Dance Kids 24th Annual Full Length ‘Nutcracker: A Monterey Peninsula Tradition’ Will Feature, for the First Time, A 39-Member Symphony Orchestra, Playing for its Four December Production Dates at Carmel’s Sunset Center

For the first time in its history, Dance Kids will kick off its Silver Anniversary Celebration Year with ‘Nutcracker: A Monterey Peninsula Tradition’ in December at Carmel’s Sunset Center

Carmel, CA, June 14, 2017 — For the first time in its history, Dance Kids will kick off its Silver Anniversary Celebration Year with ‘Nutcracker: A Monterey Peninsula Tradition’ in December at Carmel’s Sunset Center, and feature, along with the cast of the ballet, a complete 39-member symphony orchestra performing Tchaikovsky’s familiar holiday score.

The 39-member Monterey County Pops!, conducted by Dr. Carl Christensen, will perform in the orchestra pit at Sunset Center with Dance Kids dancers on stage in the annual full-length holiday ballet.

“It is something I’ve always wanted; a quarter-century dream come true,” says Dance Kids founder and artistic director, Carol Richmond. ”This will be a totally different experience for the audience, having a live orchestra perform the music. It is very exciting.”

Monterey County Pops! was founded in 1985 and not only provides to the community free, public pops-and-patriotic concerts on holidays, but is the only orchestra in Monterey County that provides a tuition-free, professional performance experience for disadvantaged students in their own communities.

Their audience has grown to approximately 6,700 and 175 young, underserved performers created six professional-quality performances in collaboration with the orchestra last year.

The performance weekend begins Dec. 8, 2017, with another tradition and a gift to the community; a free 10 a.m. Friday morning show given each year to the school children of the Monterey Peninsula. Dance Kids gifts the 700-seat theater to the underserved youth in the community. There will be a 7 p.m. Friday night show, Gala fundraiser on Saturday night, Dec. 9, 2017, at 5 p.m. and show at 7, and the much-anticipated “Sugar Plum Fairy Champagne and Tea Party” at 12:15 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 10, followed by the show at 2 p.m.

The full-length ballet features over 100 dancers ranging in age from 4 to adult; over 400 costumes and countless numbers of accessories, including headpieces, hats and gloves. This production requires countless hours of volunteer time and elaborate set design featuring local scenes and landmarks. The previous budget of $75,000 has grown to over $125,000 with the inclusion of the symphony. The funds were raised by the Dance Kids Board of Directors and Friends of Dance Kids.

The production is open to all dancers from the community and boasts a spirit of inclusion to all that audition. Auditions and rehearsal begin inSeptember. Andrea Paris Gutierrez, of the Los Angeles Ballet Academy, returns as choreographer, with five local rehearsal directors coordinating the production. Three of the five directors are Royal Academy of Dance, London, certified instructors.

“This is huge,” says Richmond. “The symphony component has raised our ‘Nutcracker’ above and beyond. This isn’t a baby step, this is an elegant leap into our celebration of Dance Kids’ Silver Anniversary Year.”

Two years ago, Dance Kids rebranded “Nutcracker; A Monterey Peninsula Tradition” and incorporated the Old Del Monte Hotel as the setting for the first act party scene and introduced famous characters associated with the Peninsula, such as Salvador Dali and John Steinbeck.

Richmond says, “The story line and choreography remain the same yet reflect the tradition of the heyday of the Peninsula in the early ’20s and ’30s.”

In the near future, the production will announce the guest artists performing in December’s productions.

Set designer for the production is Nicole Bryant-Stephans of Bottega Design, and costumes are by Joanne Phelps.

About Dance Kids

With over 24 years of production history, Dance Kids of Monterey County, a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization founded by Richmond, is proud of its wide range of theatrical experience that support the youth of the Monterey Peninsula. In the early days, productions at the Carmel Ballet Academy included “Nutcracker” and original spring musicals written by Walt de Faria and a full-length spring ballet, produced at Sunset Center.

Dance Kids was known for fun-loving nostalgia surrounding the musical and drew from the community a range of young people and their families committed to theater. As it grew, its little venue could not handle the “Nutcracker” any longer, but continued at the venue for the spring musicals, until those too, outgrew the dance studio. “Nutcracker” moved to Sunset Center in 1995 and has remained there as its home venue except for the years the center was being remodeled.

