Free Performances

This coming Spring 2024, “Fairy Tales in the Park, featuring Cinderella” will mark the fourth free HGCBT production performed at the Whalen Commons bandshell in Poolesville, Maryland. These unique and family friendly shows are actively promoted and advertised by HGCBT in efforts to spread awareness to anyone in the region who might be interested in attending such a varied demonstration of dance. Many audiences have turned the show into an opportunity for a  picnic, bringing chairs, blankets, and food to comfortably enjoy the show with fellow community members in a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere.

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Complimentary Tickets

One of HGCBT’s primary goals is to make dance performance available to the entire community. But the cost of a ticket can be a barrier to dance for many people of our community. With this in mind, HGCBT set aside a total of 35 tickets for each performance of “A Winter’s Eve,” and made arrangements to provide several organizations with free tickets to distribute to those with interest but not the means to purchase a ticket. For the second year in a row, complimentary tickets were sent to Gaithersburg Family Services. Almost 40 seats were filled with enthusiastic families, eager to experience a holiday performance. 20 tickets were also made available to WUMCO Help, an assistance program located in Poolesville that serves those in need in Western Upper Montgomery County. 10 tickets were also provided to the St. Andrews Ukranian Orthodox Cathedral of Silver Spring, providing Ukrainian refugee families with an opportunity to experience joy and celebration. HGCBT will to continuing to provide community members with the opportunity to see quality live dance, regardless of their economic limitations.

 

Accommodating Special Communities

HGCBT recognizes that there are members of our community who have special needs that typically make attending a theater performance challenging. In order to provide these often forgotten children and adults with an opportunity to experience a dance performance, HGCBT reached out to several local organizations that support people with autism and related conditions and offered an opportunity for them and their families to attend the final dress rehearsal of our 2023 holiday production, “A Winter’s Eve.”

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Final dress rehearsals usually have no audience, but typically are complete and nearly seamless. With no other audience members present, these wonderful children and adults could move about and react to the show as their spirit dictated, without any concern by the accompanying family members about interfering with other guests’ enjoyment of the show. 

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Those in attendance loved the rehearsal performance! Several of them stood up in the isle and danced, and sang along with the music. Their companions were thrilled to see their loved ones’ reaction to live dance.

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HGCBT looks forward to continuing all these community outreach programs, as well as look for other ways to share the joy of dance to everyone.