OSU Dance Student Organizes Evening of Dance in May to Benefit AIDS Organizations

The Ohio State University Department of Dance is collaborating with Dancers Responding to AIDS to present an evening of dance featuring OSU student organizations, Columbus dance studios and professional dance companies on Saturday, May 10, at 7 pm in the Riffe Center's Capitol Theatre in downtown Columbus. The event will benefit Dancers Responding to AIDS (DRA), a program of Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS, which has donated $176,000 to Columbus AIDS organizations over the past decade, according to student organizer Meagan Grund.

Participants in the event—Columbus Cares: A Benefit Dance Performance&mdashinclude The Ohio State University's Department of Dance featuring works by Ming Lung-Yang, Trisha Brown and Adriana Durant; Kristina Isabelle (High Jinks Dance Company); Jenai Cutcher (tap), Svetlana Iskhakov and Aleko Khutsidze (cha cha and rumba); Cole and Sapir from Columbus Dance Centre; the Backspace; Dance Linx; the Ohio State Dance Team; OSU's Delta Gamma Dance Team; OSU Phi Beta Sigma Steppers; Dance Plus Ballroom; eMbody Dance Company; Dublin Dance Center; Columbus Youth Ballet and Columbus City Ballet.

Planning of this event started as an undergraduate honors project for Grund, a dance major who spent the summer of 2007 researching audience development in New York City. After watching Dancers Responding to AIDS' Solstice: Dancing at the Crossroads event in Times Square, she decided to work toward a collaboration with DRA and Ohio State's Department of Dance. The goal of the event is to enable dancers to support their communities while sharing their art. Anyone interested in attending, sponsoring or participating in the May 10 event should contact Meagan Grund at MEGrund@gmail.com.

Tickets are $25 and are available from participating organizations and will also be sold at the door. The event's website is www.columbuscares.org. For more information on Dancers Responding to AIDS programs and events, visit www.dradance.org

Founded in 1991, by former Paul Taylor dancers Denise Roberts Hurlin and Hernando Cortez, Dancers Responding to AIDS (DRA) is a fundraising program of Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA), the nation's leading industry based AIDS fundraising and grant-making organization. DRA is the ongoing committed response from the American dance community to an urgent worldwide health crisis. The funds that DRA raises are distributed to over 485 AIDS and Family Service organizations across the United States and as direct services to all entertainment professionals nationwide. These programs provide emergency financial assistance for rent subsidies, health insurance, food and other basic necessities. Over 140 million dollars have been raised since 1988.