Island Moving Company raises more than $175,000 at annual Nuit Blanche Summer Gala

The annual Nuit Blanche summer gala for Island Moving Company raised more than $175,000 for the nonprofit organization’s professional dance company, pre-professional afterschool dance training program, and in-school educational programs. Held July 6 at Ronald Lee Fleming’s New York Times featured Bellevue House, approximately 380 guests enjoyed this year’s “Dance is in the Air” Marrakesh theme.

Event Co-Chairs Tenley van der Wal, Mary Van Pelt, and Julie Warburg coordinated by IMC Marketing Director Shauna Maguire celebrated IMC’s 36 th season under the direction of Artistic Director Miki Ohlsen. Featured were performances by the Island Moving Company, cartoonist Jacqueline Kelley Coughlin, wet paint artist Janelle Feigley, the RI Bucket Drummers James Richards and Derek Blackmar, magician Lilah Sesling, and two sets by seven-time Kennedy Center featured band the Original Moonlighters.

Island Moving Company and the City of Newport recently announced a proposal for the dance company to purchase the vacant Triplett School property on North Broadway, and redevelop the site into a nonprofit center for dance. Island Moving Company’s professional dance company has expanded to 11 dancers, the Newport Academy of Ballet serves 175 students each week, and IMC’s in-school educational curriculum reaches first, second, and third graders across Aquidneck Island annually.