April 28, 2005

Contact: Gordon Ovenshine 724-738-4854; gordon.ovenshine@sru.edu

‘RHYTHM NATION,’ FOX TV’S SISTER SHOW TO ‘AMERICAN IDOL,’                   

TO HOLD DANCE AUDITIONS TUESDAY AT SLIPPERY ROCK UNIVERSITY

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa – “Rhythm Nation,” the dance version of “American Idol,” comes to Slippery Rock University on Tuesday to hold auditions and select 30 to 50 dancers for the next round of competition in New York City.

Dancers from the region, including 50 from SRU, will be given 30 seconds to audition before the show’s producer, Los Angeles-based Nicola Gaha. She will select those who advance. Auditions will be taped. “Rhythm Nation” debuts nationally on Fox Television in July.

Auditions are open to men and women ages 18 to 30 from anywhere in the country.

            Auditions will be held in SRU’s Pearl K. Stoner Instructional Complex from 11 a.m.      to 3 p.m., said Nora Ambrosio, dance department chair, who advised her dance majors to “prepare their best 30 seconds to show themselves in the best possible light.”

           Ambrosio said Gaha wanted to come to Pittsburgh and contacted her about holding auditions at SRU. The producer will also tape Old Main. “They asked for a landmark,” she said.

           “I’m really excited for our dance students,” Ambrosio said, “because this is a real opportunity for them. They will audition and be judged, because it’s a real casting call.”

           SRU has 91 dance majors and 50 dance minors, including senior Melinda Planey, who recently won the 2005 Student Literary Award from the National Dance Association. Francie Lloyd, ’04 graduate, was invited to perform her own “Lady of the Lake” last spring at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and has since begun a dancing career.

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