Dance Kids “Nutcracker” has grown into a premier production eagerly awaited by cast and community. The original vision of Dance Kids of Monterey County has been honored as well as surpassed in the ensuing years. This year is one of pivotal change and growth.

About Monterey County Pops!

Monterey County Pops! was formed in 1985 by musicians and community leaders to expand and enrich musical experiences in Monterey County. In 1990, the orchestra adopted its mission to present free, public pops-and-patriotic concerts on holidays. In 2012, the orchestra renewed its commitment to serve all of Monterey County, not just the Monterey Peninsula.

Since 2012-13 music courses offered in Monterey County Public Schools has declined by more than 26 percent (California Department of Education Data Reporting Office). After-school music/enrichment programs are typically tuition-based and not accessible to low-income students. In the face of dwindling funding for the arts in our schools and rising concern about the inability of low-income students and their families to experience and create professional-quality, live music, in 2014, the Board of Trustees expanded its mission to focus on identifying, engaging, and educating the underserved youth of Monterey County.

In 2017, Monterey County Pops! is the only orchestra in Monterey County that provides a tuition-free, professional performance experience for disadvantaged students in their own communities. We do not impose a creative vision on our partner agencies, but work to enhance and expand programs already in place. Students don’t just perform on our stage; they rehearse and play in our professional orchestra.

And, all of our programs are FREE for both for the young performers and for audience members.

We have expanded our program from the Monterey Peninsula into Seaside, Salinas, and King City, and our audience has grown to approximately 6,700. Last year, more than 175 young, underserved performers created six professional-quality performances in collaboration with Monterey County Pops!

In short, Monterey County Pops! is living up to its mission “to be an orchestra dedicated to bringing pops and patriotic music performed by professional musicians to the families and visitors of Monterey County free of charge, and to strategically identify, engage, and educate underserved youth of Monterey County.”

Contact:

Marci Bracco Cain

Chatterbox PR

Salinas, CA 93901

(831) 747-7455

http://www.chatterboxpr.com

African Biosciences Ltd Partners with Nigerian Institute of Animal Science to Support Bioscience Research in Nigeria

New Partnership Helps BSc, MSc and PhD Research Students Perform Biomolecular Research in Nigerian Universities.

Lagos, Nigeria — African Biosciences Ltd. today announced a partnership with Nigerian Institute of Animal Science (NIAS) to provide access to services of ABL.

This includes a launch the first ever all-in-one research packages for the Nigerian academic bioscience research community. African Biosciences Ltd. Research Project Package (ABL-RPP) provides a convenient package for molecular biology-oriented research projects and come with flat rate pricing directed at BSc, MSc and PhD students interested in serious and meaningful biomolecular research in plants, animals, humans and microbes. The packages provide project design service, one-stop access to reagents and supplies, lab-for-rent services where student performs bench work in our lab, contract research services where the company performs bench work, provision of up-to-date literature, and basic data analysis.

This service continues the vision of providing ground-breaking integrated bioscience research services through a unique research-design-to-data analysis platform to achieve bioscience research goals by addressing some key challenges of performing bioscience research in Nigeria. With this new service, African Biosciences Ltd. is positioned to be a key player in the biosciences research market by being a leading service provider to build technical capacity in biomolecular research in Nigeria and soon across Africa.

To benefit from flat rate pricing, students must meet some requirements such current enrollment in a degree program at an accredited University or tertiary institution recognized by the relevant authorities, approval by the supervisor or research committee, and meet project scope requirement ranging from 2 weeks of lab work for BSc projects and 1 month for MSc projects to 3 months of lab work for PhD projects. The company offers a payment plan to help with affordability, and package pricing allows groups of students to band together to get additional discounts. Academic departments can get bulk discount for groups of their students who sign up to use ABL-RPP and academic institutions who sign long-term Memoranda of Understanding to access this service receive even deeper discounts for their students.

Elaborating on ABL-RPP, Prof. Ikhide Imumorin, Co-founder and CEO of the company explained that eligible projects for flat rate pricing may include techniques from among the following: DNA and RNA extraction, PCR primer design, standard PCR, RT-PCR, Real Time PCR (qPCR), de-novo SNP identification, SNP genotyping, PCR-RFLP, Sanger DNA sequencing, basic bioinformatics and molecular data analysis. Additional charges apply to projects that require ELISA, Western Blots, molecular cloning, protein expression, in-vitro assays, next generation sequencing of DNA and RNA, genome editing, advanced bioinformatics and genome assembly.

