THREE SOUTH CAROLINA STUDENTS SELECTED FOR SCDEO AWARD

Gabrielle Tull and Margaret-Louise Webb of Ridge View High School, Columbia

Amanda Porter of Fine Arts Center, Greenville

The South Carolina Dance Education Organization (SCDEO) has selected three recipients for the 2008 SCDEO Artistic Merit, Leadership, and Academic Achievement Award.  A program of the National Honor Society for Dance Arts, this honor is awarded to junior and senior high school students who have demonstrated exemplary artistic and technical excellence in dance, leadership at the school, community, state and/or national level, and a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher.  Students must be inductees of the NHSDA in order to apply for the award, and applications are screened at the state level first:  the highest scoring applications then are forwarded to the National Dance Education Organization for consideration at the national level.

The 2008 SCDEO Award winners are:

• Amanda Porter of the Fine Arts Center in Greenville County
• Gabrielle Tull of Ridge View High School in Richland District Two
• Margaret-Louise Web of Ridge View High School in Richland District Two      

Amanda Porter is a rising senior at the Fine Arts Center, a magnet arts high school for the visual, literary and performing arts in Greenville, South Carolina. She was chosen as one of the featured dancers in guest choreographer Brian McGinnis’ dance “thee who holds the key.”  She was recently selected as a Junior Marshall from the Fine Arts Center, one of the highest honors given to juniors at the magnet arts high school.  She received a summer dance scholarship from the Greenville County Schools Dance Festival and Showcase and will be attending the six-week Perry Mansfield Summer Dance Intensive in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, this summer.  The summer intensive is directed by Linda Kent, former dancer with Paul Taylor and Alvin Ailey, who is currently on the Juilliard faculty.  She performed in the gala concert at the SCDAncing Festival, Artisphere in Greenville with the Fine Arts Center Dance Ensemble and the Greenville Ballet, and also in Greenville County Museum of Art.  In addition to her training under Jan Woodward at the Fine Arts Center, Amanda’s technical training also includes studying and performing with the Greenville Ballet where she has also participated in Greenville Ballet’s Summer Intensives and SERBA.  Next year Amanda will be returning to the Fine Arts Center for her third year.

Gabrielle Tull is a recent graduate of Ridge View High School and will be attending Columbia College to study dance education in the fall.  She has received the Teaching Fellows Scholarship, Columbia College Dance Scholarship, Columbia College Academic Scholarship, and Life Scholarship.  While attending Ridge View High School, she served as Vice-President and President of the school’s chapter of the National Honor Society for Dance Arts.  She has participated in the Mentor for Dance class in which she was charged with establishing an after-school dance club at the local elementary school, and she completed an internship with the Columbia College Dance Department.  As a member of Ridge View’s dance program, she choreographed and performed in numerous festivals and productions under the direction of her teachers Ellen Harrison and Jennifer Bull.  In addition to her dance classes at Ridge View, Gabrielle also trains at the Academy of Dance Arts in Columbia with Debra Bricker, Star Gilmer, Brenda Mullen, Melanie Hendricks and Becky Lee.

Margaret-Louise Webb also is a recent graduate of Ridge View High School.  While at Ridge View, she was an active performer in biannual productions featuring student choreography, as well as musical theatre productions.  As a member of her school’s NHSDA chapter, she participated in fundraising activities and educational outreach in local elementary schools.  Margaret-Louise also takes classes and dances in the performing company at Academy of Dance Arts under the direction of Debra Bricker, Cindy Charles, Star Gilmer, Becky Lee, Brenda Mullen, and Wendi Wimmer.

Following the state-level screening, Porter’s and Tull’s application were forwarded to the National Dance Education Organization for consideration for the NDEO: Artistic Merit, Leadership, and Academic Achievement Award, the nation’s highest student award in dance.
SCDEO salutes these three SCDEO Award recipients and their teachers, Jennifer Bull, Ellen Harrison and Jan Woodward.