Last winter, the Moving Company Dance Center sponsored the first annual Dance Your Heart Out dance showcase, raising money and awareness for the One Love Foundation.
During the Dance Your Heart Out fundraiser, dance programs including Hereford High, Dulaney High, Sudbrook Magnet Middle, Oldfields, and the Moving Company Dance Center perform a variety of dance styles including tap, modern, lyrical, jazz and more. The ticket pro-ceeds from the event go directly to The One Love Foundation.
“In addition to being the dance teacher at Hereford, I have taught at the Moving Compa-ny Dance Center for many years,” Erin Norton said. “So, when my colleague Anne-Marie Bau-ermann reached out to me about doing a combines performance I was thrilled. When she offered to donate all the proceeds to One Love, I was even more thrilled.”
Anne-Marie Bauermann began dancing at the age of six and wanted to be a choreogra-pher from a young age. She is now the Director of Marketing and Business at the Moving Com-pany as well as a faculty member and director for the company’s Starpower and Rhythm Nation ensembles.
The One Love Foundation was founded in 2010 to honor Yeardley Love’s memory and educate young people and communities about the difference between healthy and unhealthy rela-tionships to build stronger and healthier environments. Norton, along with social worker, Molly Esworthy, and special education teacher, Cynthia Sabo advise the Hereford One Love club.
“I love to see the strengths and talents of the different schools that come to Hereford to support One Love, “Megan Sabo (‘20), advertising director and dancer said. “I also really like being able to support the foundation through dancing, which I’m very passionate about.”
Aside from Dance Your Heart Out, the One Love club is also involved with flower sales in the fall to benefit families and residents who were displaced from their homes due to relation-ship abuse at the House of Ruth. Select sports games in the fall in spring are also dedicated to spreading awareness about healthy and unhealthy relationships and raising money for One Love. In the Baltimore Running Festival, “Every Yard for Yeardley” donates its proceeds from each runner to the foundation as well.
Katie Martino (‘20), an executive board member for the One Love club, said she mostly enjoys the activities the club is involved in that help other people.
“We go to House of Ruth and donate clothes and stuff they need for women and chil-dren,” Martino said. “[We also] go and help out and celebrate holidays with them.”
The Moving Company Dance Center ensembles have a community dance showcase every year and they wanted to expand their event to include middle school and high school dance pro-grams.
“With so many dancers performing, we decided we wanted to give back to the communi-ty by making it a charitable showcase,” Bauermann said. “Since One Love is such an important foundation for teens, we decided to donate the ticket sales to them,” Bauermann said.
Last year Dance Your Heart Out raised $3000 to donate to One Love and is hoping to top that this year.
“I hope people walk away with a better understanding of One Love’s mission and an ap-preciation for the tremendous amount of dance talent in our area,” Bauermann said. “[And] maybe even inspire some of our audience to take a dance class.”
The second annual Dance Your Heart Out fundraiser will be held on Feb. 9 at 7 p.m. in the auditorium and tickets will be sold for $10 at the door or online at tmcdance.seatyourself.biz.