A new Newtown Arts Festival event on Sunday, September 25, will present performances by local dance students ages 8-13, representing three of Newtown's dance studios.

The free event, called Newtown Dance Collective, will begin at 2 pm in the theater of Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street.

Jennifer Cebry, the former owner and artistic director of Newtown Centre of Classical Ballet (NCCB), is serving as the event's artistic director. Tori Gozzi, the current owner and artistic director of NCCB & Voice, is assistant artistic director.

The program was created specifically for the arts festival lineup, Ms Cebry said this week.

"I wanted this to be part of the monthlong activities," she said September 19. Flipping through her tablet, she smiled repeatedly, looking at photos and videos created during rehearsals in recent weeks while talking about the upcoming performance.

Curated by Newtown Cultural Arts Commission, Newtown Arts Festival began in 2012 as a two-day/weekend event, an arts festival presented at Fairfield Hills. In recent years the festival's signature event, presented over a mid-September weekend, has been bookended by events that start at the beginning of the month and continue through at least the end of September. This year's final Newtown Arts Festival events will actually run to October 1.

The students participating in Newtown Dance Collective are from NCCB&V, Lisa Mennilli Dance Academy, and The Graceful Planet.

The dancers have been taking classes and learning choreography from four master teachers: Todd Hall, a School of American Ballet and Joffrey Ballet School-trainer dancer who has performed with Boston Ballet and Washington Ballet (among others); Elizabeth McMillan, the founder and artistic director of Vivid Ballet and Connecticut Youth Ballet; Abbey O'Brien, associate choreographer for the Broadway show Waitress, among others; and Stephen Rooks, a former principal dancer with Martha Graham Dance Company and assistant professor of dance at Vassar.

The dancers preparing for Sunday afternoon have been rehearsing for a few weeks. They have attended five-hour rehearsals, meeting in the gymnasium of the former town hall building.

Last weekend, attendees of Newtown Arts Festival were treated to a quasi-performance.

"The girls were in the Arts Festival Tent on Saturday," Ms Cebry said.

"They were in session, during the festival. They had classes, and they learned choreography, in Broadway, jazz, ballet and modern," she continued, ticking off the styles that will also be presented during this weekend's performance. "It's Martha Graham based," she added.

Admission for Newtown Dance Collective is free. Ms Cebry expects the show will run approximately one hour.

The program will include "Cupid's Variation" from Don Quixote; "Constellations," a contemporary ballet piece choreographed by Mr Hall; a Broadway jazz number; and a modern piece taught by Mr Rooks.

Between those performances, students from New Haven-based Vivid Ballet will also be performing.

The performance will conclude with a work created by the student dancers.

"It's a lyrical piece, to a song called 'Lose It' by Oh Wonder," Ms Cebry said of the finale. "Each school sort of has its own specialty - ballet, hip hop, jazz - and there should be pieces of their expertise within this work.

"I think it may be my favorite part of the show, letting these girls create and to hear their voice."

For details about remaining 2016 Newtown Arts Festival events, or to look back at some of this year's offerings, visit NewtownArtsFestival.com.

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