Blueberry Dance Festival

The 6th annual Blueberry Dance Festival has returned to Marquette this week. Dancers from across the U.P. are hitting the stage at Kaufman Auditorium for a number of dance related workshops. Students get a chance to try their foot at a variety dance classes, and learn from several instructors.

“It involves master classes from special guest. This year we have Kent Boyd, he was runner–up on ‘So, you think you can dance’ as well as some other instructors as well,” said Blueberry Dance Festival Director Camilla Mingay. “We have a dance competition, a dance show case, and we have free dance workshops by local instructors in the area.”

What started as a way to save money and draw more people to the downtown Blueberry Festival has grown into an area tradition.

“We started the festival when the economy started going down. We needed more people to attend Blueberry downtown, so we were trying to think of ideas to bring more people,” added Mingay. “The other thing, a lot of the dancers in our area go to something called ‘Dance Olympus’ which is over in Minnesota. And gas prices were getting high and competition fees were getting high, so we thought why not bring it here.”

A dance competition will be held at 10:00 a.m. Thursday at Kaufman Auditorium, followed by a performance at 7:30 p.m. There’s no charge to watch the competition, but you’ll need tickets for the evening show. Tickets are being sold at the Second Skin Shop on Third Street in Marquette.