Help Dance Educator Study in Italy!
Donation protected
Hey y’all! I need your help. Don’t feel like reading the whole story?
Here are the bullet points:
- I was offered a scholarship to attend Fini Dance Summer Intensive in Calabria, Italy this summer - covering half of tuition cost. So, I am asking for your help to support my journey in this once in a lifetime opportunity!
- I’m Cass Simmons. I am a full-time, certified dance educator at Wells Academic & Performing Arts Complex. As a school, we serve artistically advanced students in Jackson Public Schools grades 4th -12th in Jackson, Mississippi. I am also a member of Kinetic Etchings Dance Project - a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and Mississippi’s only professional contemporary dance company.
- I am an alumnus of Mississippi School of the Arts, the University of Southern Mississippi (BFA in Dance), and Hollins University (MFA in Dance).
- My goal for this trip is to not only continue to refine my own dancing and teaching practices, but to also establish opportunities for my students to travel for their training as well. As an educator, I desire to empower my students to pursue their passion for dance as a career - just as my mentors and teachers did for me as a young dance student.
- No donation is too small - all donations are very appreciated and needed!
- If you don’t have the means to donate, please share!!
The whole story:
If you know anything about me, you probably know my one true passion in this life is dance. Whether it be teaching, performing, choreographing, or anything! If it involves dance, I am all in. Despite having major surgery on my spine in November 2023 (Anterior Cervical Spinal Fusion on my C5-C7), I was recently offered a scholarship to study with Antonio Fini Dance for 4 weeks this summer in Calabria, Italy!!
Not only will this trip be an incredible opportunity to train and perform with a group of masterful, internationally acclaimed artists, but it will also greatly benefit the Jackson Public Schools’ students I teach at Ida B. Wells APAC. Earlier this academic year, I wrote and received a grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission for our Dance Department that established a working relationship with Kinetic Etchings Dance Project, a nonprofit organization and Mississippi’s only professional contemporary dance company. This grant brought in professional dance artists to teach our students while I recovered from surgery. Seeing the relationships being forged between the guest artists and students ignited a fire in my educator heart, and I now know the impact and importance of having a consistent presence of guest artists in the dance classroom. When students are exposed to professional guest artists, the students see how dance is such a multifaceted and viable career. That despite certain stereotypes and misconceptions, they CAN and SHOULD pursue a career in the arts.
My hope is that during this summer study in Italy, not only will I be able to observe and learn from many masterful teachers - to both further my dance training and teaching practices, but to also establish opportunities for my students to travel and witness the larger world of dance one day as well.
Your donation will help cover half of the tuition cost, travel, and housing for four weeks of study!
Want to know more about the intensive?
Here is a link to the website! https://finidance.nyc/en/home/
Organizer
Cass Simmons
Organizer
Jackson, MS