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Staten Island Academy Dance Program Receives "Passing it on" Award

October 26, 2005 - Andrew Jannetti, a dancer and dance instructor at Staten Island Academy , has been selected to receive the BAXten Arts and Artists in Progress Award in Arts Education.

A unique feature of the BAXten is that the cash award does not go to the awardees, but to someone of their choosing who receives the Passing it on Award. This year’s recipient will be the newly formed Staten Island Academy Dance Company, which will perform for the first time in April.

Mr. Jannetti, who has over thirty years experience as a dance educator, is recognized for his extraordinary influence on the lives of students, families and colleagues, and for inspiring a generation and more of future dancers and dance educators.

He and other 2005 awardees will be honored at an award ceremony to be held on Thursday, November 3, 2005, at 7:00PM, at the Prospect Park Picnic House, in Park Slope, Brooklyn .

“We’re very fortunate to have Andrew as a member of our artistic team,” says Mark Weissman, chair of the theater arts department. “He is part of a distinguished arts department where each faculty member is not only an exceptional teacher, but a gifted working artist as well.”

The Academy has a rich tradition of performing arts reaching back to the school’s early days. Students explore creative expression in music, dance, drama, singing, writing, directing, costume and set design through the classroom curriculum, in student clubs, and by performing in full-length productions, which include a first-rate student-run technical crew. Haugen Hall, the center of Academy arts, houses orchestra and chorale rooms and a renovated theater/auditorium equipped with a state-of-the-art sound and lighting system.

“This is terrific recognition for the Academy’s dance program, which I intend to expand with our new company, and also by integrating choreography into the many performances by our talented students throughout the school year,” says Mr. Jannetti.

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For further information, please contact Alice Doyle at 718.303.7813 adoyle@statenislandacademy.org.