Free Performances

In Spring of 2025, “Fairy Tales in the Park, featuring Paquita Etudes” marked the sixth 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 of our neighbors. With this in mind, HGCBT sets aside as many as 35 tickets for each performance of “A Winter’s Eve,” and makes arrangements to provide several help-based organizations with free tickets. Our partner organization WUMCO Help, (Western Upper Montgomery County Help) annually receives tickets to distribute. In 2025 tickets were also donated to Great and Small, the Barnesville organization that provides equine-based therapy to children and adults of all ages affected by a range of physical, developmental, emotional, and learning disabilities.

 

In previous years, in addition to tickets given to WUMCO Help, as many as 40 tickets were provided to both Gaithersburg Cares Hub and Gaithersburg Family Services. In 2023 we welcomed Ukrainian refugee families from St. Andrews Ukranian Orthodox Cathedral of Silver Spring, providing them with an opportunity to share in our joy and celebration.

 

HGCBT looks forward to continuing the program of sharing the joy, artistry, excitement and inspiration that seeing a live dance performance can provide to everyone in our community, 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 annually reaches out to several local organizations that support people with autism and related conditions and offer an opportunity for them and their families to attend the final dress rehearsal of our 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 can move about and react to the show as their spirit dictates, without any concern by the accompanying family members about interfering with other guests’ enjoyment of the show. 

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Those who attend love this performance! Past audience members have 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.