Blueberry Dance Festival celebrates 10th anniversary

MARQUETTE — This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Blueberry Dance Festival and it is celebrating with a week long event.

The event began as a one–day free dance lesson at the annual Blueberry Festival. Over the years, it has expanded to a week full of dance classes, competitions, and performances. Master classes began today with aerial and contortion and as the week continues other classes such as jazz, contemporary, and musical theater will be offered. Dance instructors come from all over the country to teach dance to all ages, no matter their skill level.

“It’s amazing what the teachers can push out of the students. Some you’ll see that were ballet dancers that are now doing break dancing. Others may have never danced before. Or maybe they are already advanced dancers but they are able to push them to a more professional level,” said Director of the Blueberry Dance Festival, Camilla Mingay.

“A lot of people don’t always take aerial cause it’s kind of a scary concept to do things up in the air so I think I would like them to realize that it’s honestly a really fun thing to do,” said aerial dance teacher, Amanda Stanley.

The dance showcase will take place Thursday; tickets can be purchased at Second Skin. They are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, and $8 for students and youth.