For the love of the dance

There are lessons that can cost a few thousand dollars each year, competition fees of $175 or more, travel and hotel expenses, costumes and toe shoes, which can cost $70 a pair and wear out after three weeks.

Helena Sullivan, artistic director of TRIP Dance Company, a nonprofit organization based in Stowe, doesn’t want to turn away any aspiring ballerina or Broadway dancer who wants to study under her tutelage. That’s why she organizes annual fundraising dance performances to raise scholarship funds and offset convention fees.

TRIP will perform 15 original dances this Saturday at the Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center in Stowe.

The audience can expect to see a professional-level show. The dancers take up to five classes a week and participate in a six- to eight-hour TRIP rehearsal each Sunday.

The acts, which the dance company will perform at regional dance competitions, run the gamut from classical ballet to hip-hop, jazz to modern musical theater.

“We have a dance in every genre,” said Annika Norden, 17, of Stowe, a TRIP member for the past eight years. “The show will be all over the place. It’s a lot of fun.”

This past weekend, TRIP competed against dancers from throughout the Northeast at the Tremaine Dance Competition in Boston. They received five first-place awards and won Best Showmanship out of a field of 140 dances.

During these competition weekends, the dancers take challenging dance classes with famous choreographers and go on to compete for highly coveted scholarships, allowing them to study with professional dance companies in major U.S. cities.

“The more they perform, the more they love it and want to do it,” Sullivan said. “It’s created a higher skill level, which has rubbed off on the whole studio.”

TRIP history

Sullivan founded Stowe Dance Academy over 20 years ago. TRIP was formed in 2000 as a way to help older students stretch their wings and meet and train with regional dance students and choreographers.

Sullivan took six students to a dance convention in Boston, and while there, they talked about forming a dance company. When one student tripped, the others joked that “TRIP” would be the perfect name for a youth dance company. The name TRIP stuck as an acronym for “technique, rehearse, implement, perform.”

For the first few years, TRIP remained a small, tight-knit group. Sullivan would rent a van to transport the dancers and they’d all share a hotel room.

Later, she formed a junior company for younger dance students and membership began to grow as parents stepped up to help with planning and fundraising, allowing Sullivan to devote her time to creating new choreography and hiring outside choreographers when needed.

TRIP eventually became a nonprofit organization with a six-member board of directors, making it easier to fundraise and award scholarships.

Last year, Sullivan added a “mini” TRIP group for the youngest dancers, ages 6 to 9.

“They have more performance opportunities when they start at a younger age,” Sullivan said. “They have such an advantage if they start at 7 or 8.”

Auditions for all three groups are held each fall.

TRIP currently has 44 dancers, who range in age from 6 to 18 and live in Stowe, Waterbury, Waterbury Center, Morrisville, Johnson, Elmore, Hyde Park, Waitsfield and Eden.

Fun and passion

Many dancers join TRIP as a way to improve their performance skills after studying dance at the academy for a few years.

“I saw how much fun and passion the dancers had and I wanted to be like them,” said Abby Dunham, 16, of Johnson, who joined TRIP four years ago.

Savannah Rolfe, 11, a fifth-grader at Stowe Elementary School, joined TRIP last year. She takes five dance classes each week and memorized several pieces of choreography for last week’s competition.

“I don’t think so much about the steps,” she said. “I think about how lucky I am to be there and I can’t not smile.”

Many of the TRIP dancers spend their summers attending competitive and highly selective dance intensives at world-renowned ballet schools such as School of American Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet Academy, American Ballet Theater and Joffrey Ballet.

The hours she spends dancing have taught Norden good time-management skills.

“It’s taught me a lot of discipline so I am able to handle all of my activities inside and outside of school,” Norden said.

TRIP dancers have gone on to major in dance in college, perform in nationally recognized companies, and appear in featured Broadway shows. Stowe Dance Academy’s Liana Hunt from Morrisville played Sophie in “Mamma Mia,” and was cast in “Newsies” last year.

Annual TRIP fundraiser

Saturday, March 22, performances at 3 and 7:30 p.m.

Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center

Tickets: $25 adults, $20 students

Reservations: 760-4634, sprucepeakarts.org