceSport Education’s mission to create positive, life-long impacts in the lives of young people through participation in ballroom dance” said event co-host Inna Berlizyeva.
“DanceSport Education brings ballroom dance to the students at their schools, in their classrooms and we are so pleased to use the funds raised to make the program available and accessible to Arizona’s students” said Elka Hristova, co-founder.
Artem Plakhotnyi, top world class dancesport competitor and event host, emceed the event and was our distinguished on-stage voice for the evening.
There was great energy in the room as the guests enjoyed the exchange and had a chance to hear first-hand from school leaders and students representing the schools where the Dancesport Education program is implemented.
JoDene Tryon, founder and CEO of Mission Montessori Academy, accompanied by Joslyn Maike, Principal of the middle school and Daisy Maldonado, an alumni of the school and the DanceSport Education program stressed the many benefits ballroom dance has brought to the students at the school. “The young adolescent child is a child ready to form new relationships, build new skills and express themselves. The Dance Sport Program has reached my students in these three areas”, said Joslyn Maike and encouraged teachers and principals to consider bringing the DanceSport Education program to their students, at their schools.
Asher Ralphs, a Sophomore at Cicero Preparatory, a Great Hearts Academy and a competitive DanceSport athlete addressed the guests and shared the story about his journey in competitive ballroom dance and the challenges he had to face and overcome, including the stigma that he was “a boy, who dared to dance”.
Keynote speaker, 4 time Olympian Iskra Balchev – Velinova addressed the Gala guests in a passionate speech about how dance has positively influenced and helped her Olympic career and continues to be her passion in life. Iskra addressed the dancesport athletes in the audience and shared her Olympian recipe for success: “Practice makes you Perfect, but Passion makes you Champions!” She also brought an important message to the entire audience to support health, support physical activity, support ballroom dance education, support sports, support the upbringing of a healthy and viable young generation! “Imperial Ballroom’s world-class, top-rated professionals make the benefits of ballroom dance accessible. Your financial help and support will make it affordable!” Iskra encouraged the guests. Her Argentine Tango marked the ending of her speech.
The Gala guests enjoyed an amazing, first of its kind ballroom dance theater show production “The Dream”, where 32 children and youth from Imperial Ballroom and Mission Montessori showed their ballroom dance skills and talent. The Gala show also featured Imperial Ballroom’s world-class professionals and top-rated students.
Plans are already underway for next year’s Masquerade Ball Gala. Those plans include even broader participation of DanceSport Education students and schools. Stay tuned for more details about next year!
Imperial Ballroom Dance Centeris Arizona’s premier ballroom dance studio, located in Scottsdale, Arizona and has the best ballroom dance program for children and youth. Inna Berlizyeva and Artem Plakhotnyi are owners of Imperial Ballroom.
DanceSport Educationis an Arizona not-for-profit 501 c 3 organization with the mission to create positive, life-long impacts in the lives of young people through participation in ballroom dance at their schools, and support young and developing DanceSport athletes. The DanceSport curriculum is delivered with a proven instructional methodology by world-class, top-rated DanceSport professionals, affiliated with Imperial Ballroom Dance Center.
Elka and Alexander Hristov, top education management consultants and Inna Berlyzieva and Artem Plakhotnyi, owners of Imperial Ballroom are co-founders of DanceSport Education.
Proud to Show What Our AZ Autism Charter School Students CAN Do!!!
Every day, our committed employees work to support the community we serve. Now, they need our help. Our organization is committed to ensuring that our employees are able to maintain financial stability and provide day-to-day necessities for their families during the coronavirus crisis. We bring the benefits of ballroom dance to the students at their schools, in their classrooms. But due to COVID outbreak, Arizona schools are now mandated to close through the end of the school year and out employees have lost their source of income. Their situation is further aggravated by the Stay-At-Home order issued for the state of Arizona. Our organization’s most urgent goal is to retain our highly qualified and specially trained personnel, who work with children with autism. Such personnel is rare to find and costly to train and retain. Under normal circumstances, our professionals are long-term committed to the program – however if we lose them because of the COVID-19 disaster, it would be virtually impossible to reinstate the program. Retaining our personnel is critical not only to the existence of the program, but also to the ultimate recipient – children with autism in a school set-up. We kindly ask that you join us in supporting our dedicated employees. Your gift will help provide immediate financial support so they can purchase essential food, medicines, and other supplies. Help keep our employees safe and healthy so they can eventually return to their work serving our community.
INVEST IN US! Let me share why you should invest in us. We are a small 501(c)(3) non-profit and we bring the benefits of ballroom dance to the students, at their schools, in their classrooms with the highest level of instruction! We make the art of ballroom dance affordable and accessible to all students, especially for those that are low income and at risk. This year, for the first time in Arizona we are bringing the benefits of ballroom dance to 230 K-12 students with autism at the Arizona Autism Charter Schools. It is Arizona's Only Autism-Focused Tuition-Free Charter public school. Students enrolled at this school are on the autism spectrum with varying degrees of intellectual/developmental disabilities. AZ Autism Charter School serves over 40% low income students. 15% of the students are African-American,1% American Indian, 5% - Asian, 51% - Hispanic and 28% white. The ballroom dance experience at the school is part of the students’ project-based life skills curriculum. Many studies and research findings have supported the positive implication of dance therapy to people with autism. We are at the school 4 days /week, delivering 40 ballroom dance classes every week. The impact of ballroom dance that we see is INCREDIBLE, especially with the highest impacted students! We take so many things for granted, including the ability to move, speak, coordinate our body and socialize. Our students need to learn all this, and the art of ballroom dance is helping them tremendously. These students enjoy, love and thrive in our classes. Until our program, they had no such opportunity available to them, alone an opportunity to express themselves in public and show what they CAN do. Please help us get the full $3,000 match by making your tax-deductible donation today. The funds will be used for rehearsals and extended support during their public event performances. This is an unprecedented commitment toward these students with special needs. They want and need to show to the public what they CAN do. This is the first of such successful efforts in Arizona! These students need your support! Say "YES" to them! We are their HOPE! All #AzGivesDay donations are *tax-deductible and will go toward rehearsals and extended support during their public event performances. Please help us get the full $3,000 match by making your tax-deductible donation today. THANK YOU! We are sincerely grateful for those who support our mission and enable us to bring the benefits of ballroom dance to the students with special needs, at their schools, in their classrooms. www.azgives.org/DanceSportEducation *The $2 trillion stimulus package includes the Charitable Giving Incentive, which lifts the existing cap on annual contributions for those who itemize, raising it from 60 percent of adjusted gross income to 100 percent. For corporations, the bill raises the annual limit from 10 percent to 25 percent. Elka Hristova Co-Founder and Director DanceSport Education
