The Tacoma Urban Performing Arts Center (T.U.P.A.C.) has highly skilled professional instructors who teach Classical Ballet to marginalized urban children of Tacoma WA.
2017 was a big year for T.U.P.A.C. We lost our founder, Kabby Mitchell III, who now dances in the ether; yet we continued with his vision to create a Classical Ballet Program for underserved children by opening our school as he and Co-Founder & Director, Klair Ethridge, originally planned on July 10, 2017. Virginia Johnson, the Artistic Director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, graced us by teaching our first day of ballet classes.
With the help of Interim Artistic Director, Jade Solomon Curtis, we developed an accelerated program for our first students poised for growth, which included awarding 80% of deserving urban youth with full or partial scholarships.
We brightened the business area with the sounds of young people laughing as they entered our building in anticipation of the classes they were taking...most for the very first time. The exciting sounds of African Drums wafted from our windows as children and adults learned dances to West African rhythms, and the foot traffic along our block of Pacific Avenue were soothed by the notes of Chopin and other classical composers accompanying our ballet classes 3 stories above their heads in the heart of downtown Tacoma.
Although we often had to and continue to contend with the urban issues of homelessness and drug abuse just outside of our doors, we persevered, and our Summer Session Students were invited to perform for the 126th Session of the Pacific Northwest AME Conference at the Murano Hotel. Twenty T.U.P.A.C. Students presented an amazing dance performance.
Julie Tobiason, former Principal Dancer with PNB (Pacific Northwest Ballet) has joined T.U.P.A.C as our Ballet Director, and shares her gifts of impeccable ballet technique, artistry and quest for excellence to the children who otherwise may not ever experience the art of Ballet. We continue to enhance the dance education of our youth in this our first Fall/Winter Session and for years to come.
On Wednesday, November 22nd, 2017, the Pacific Northwest Ballet gifted our students and their parents with tickets to the Dress Rehearsal of The Nutcracker. Our children were surprised and elated to see Clara was played by an African American girl with lovely braided hair who was just about the same age as many of our students. They were further in awe when they were able to see several dancers of color dancing in the ballet. What an inspiring evening for our children. For most it was their first visit to the ballet.
Please help us continue this first of its kind in the Pacific Northwest Classical Ballet Program. We are so pleased to give the community this opportunity to support our efforts to develop world class dancers who quite possibly will go on to pursue lucrative performing arts careers just as our beloved Kabby Mitchell envisioned.
Come prepared to participate in our lively auction, raffle "fun"draising and no host adult beverage area.
Learn more about Kabby Mitchell and T.U.P.A.C. at:
www.tacomaupac.org
Donate more at:
https://www.gofundme.com/kabby-mitchell-iii-tupac
