Stacey Calvert (l), an instructor and associate director of the USC dance program, with Susan Anderson, a professor and director of the USC dance program

Five USC students' will have little time to rehearse with five of the best dancers in America. The principals will arrive Thursday from the New York City Ballet. The USC dancers accompanied by the USC Symphony, will share the Koger stage with them March 31 as part ofBallet Stars of New York.

Stacey Calvert arranged the gala performance. Her rudiments of dance were learned in the Forest Lake studio founded by her mother, Naomi Calvert, and Ann Brodie. Until recently, Calvert was a soloist with NYCB Calvert.

"I had to call Peter Martins (artistic director of NYCB) to ask for my friends to be released from rehearsal." The favor has soloist Tom Gold coming to Columbia with Yvonne Borree, Nikolaj Hubbe, Philip Neal, and Wendy Whelen, all principals. Whelen is featured in a JanuaryNew York TimesMagazine story. Author Chip Brown says she is "the dancer many consider the finest ballerina in America," said Calvert.

In the fall of 2005, Rosemary Carnes received the first dance degree ever given from USC. She was magna cum laude. Stacey Calvert was her primary ballet teacher; Miriam Barbosa, her modern dance teacher. Carnes said, "Both pushed me to work even harder than I pushed myself."

The dancers agreed to lend their talent to Saturday's 8 pm collaboration at the Koger Center because it will bring scholarship money to the dance program. Tickets for the post-performance gala dinner on the ballet stage, hosted by President and Mrs. Sorensen, sold out before the performance tickets went on sale.

Susan Anderson, director of USC's dance program, called it "rare for such internationally famous ballet stars to dance together in a city like ours." Appearances by these luminaries marks a line the 28-year-old dance program has finally crossed. The new dance board's establishment of an endowment for scholarships is the final piece of the equation the program has needed for ultimate success.

"We are on fire," Anderson said. "We finally have in place all the pieces that can put this program in the national eye. We have attracted a world-class faculty; we have the reputation, thanks in part to our long-running summer institute, and President Sorensen is such a visionary. He hit this campus running and quickly recognized us as one of the high-visibility departments. He has called us the crown jewel of the university." USC First Lady Donna Sorensen, who still loves dance like she did as a child, is a member of the working dance board, headed currently by Richard Durlach.

Anderson said, "Soon we will have our new facility. Now that we are offering a major in dance education, we have everything we need to attract the most talented students to our program."

Getting top students is happening already. Rosemary Carnes of Lexington declared dance her major as soon as the university approved the degree. Carnes will dance with one of the NYCB stars. She received USC's first dance degree, and has been accepted into the prestigious Master of Fine Arts dance program at the University of California - Irvine.

The collaboration with the NYCB stars also includes a Friday lecture-demonstration for area middle school students. http://www.cas.sc.edu/dance

http://www.nycballet.com

Five USC dancers were chosen to

perform with the New York City Ballet stars

Susan Dabney

Sarah Coates

Caroline Privette

Lindsay Shatzer

Kathryn Jensen