This research project package is first of its kind in Nigeria for modern bioscience research and is part of the plan of African Biosciences Ltd. to provide comprehensive private sector solutions to life science researchers in Nigeria and Africa. For more information, contact us at:

African Biosciences Ltd.
88, Km 6 Ibadan-Ife Road
Ibadan, Nigeria

Nigerian Institute of Animal Science
Plot 1882 C13, Kabusa, Okanje District
Wuse, Abuja, Nigeria.

About African Biosciences Ltd.
African Biosciences Ltd. is an innovative life sciences company whose mission and goals are to provide easy access to bioscience research regents and supplies through an e-commerce platform, bioscience research advisory services, bioscience technical training, lab-for-rent and contract research services in state-of-the-art bioscience research laboratories in Nigeria and soon across Africa. It is the first and only vertically integrated biosciences research company providing a unique research design-to-data analysis pipeline to assist customers to achieve their research project goals. For more information, visit us at http://www.africanbio.com.

About Nigerian Institute of Animal Science
The Nigerian Institute of Animal Science was established by the National Assembly Act No. 26 of 2007 under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as a regulatory agency for Animal Science practice with powers to regulate all matters pertaining to Animal husbandry in Nigeria. Its mission is the regulation of Animal Husbandry practices for increased profitability to all Stakeholders’ and guarantee improved Animal Husbandry and Production Systems that will embrace environmental sustainability and ensure high quality and quantity of animal proteins to Nigerians. Its activities extend to professional, industry and social mandates. Find more information at http://www.nias.org.ng.

For questions or more information, please contact:
Mr. Calistus Igwilo
African Biosciences Ltd.
Poatson House, 4th Floor
142 Oba Akran Avenue
Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria
+234 803 341 7102
info@africanbio.com
http://www.africanbio.com
http://www.nias.org.ng

Future Electronics Named Distributor of the Year by Panasonic

Pointe Claire, Quebec (realtimepressrelease) June 14, 2017 – Future Electronics, a global leading distributor of electronic components, was named the Americas Distributor of the Year for 2016 by Panasonic, for the third consecutive year.

The announcement was made at the recent EDS Summit held at The Mirage in Las Vegas from May 16-19, 2017. This is the first time that a distributor has won the award three years in a row.

“This achievement amplifies our position within Panasonic as a respected valuable global partner,” said Lucy Diodati, Supplier Development Manager for Future Electronics. “Panasonic is a tremendous brand and we are honored by the recognition of our performance in 2016.”

“Channel Partners are continuously measured by Panasonic by a detailed set of standards that go beyond increased sales revenue,” said Tony Tomasso, Director Sales and Marketing of the Components Sales Division for Panasonic. “To be named Distributor of the Year, distributors need to excel for Panasonic in other areas such as operational efficiency, marketing, support for new products and a host of other criteria. We are pleased to name Future Electronics Distributor of the Year for Fiscal 2016 as a result of their excellent partnership with Panasonic and we look forward to continued growth together.”

For more information about Future Electronics, visit: www.FutureElectronics.com.

About Future Electronics

Future Electronics is a global leader in electronics distribution, ranking 3rd in component sales worldwide, with an impressive reputation for developing efficient, comprehensive global supply chain solutions. Founded in 1968 by Robert Miller, President, Future Electronics has established itself as one of the most innovative organizations in the industry today, with 5,500 employees in 169 offices in 44 countries around the world. Future Electronics is globally integrated, with one worldwide IT infrastructure providing real-time inventory availability and access, while enabling full integration of its operations, sales and marketing worldwide. Offering the highest level of service, the most advanced engineering capabilities and technical solutions through all stages of the design-production cycle, and the largest available-to-sell inventory in the world, Future’s mission is always to Delight the Customer®. For more information, visit www.FutureElectronics.com

Media Contact

Martin H. Gordon
Director, Corporate Communications
FUTURE ELECTRONICS
www.FutureElectronics.com
514-694-7710 (ext. 2236)
Fax: 514-630-2671
martin.gordon@FutureElectronics.com

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