LEWISTON – The Bates Dance Festival will offer its three-week Youth Arts Program from July 23 through Aug. 11 at the Mays Multicultural Center on the campus of Bates College.

A music and dance camp for local youth, the program aims to enrich children’s lives through training and access to the arts. The program provides local youth with high quality arts experiences by bringing them together with master artists in residence at the Bates Dance Festival.

The program’s past success has shown that training in the arts enhances self-confidence and self-expression, improves academic learning and test scores, increases self-discipline and promotes understanding of diverse cultures.

The only requirement for admission is an enthusiasm for the arts and a willingness to try new things. Students at all levels of experience are invited to participate and develop new skills.

Music and dance classes will be held from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays for students ages 6 to 17. The program is divided into three age groups: 6 to 9 years, 10 to 12 years and 13 to 17 years.

Each group takes three daily classes in dance and music, with a snack provided mid-morning. The cost of the program is $250. A limited number of scholarships are available for qualifying Lewiston-Auburn students.

For more information, call the Bates Dance Festival office at 786-6381 or visit the Web at http://abacus.bates.edu/dancefest/youthprogram.php.

During the three-week program, participants learn a range of modern, ballet, hip-hop and social dance styles, as well as musical genres from around the world.

Program highlights include special master classes taught by internationally renowned artists-in-residence at the Bates Dance Festival. In addition, all students receive complimentary tickets to select festival performances, including the 25th Anniversary Gala on July 28. Culminating the program, the youth arts students create and stage a special piece to be performed Saturday, Aug. 11, in Alumni Gym as part of the festival finale concert.

Returning as co-directors are Jane Weiner and Terrence Karn, who will teach classes along with faculty members Rose Leach and Dana Reed. Weiner is the founding co-director of YAP and the artistic director of her own Houston-based dance company, Hope Stone Inc.

She was also a founding member of the Doug Elkins Dance Company with whom she performed for 10 years. Weiner has been teaching dance to children for more than 20 years. She has received numerous awards for her creative and humanitarian work.

Karn is a Houston-based musician and performer who draws on a wide range of cultural traditions and instruments in his career as a performer, teacher and accompanist. He has taught music and dance to students of all ages for more than 25 years in locations across the globe.

A dance educator for more than 11 years, Leach has taught children and adults from Montana to Maine under the auspices of the University of Montana, the Montana Arts Council, Flynn Center for the Arts, Contemporary Dance Studio and the Bates Dance Festival. Leach has been on the faculty of YAP since the program’s inception in 1993.

Also returning to the staff is dance educator Dana Reed. Reed has taught dance for Mississippi Community Arts School, New Jersey’s Movement Space and Stage Coach Arts, Brooklyn, N.Y. She is the founder of Alternative Collaborations, a multi-media performance company.

Three experienced college dance students will serve as apprentices to the program.