by Jeanni Ritchie
The national touring company of Collage Dance Collective came to Central Louisiana last month and put on a spectacular show aided by one of our own.
ASH Junior Lily Hetherwick joined the Memphis-born group onstage for a stunning solo.
Collage Dance Collective (CDC) is at the nation’s forefront of diversifying ballet. It was recently named a Southern Cultural Treasure by South Arts and the Ford Foundation and is one of the largest Black-led performing arts organizations in the South.
With numbers like Rise Up and Come Rain or Shine, the evocative performance was a journey through time and emotions.
My friend Mary and I visited with Executive Director Marcellus Harper after the show as he explained the group’s vision and discussed plans for the future.
“Performances like this are vital for growth and diversity onstage,” Harper shared. To find out more about CDC and future performances, visit collagedance.org.
Hetherwick’s number, The Letter, came midway through Act 1.
“I was sent the video two weeks before the show and practiced it in my studio until the performance,” she shared.
It was a competitive process, an open casting call sent to local dance studios in February by CDC Rehearsal Director Lenore Pavlakos-Morales. Sarah Ochs Ranson, Hetherwick’s dance teacher and Get to the Pointe Ballet Academy’s studio owner, submitted her headshot and a dance video.
Later that week she learned she’d been selected.
After two weeks of studio rehearsals, on top of fifteen years dance experience, Hetherwick was ready to practice onstage with the CDC troupe. After a full run-through at Coughlin-Saunders Performing Arts Center on March 6, she took the stage on March 7. She absolutely nailed her dance solo, the effortless grace of a true ballerina.
It is no surprise that Lily Hetherwick was selected for a two-week summer intensive at The Rock School for Dance in Philadelphia this summer after auditioning in Dallas. Her plan is to major in dance in college.
In the meantime she’s dancing with her studio, studying for finals, and babysitting for extra money to cover the summer tuition. If you’d like to support Lily and help send her to the prestigious summer dance camp, email me (below) or her dance studio at gettothepointeballetacademy
Congratulations, Lily, on a fabulous performance and this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. All of Central Louisiana is behind you!
Jeanni Ritchie is a contributing journalist from Central Louisiana. She can be reached at jeanniritchie54@gmail.com.
