Festival of Dance

FESTIVAL OF DANCE — Annual Spring/Summer Performance

Dance Bochette and its affiliated nonprofit, Gulfcoast Dance Inc., will whisk viewers back to a time of magic and fairy tales, back even further in history to honor our ancient roots and return them to more familiar settings at this year’s Festival of Dance, Sunday, June 24, at The Broadway Palm Theater.

Festival of Dance this year is Honoring Jeanne Bochette, featuring local dancers as well as professionals from the Gainesville-based Dance Alive National Ballet. Enjoy their dancing in a classroom-style demonstration dedicated to the 60 plus years Jeanne Bochette shared her love of dance training scores of dancers. Dance Alive principal dancers Carla Amâncio and Fhillipe Teixeria. Amâncio and Teixeria will also perform classical pas de deux Romeo & Juliette as well as modern works.

Area master tap teacher Ron Fucci draws inspiration from Broadway’s Barnum in his piece “Come Follow the Band” and “Out There” and from Kander and Ebb’s hit “Caberet” in “Sitting Pretty.” And Dance Bochette co-director AlyceBochette, a former member of the Mark Morris Dance Group, highlights her modern dance expertise with a tribute to her mother in “Moonlight Sonata”choreographed for March 5 Celebration of Life and will introduce students to Nancy Lushington who will set May O’Donnell’s classic Dance Energies on young dancers studying O’Donnell technique.

Founded by Jeanne Bochette in 1951, Dance Bochette continues to innovate each year while celebrating its roots as Fort Myers’ historic dance school. The studio today welcomes its third generation of dancers, in some cases educating the children and grandchildren of one-time students.

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