VISIONARY THEATRE GROUP SEEKS HELP TO MOVE – AND GIVE STUDIO SPACE TO EAST COUNTY MAGAZINE

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Hear our interview with Spencer Powell and Mickey Mounarath from Visionary Dance Theatre here:  https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/sites/eastcountymagazine.org/files/au...

By Miriam Raftery

July 26, 2015 (La Mesa) –Visionary Dance Theatre and Visionary School for the Performing Arts is asking for help to move to a safer, more family-friendly location.  Visionary specializes in helping to keep the arts accessible and affordable to students regardless of income and also make the arts accessible to the community.

Newflash! Visionary also hopes to find space large enough to include East County Magazine’s office and recording studio at its new location – at a minimal cost or ultimately, free for our nonprofit! (Our rent where w are has gone up, and we need to move, too.)  We're looking at space in or near La Mesa - with your help.

We think this is a perfect partnership, enabling us to support local arts and theatre while also providing the affordable space we need to grow!  Donations can be made at http://GoFundMe.com/MovinOnOut. Please help - every dollar counts!

Mickey Mounareth, Visionary’s Business Directory, explains why moving is crucial. “A hookah lounge recently opened up right next door to the dance studio and there is smoke shop right next to the hookah lounge.  This is a safety concern for the parents and their children.”

 In addition, the location on El Cajon Boulevard, a busy street, can be unsafe at night, so older students and professional dancers must always walk as a group to their cars so that they can be safe, Mounareth adds.

Visionary teaches students ranging from 4 years old to adults at a growing performing arts center dedicated to enriching the community.

“Our mission is to make the arts accessible. We achieve this by keep our rates the lowest in the county. We feel that the performing arts can change lives for the better,” Mounareth says. “We do not close our doors to those that have the passion for the arts but do not have the means. We provide a large number of performing arts scholarships to the community in efforts to help spread our love of the performing arts.  At times, our scholarships outnumber our paying students.” Classes range from tap and ballet to modern dance, as well as musical theater production.

In addition, Visionary  partners and does outreach with local public schools (http://www.prlog.org/12410677-visionary-dance-theatre-partnership-and-sponsorship-with-point-loma-hs-theatre-and-dance-company.html).  Mounareth states, “We enrich their Performing Arts departments by having our professionals participate and contribute to the experience and the education of the students.”

He adds, “We also hire local artists on a project basis to enrich our students as well as provide paying jobs for local artist. Under our Production Team, we are able to produce local performing artists in a profit sharing model by providing a venue, tech. help, advertising, etc. so that they can focus on creating art. This provides a platform for the new artists and those that don't have the means to produce their work.”

Visionary also produces  musical theatre productions, featuring community members as well as professionals. This provides experience, opportunity, and as well as an outlet for non-professional performers.

The next Visionary show will be the premier of a new girl group, Tres, at the Visionary Performance Space at 7202 El Cajon Blvd. in San Diego on August 14 at 7 p.m. This cabaret-style production features three powerhouse vocalists: Nicole Isabelle, Caliope Marin, and Sophia Rogers. Tickets are $10/advance, $15/general; table seating is $25/advance and $30/general. Advance sales close August 9. To buy tickets, click here.

To donate to Visionary’s Movin’ on Out Campaign and help provide a safer, more nurturing environment to students and families, as well as help East County Magazine find a wonderful new studio/office home, please  visit http://GoFundMe.com/MovinOnOut.  

For more information on Visionary, see www.VisionaryDanceTheatre.org.

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