WINSTON-SALEM – The University of North Carolina School of the Arts announces auditions for its 2008-09 Preparatory Dance Program. Auditions will be held on Saturday, Aug. 16, on the UNCSA campus (location TBA), 1533 South Main St., Winston-Salem.

Registration will be from 9:30–10 a.m. 

Auditions for third- and fourth-grade students will be from 10–11 a.m.  Little or no previous training is required for this age group, as acceptance is based on the child’s natural facility and potential. 

Auditions for fifth- through seventh-graders will be from 11 a.m. to noon. 

The Preparatory Dance Program is an after-school, pre-professional training program that prepares students for entrance into the School of Dance’s junior high and high school professional divisions. Classes are held on the School of the Arts campus and are tuition-free for children who are accepted into the program. 

For additional information concerning UNCSA’s Preparatory Dance Program, please contact the program’s director, Dayna Fox, at 336-734-2882, or email her at foxd@ncarts.edu.

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts is the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation. Established as the North Carolina School of the Arts by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, UNCSA opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of the Arts”) in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. More than 1,100 students from middle school through graduate school train for careers in the arts in five professional schools: Dance, Design and Production (including a Visual Arts Program), Drama, Filmmaking, and Music. UNCSA is the state’s only public arts conservatory, dedicated entirely to the professional training of talented students in the performing, visual and moving image arts. For more information, visit www.ncarts.edu.