Dance recital

A FAMILY TRADITION: Taryn and her mother Angie Miller, a member of the Company B dance troupe. Both are students in Beckie's Studio of Dance. - Submitted photo

The show begins at 4 p.m. Saturday at the La Grande High School auditorium.

Admission is $6 for adults and teens and $4 for those age 12 and younger.

About 100 dancers from Union, Baker and Wallowa counties are performing in the winter dance show. The show will feature Emily Butler, an LHS senior and assistant ballet instructor, and also the new Company B.

The annual event began in December 1979 when Beckie Thompson-Hendrickson first started teaching dance in La Grande. She opened Beckie's Studio of Dance in January 1980, and the studio continues to grow, offering more than 20 classes a week.

Thompson-Hendrickson now has two instructors that work alongside her, Betsy Strandberg and Emily Nash-Gray. They most recently attended a hip-hop competition in Eugene, where Thompson-Hendrickson served as adjudicator with Rubin "Fusion" Monet, a dancer and choreographer for Missy Elliot, P Diddy and Little Ma Ma, to name a few.

Thompson-Hendrickson and Nash-Gray took Monet's master class.

Thompson-Hendrickson has also served as adjudicator for Topaz dance competitions and again this year for the Portland Trail Blazers pro basketball team in selecting their 2007-08 Blazer Dancers.

"Serving as an adjudicator is another way of educating myself as a teacher," Thompson-Hendrickson says, "and I try to make sure that my teachers and I attend at least two master classes a year."

Thompson-Hendrickson is also a theater dance teacher and resident choreographer at Eastern Oregon University. She just finished choreographing "Pippin" for EOU theatre.