It is five minutes to showtime at the 10th-annual Dance for a Reason benefit, and 12-year-old Geffan Pearlson is nervous. An audience of nearly 500 people has packed the Lane Community College Theater, with last-minute attendees pouring into the aisles.
“I love performing,” Pearlson said. “Once you’re on stage, you are not nervous anymore — you just perform.”
Pearlson, along with her 8-year-old sister Alia Pearlson and members of The Elite Dance Gymnastics Exhibitions performance group, opened sold-out shows on Friday and Saturday nights with a mix of dance tumbling and modern ballet.
More than 100 performers highlighted dance styles, ranging from West African to hip-hop, in an effort to raise money for The EDGE Scholarship Program created by Dance for a Reason producer Geni Morrow. Morrow said there has been an increased demand for dance scholarships in recent years and estimated that this year’s performances raised more than $2,000.
“There’s a whole lot of needy people out there,” she said, adding that 22 people received scholarship funds this year, and that more than 200 children have benefited from the program in past years.
The event has raised money for organizations, such as the Lane Independent Living Alliance, Community Soup Kitchens and Womenspace. Eugene resident Misti Waddell, who helped sell T-shirts at the event as an additional fund-raising effort, said the community has shown overwhelming support for the program.
“Last year was the first year they did two nights because it was selling out before,” Waddell said. “It brings together all the dance troops in town to support a really good cause.”
Wongai West African Dance performer Kristine DiPalma said she has attended Dance for a Reason several times and was excited to participate this year.
“I feel great,” she said after performing a fast-paced routine that had the audience clapping along. “We do rhythms that were taught to us by teachers from Ghana.”
The Downtown Athletic Club Nooners, a dance group open to everyone, performed songs from several different genres including hip-hop and hard rock. Program narrator and former DAC Nooners member Russ Pierson said the group, which has done Dance for a Reason for four years, began as a basic aerobics class and now consists of about 20 members.
“Yes, we are feeling it all right,” he said.
Performances included a tap piece by Musical Feet dance school founding director Jeanette Frame, a country-themed dance by the Eugene Youth Ballet and a high-energy performance to Outkast song “Speedballin’” by about 30 sweatshirt-clad Zreliak Artistic Performing Productions dancers.
House Manager and LCC dance student Emily Joyce said the event draws a variety of participants because Morrow asks dancers to display what they are working on.
“So many components of the community are involved,” she said.
Morrow described Dance for a Reason as a user-friendly fund-raiser that she wishes she could do more often.
“There is not always a venue for different styles of dance,” Morrow said. “It is a high-end variety show.”