South Bay Ballet's Paul C. Kirk Signs Professional Contract
Southern California native Paul C. Kirk, a student of Lauridsen Ballet Centre, to begin professional career as a company dancer for Oklahoma City Ballet.

TORRANCE, CA, July 11, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- South Bay Ballet, located in Torrance, California, announces Paul C. Kirk, 19, has landed a professional contract with Oklahoma City Ballet. Kirk signed a 28-week contract as a company dancer and will commence rehearsals this September for the 2011 - 2012 season.

South Bay Ballet Artistic Director Diane Lauridsen is especially proud of Kirk on the signing of his first professional contract. "Paul has trained at Lauridsen Ballet Centre for more than five years and has been a senior company member of South Bay Ballet for the past four seasons. It has been my pleasure to participate in his growth as an artist and athlete. Our faculty, his fellow dancers and I are very proud to see Paul's dream of dancing professionally come to fruition. We look forward to following his career as we do for all of our alumni dancing professional at home and around the world."

Kirk acknowledges the rigorous competition of the ballet world and feels privileged to join Oklahoma City Ballet as a company dancer. "I am honored to join the caliber of new and returning dancers to Oklahoma City Ballet," says Kirk. "Collectively, they are a group of exciting and talented men and women who go above and beyond to never stop amazing themselves or their audience. I always thought when I was younger that I would get to this place. Now that I am here, I intend to prove just what I am capable of."

Born and raised in Garden Grove, California, Kirk began dancing at 13 years of age. In 2006, he became a member of South Bay Ballet, a pre-professional training company, where his principal and soloist roles included the Nutcracker Prince and Arabian Prince in The Nutcracker, the Prince in Sleeping Beauty, Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Basil in Don Quixote, among others as well as many senior corps de ballet roles.

Kirk has been awarded scholarships from Petit Oasis Foundation for four consecutive years, an organization dedicated to furthering ballet training for boys and young men. This year alone, Kirk also won acceptance and full scholarship opportunities to summer intensive programs from Oklahoma City Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, and St. Louis Ballet, as well as partial scholarship from Kansas City Ballet.

Press Release Contact Information:

Lisa Silagy
South Bay Ballet
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