Red Bluff teen gets dance opportunity
By Andrea Wagner |
PUBLISHED: May 19, 2012 at 12:00 a.m. | UPDATED: May 16, 2018 at 9:57 a.m.
Joseph Upton-Howarth, 15, a sophomore at Red Bluff Union High School was accepted into the California State Summer School for the Arts dance program in Los Angeles.
Participants were chosen from audition videos sent in by the end of February. Upton-Howarth was notified the first week of May that his audition garnered him a spot in the program.
He started dancing at Dance Red Bluff three years ago, said his mother Sally. He prefers ballet, modern and contemporary, but also tries other styles.
Upton-Howarth also participates in choir and theater at school, but most of his friends and teachers don't even know he got accepted into the summer program.
Dancing is his passion, his mother said. He asked for hardwood floors in his bedroom so he could practice.
"Everything leads to dance," she said.
However, his back-up plan is becoming a chemist, she said. The 15-year-old is enrolled in all college-track classes.
At the California State Summer School for the Arts, Upton-Howarth will have intensive dance study six days a week for a month while in Los Angeles.
Andrea Wagner