Printer-friendly version
East County News Service
Hear our radio interview on KNSJ with the co-founders of Visionary Dance Theatre: https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/sites/eastcountymagazine.org/files/au...
September 7, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – Spencer Powell and Mickey Mounarath, artistic director and business director of Visionary Dance Studio in east San Diego, have a shared vision to enrich the community and give opportunities in the performing arts to disadvantaged young people. Their mission includes fostering “diversity that has no limits in its creative process,” according to the nonprofit’s website at www.visionarydancetheatre.org.
Powell knows first-hand the importance of mentoring for a young person with talent. “My mother was a single Mom on welfare,” he told East County Magazine. Fortunately, this gifted performer and teacher had a generous mentor who helped pay for his training in dance—so he went on to an illustrious career in dance and choreography that including serving as artistic director of Ogden Contemporary Dance Theatre. Now retired from the professional dance circuit, he’s giving back, helping find mentors to support aspiring young people with talent in both dance and musical theatre.
Mounarath, also a professional dancer as well as a consulting to the IT and performing arts industries, has co-produced all of the dance concert productions at Visionary through Mounarath-Powell Productions. The pair have also founded Visionary Youth Theatre and Visionary School for the Performing Arts.
Together they work to find philanthropists to mentor young people locally, helping youths from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds follow their dreams and attain success in the performing arts. Dance instruction includes ballet, tap, hip-hop, modern dance and more as well as musical theatre.
Students mentored by Powell have gone on to perform on the Broadway stage, as well as to become teachers and college professors.
There is also an adult dance theatre group, including some performers who take stage along side their children in Visionary’s impressive productions.
Visionary also works to make the performing arts accessible and affordable to the community, through performances such as their upcoming show, “Hairspray,” a ‘60s themed musical theatre production this month running Sept. 10-12 and 17-19 and “Kaleidoscope,” a dance production on October 23rd.
Visionary’s studio is currently located at 7202-A El Cajon Blvd. in San Diego, just east of La Mesa, though they are working to move to a more expansive studio space in La Mesa in the near future.
To learn more about Visionary Dance Theatre, purchase tickets to upcoming shows or donate to support their nonprofit, you can visit www.VisionaryDanceTheatre.org.
Recent comments