Patel Conservatory camps featured on Good Day Tampa Bay

Thank you to all Patel Conservatory students who arrived as early as 6 a.m. this morning to be on Fox TV’s Good Day Tampa Bay!

Students from dance, theater and music camps were featured today showing off all of our programs.

From our theater department, students from the upcoming production of Showstoppers Musical Revue gave a sneak peek of their rendition of Blow, Gabriel, Blow from the Broadway musical Anything Goes.

Students from Showstoppers Musical Revue perform a preview of the show.

In the dance segment, Gabrielle Beach and William Dugan of Next Generation Ballet (NGB) showed off solo pieces.

Next Generation Ballet student William Dugan performs a solo.

From our music department, Rock School students performed an original song; Sara Bollinger gave a beautiful rendition of Rihanna’s Love the Way You Lie; and the Vocal Arts Academy gave a preview of Everybody Rejoice from The Wiz.

From left, Rock School students Davin, Matthew and Parker.

Check out clips of their performances on www.myfoxtampabay.com!

And you can see all these groups in upcoming performances at the Patel Conservatory, including Showstoppers Musical Revue, Rock Star Retreat and Vocal Arts this weekend,  and NGB’s Summer Fantasy in July.

For tickets to upcoming shows, click here.

So what is the Harlem Shake?

Harlem Shake videos are popping up on the internet like wildfire.

Patel Conservatory hip hop dance instructor Alesia Scott-Warren went on the national morning talk show Daytime this morning to set the record straight on what exactly is the Harlem Shake.

Hip hop instructor Alesia Scott-Warren, right, teaches the
original Harlem Shake to talk show hosts Cyndi Edwards
and Jerry Penacoli.

The dance started in Harlem and was made popular in the early 2000’s when featured in music videos from hip hop artists P. Diddy and G. Dep, as well as rapper Eve, said Scott-Warren.

The recent rash of videos are imitations of a video by some college guys, who dance to a 2012 song called Harlem Shake by Baauer.

Scott-Warren demonstrated the old version of the dance to Daytime hosts Cyndi Edwards and Jerry Penacoli.

The Daytime cast and crew even got into the action and put together their own version of the newer Harlem Shake trend.

The cast and crew of Daytime doing their take on the "Harlem Shake" video craze.

Catch the full segment on Daytime on Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. on WFLA Channel 8.

The Nutcracker featured in the news

The Spanish dancers from The Nutcracker will appear on
Daytime TV on Thursday morning.

Patel Conservatory students have been making the rounds this week.

In anticipation of this weekend’s performance of The Nutcracker, the Great Imperial Ballet, students from Patel Conservatory Youth Ballet and Next Generation Ballet have been seen on TV and in the news all week.

Thanks to our performers for their appearances on Studio 10, Daytime TV, Good Day Tampa Bay, Infomas TV and many more!

Tickets are going fast! Don’t miss this incredible show that features more than 180 performers, from the adorable caterpillars to the talented Next Generation Ballet dancers and the breathtaking guest artists from Boston Ballet and the New York City Ballet.

You can catch some of our students on Daytime TV on Thursday morning, and Good Day Tampa Bay on Christmas morning.

Patel Conservatory makes national news

By Leslie Farrell, Publicist for the Patel Conservatory

Both the dance chair at the Patel Conservatory and a Patel Conservatory dance student are in the national news this month!

Thalia, on left, performs in a holiday show
with tappers from the Patel Conservatory.

Thalia Arbelaez, Patel Conservatory dance student, is in the Oct. 17, 2011 issue of Woman’s World, available on newsstands at grocery stores and pharmacies nationwide. The 18-year-old dancer is called "an inspiration" in the publication, as it describes how – with help from her supportive parents - this remarkable young lady with Downs Syndrome dances at fundraisers for the Down Syndrome Association and motivates others.

Thalia recently returned from Colombia, the country of her parents’ birth, where she danced in fundraisers from the Colombian association for people with Downs Syndrome. Last year, she was invited to dance in Argentina with the same aim and she also participated in a fashion show in Denver.

All this is quite a feat, especially for a girl whose doctor said would never walk! Check out Thalia’s story on page 54 of Woman’s World.

Chair of the Patel Conservatory’s dance department and Artistic Director of Next Generation Ballet, Peter Stark, is also in the national news this month! Peter was interviewed for the magazine Dance Teacher about his views on competitions in the world of ballet. Check out www.dance-teacher.com.

