Dear Odyssey Patron,
As Odyssey celebrates its 30th Anniversary Season, we will continue to make dance accessible to the community through our outreach programs.
It has always been a part of Odyssey’s mission to train Utah’s talented dancers, from nurturing emerging artists through Odyssey 2, our Pre-Professional Scholarship Training Program, to giving hundreds of students the opportunity to perform in our Thriller, ReduxNut-Cracker and It’s A Wonderful Life performances.
Odyssey has provided live performance art access to thousands of at-risk youth in our community by donating 10,156 free tickets and delighting 8,580 with free school performances.
During last season, we granted ten dance scholarships to young people who show promise but don’t have the means to continue their training and collaborated with the Salt Lake County Youth Services Afterschool Programs to provide Hip-Hop classes in schools in the Magna-Kearns area. Enrichment focuses include Arts and Culture, a need that was not being met. The programs provide youth with “a safe and positive environment that helps youth grow academically, socially and emotionally.” Their programs build prosocial opportunities that reduce risky behavior and support their success and wellbeing, and provide supervision during after school hours, a peak time for youth to engage in risky behaviors and juvenile crime.
This season we provided two free school performances to Thriller, attended by 1,637 students in Grades K - 12, representing 24 schools and 9 districts. We are now seeking funds to underwrite the school performances and dance scholarships and, with sufficient funding, to continue the after-school dance classes in under-served communities.
If everyone we are e-mailing gave a one-time donation of just $25, we would fund scholarships, school performances and dance classes for many future generations of aspiring dancers and would be able to continue to provide amazing shows for our community for years to come.
Or even better, consider giving monthly, and you will receive monthly links to amazing Odyssey Repertoire Videos: (Click here to donate monthly)
Thank you for considering, and if you have 5 minutes and $25 to support the future of Odyssey Dance Theatre and the dreams of so many young dancers, you can click below to make a donation.
Thank you, again, for all of your support!
Derryl Yeager
Odyssey Founder and Artistic Director
P.S. Be sure to check with your employer to see if they have a Corporate Match Program and to designate Odyssey as your charity when shopping with GoodShop, and they will donate a percentage of qualifying purchases to Odyssey.
If you would like to donate, please click the “donate today” button below.
Note: contributions to Odyssey Dance Theatre Foundation are tax-deductible to the extent provided by law.
