Hello friends and family,

 As many of you already know, Nazirah has dreamed of being a Prima Ballerina since she was five; when she saw The Nutcracker for the first time. She has been twirling around the house on her tippy toes ever since; which led to her participation in Pacific Northwest Ballet's wonderful DanceChance program and her three subsequent years with them, fully funded through  scholarship, for a total of five years now. She just completed her second year on pointe and will be heading into level 5 (6th year) at Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB); which will require 13  hours per week of study. She still loves it as much as day one and it's still the ONLY thing  she wants to do! She hopes to one day grace stages around the world in countries such as France, Italy, Spain and Russia. We know this is just the beginning of what will be a MARVELOUS career for Nazirah!

This year Nazirah has been asked to join The Dance Theater of Harlem for their 6-week summer ballet intensive in New York; June 26th-August 6th. It's every dancer's dream, including Nazirah's, to dance in the "big city". This is an amazing opportunity for her and she, along with all of us, are very excited and proud of all that she's accomplished to make her dream of becoming a world-class ballerina come true . Nazirah is very honored to have  been invited to study with a company that has such a wonderful reputation and  rich dance history within the African-American community and the world at large. While we will be dropping off and picking her up, Nazirah will be on her own in New York during her time there with dozens of other aspiring dancers  from around the country; living in dorms and in the very capable hands of staff and chaperones.

Although Nazirah was given an 85% merit scholarship for  tuition, we are still responsible for her room, board, in-city transportation, chaperone fees, extra-curricular fees, supplies (a single pair of pointe shoes is $100) and airfare.  For this reason we are asking you for any and all support you feel you are able and would like to provide in order to help Nazirah make it to  New York this summer with everything she needs to be successful and have a memorable experience!

If you feel you can help support her trip to New York this year, it would be greatly appreciated by all of us. Anything, no matter how big or small, will go along ways and every dollar really DOES make a difference.  Thanks again for all your support, encouragement and love for Nazirah over the years!

Below you can find her introduction video to Dance Theater of Harlem.  

To view audition clips of Nazirah dancing, you can visit her YouTube page:

http://www.youtube.com/user/nazcruzdance

With much appreciation,

Najja 

Proud mother of future Prima Ballerina Nazirah