Dance choreographer and Executive Director of the Walltown Children's Theatre Cynthia Penn-Halal talks about her career as a modern dancer.

Cynthia Penn-Halal left home at age twelve to study dance professionally at the North Carolina School of the Arts Carolina. She endured extensive training and became a dancer of the world renowned Alvin Ailey Dance Company. In her career as a modern dancer, she has performed with internationally renowned companies such as The Joffrey Ballet, Agnes de Mille Heritage Dance Theatre, DanzaHoy and Bella Lewitzky. Cynthia has worked with MacArthur and Kennedy Center Award legendary genius, Jacques d’Amboise of National Dance Institute both in New York City and New Jersey as well as with the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. In the early 2000’s, Cynthia founded the Walltown Children's Theatre in Durham, North Carolina where she now serves as the Executive Director. Walltown Children Theatre’s stated mission is to " inspire positive social change by empowering and reconnecting young people from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, creating a new expression of community, and enriching their lives and those of their families and communities, through exemplary performing arts instruction and youth development programming."

music composition by Frédéric Chopin "Nocturnes Op.9 No.2 in E-flat major"
performed by Aya Hugachi
recording found on the International Music Score Library Project: https://imslp.org/

audio editing by Sheridan Wilbur

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