AP PHOTOS: Students soar at rigorous dance school
By Associated Press
Jun 28, 2017 8:46 AM CDT
In this June 8, 2017 photo, Eliot Feld, left, the co-founder and artistic director of the Ballet Tech public school, offers a critique to students rehearsing his piece, "The Jig Is Up," at the Joyce Theater in New York. Feld founded Ballet Tech to provide tuition-free dance training along with academics....   (Associated Press)

NEW YORK (AP) — Wednesday is the last day of School for New York City public school students, but students in the rigorous Ballet Tech dance program will be back for a four-week summer session July 10.

Ballet Tech was founded by choreographer Eliot Feld to provide tuition-free dance training along with academics.

The school is a full-service Public School for Dance in grades four through eight, with about 50 fourth-graders admitted each year out of the thousands who audition.

Many of the students travel from the Bronx or Queens to attend the school near Union Square in Manhattan.

High school students continue studying dance at Ballet Tech while taking academic classes at the Professional Performing Arts School in midtown Manhattan, a selective public high school.

Some Ballet Tech alumni have gone on to careers in dance. Graduate Spartak Hoxha, for instance, is a member of New York City Ballet's corps de ballet.

Ballet Tech students perform at the Kids Dance series at the Joyce Theater in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood each June.

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