Peter has had several students win national and international dance competitions, so he is an expert on this field. Fortunately for Tampa, he’s also enticed the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) to hold a gala here in January, which will feature professional ballet dancers performing alongside soon-to-be ballet stars.

Conservatory students named among Creative Loafing's top 20 rising stars

Photo: Creative Loafing

Congratulations to three of our Patel Conservatory students who were named in this week's Creative Loafing among Tampa Bay's promising young artists.

The article focused on 20 of the area's promising young artists under the age of 25, and among them were Next Generation Ballet dancers Hannah Bettes and Hannah Beach, and Patel Conservatory piano student and recent Tampa's Got Talent winner John Pfingsten.

Beach, who received a full scholarship and will study this fall at the Royal Ballet School of London, was also recently featured on Bay News 9 and in the Tampa Tribune.

We concur with Creative Loafing that these young artists, recognized for their drive and focus, are bound for success!

NGB dancer in the news

TAMPA TRIBUNE PHOTO, provided by Bowen Family

Next Generation Ballet trainee Gillian Bowen was featured today on the Tampa Tribune website. Her father, Stephen Bowen, is part of the Discovery space shuttle crew who went up on a mission last week and is scheduled to return to earth tomorrow.

Last week, Gillian joined several Patel Conservatory instructors as well as members of her Tampa host family, John and Deana Buckley, at Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch of Discovery.

Our thoughts and prayers are with her and family for a safe landing! (check out NASA's landing blog and live coverage here.)

Fuller cast as Billy Elliot, and more Patel Conservatory in the news

Theater instructor Audrey Siegler was recently featured on tbo.com for her outreach class at Morgan Woods Elementary.
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It's official!....Ethan Fuller, who has trained extensively here at the Patel Conservatory with our dance department chair Peter Stark, has been cast as the lead of Billy in the Broadway tour of Billy Elliot the Musical. He'll be joining the tour soon. See Tampa Tribune story here. See video of Ethan at the Patel Conservatory here.
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And the Tampa Tribune article about our Ballet for Boys class has sparked some interesting comments.

from the article... 

"If you want to do something easy, try football. This is not for wimps." - Peter Stark...

 Ballet offers the cardiovascular benefits of other sports but also emphasizes flexibility, form and balance."

Tampa Tribune photo.

In the news...The Nutcracker

How many performers in The Nutcracker? That’s right, 160 performers in next week’s production, with all new choreography from Next Generation Ballet’s artistic director Peter Stark.

Check out this interview from ABC’s Lissette Campos on Positively Tampa Bay with Education Direction Wendy Leigh and Stark, as they chat about The Nutcracker, as well as upcoming shows at the Patel Conservatory.

Want a sneak peak of the talent you can see on stage next week? Check out Hannah Bettes in her ABC interview, and some of the other Next Generation Ballet performers.

Charley Belcher checks out performing arts camps

Charley Belcher from Good Day Tampa Bay dropped by the TECO theater this morning to highlight some of our summer camps and classes, including dance, musical theater, rock n' roll and youth orchestra.

Thanks to all the performers who showed up bright and early for their TV spotlight! Check out videos from this morning's show:

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/good_day/charleys_world/charley-straz-camp-062810

Watch us next Monday on Good Day Tampa Bay

submitted by Beth Miller, Community Ambassador

We’re excited to welcome Good Day Tampa Bay here at the Patel Conservatory this Monday. The show will broadcast live from the TECO Theater Monday morning, July 2 from 7 to 10 a.m. for a special feature about our summer camps.

I’m particularly excited because my son Nathan will get to perform with his Rock School band!

Nathan has been taking guitar lessons for a few years. His teacher kept telling him that he should take it to the next level by playing with a band. But Nathan doesn’t like delving into new social situations, so he resisted my pleas to sign up for Rock School for a year.

Finally, I told him that this summer, he’s doing it. When I picked him up the first day, he had that sheepish look that said, “You were right, Mom.” Yes, he actually had a great time. He enjoyed jamming with the other guitar player and drummer and is having a great experience so far.

No matter how old you are, there’s always that fear of putting yourself out there when trying something new. But when you do so at the Patel Conservatory, you’re welcomed with open arms. That's what I love about this place.

Check out what some of our students are doing this summer - from dance to rock n' roll to classical music - at the Patel Conservatory this Monday morning on Good Day Tampa Bay on FOX 13.