The Rider Dance Ensemble, the performing group of the Rider University Dance/Princeton Ballet School Dance Program, will present its fifth annual dance recital at the Yvonne Theater, located inside the Fine Arts Building on Rider University’s Lawrenceville campus, 2083 Lawrenceville Road. The performances will be held on Saturday, March 7, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 8, at 3 p.m.
This year’s event, Rider Dances for All Ages, will include dancers from elementary school, middle school, high school and college, as well as Rider alumni and professional dancers in the area. Tickets are $10 for the general public and $5 for Rider students, staff and faculty. Part of the proceeds will benefit the program’s scholarship funds.
Performances will feature choreography by American Repertory Ballet’s Laney Engelhard, Princeton Ballet School’s Cheryl Whitney and 35 members of the Rider Dance Ensemble.
Other performances will feature dancers from a number of outreach programs, including the American Repertory Ballet’s DANCE POWER, the National Dance Institute’s Trenton Educational Dance Institute Project and PBS’s pre-professional training program, ARBW.
Dancers from Rider University often intern in public schools with DANCE POWER, a collaborative project with ARB and the New Brunswick Board of Education, and Trenton Educational Dance Institute Project, which uses dance to promote artistic and academic excellence. The March performances aim to highlight the educational outreach programs, recognize the interns’ work, and illustrate the power of dance for students of all ages.
Rider students take studio classes at the Princeton Ballet School to fulfill requirements toward a major or minor in dance. This model partnership enables Rider students to study with the conservatory-level faculty of Princeton Ballet School while receiving a quality liberal arts education. Currently, there are 55 majors and minors in the program.
For more information, please contact Dr. Kim Chandler Vaccaro, director of the Rider University Dance Program, at 609-896-7706 and [email protected].

