Kathryn Beard of TJC's Academy of Dance rehearses.

The dancers of Tyler Junior College’s Academy of Dance will have a unique opportunity to perform on stage with the East Texas Symphony Orchestra (ETSO) this Saturday at UT Tyler Cowan Center.

“Working with the esteemed ETSO is a magnificent opportunity for our pre-professional dancers,” said Carolyn Hanna, director of the TJC Academy of Dance. “There is such an important bond between dance and live music, and our dancers are so excited to perform on stage with the orchestra.”

Music director Richard Lee and the ETSO will play Igor Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’ and Aaron Copland’s ‘Rodeo’, and the TJC Academy of Dance will perform both numbers on stage. The performance will feature all original choreography as the orchestra performs two ballet favorites.

“We love sharing the stage with the talented performers from the TJC Academy of Dance,” Lee said in a press release. “Patrons will enjoy witnessing live performances of classical favorites come to life through stirring choreography.”

The concert will also feature the orchestra playing Copland’s ballet-inspired Appalachian Spring Suite, which includes his variations on the Shaker melody ‘Simple Gifts.’

“It’s such a beautiful partnership between TJC and ETSO,” said Robin Hampton, executive director of ETSO. “We are a service organization. We’re here to serve our community by bringing beautiful music and music education to our community.”

The ETSO is a nonprofit organization, relying on community support to fund its operation.

“This sort of collaboration is an absolute dream,” Hanna said. “We feel privileged to perform for our East Texas community.”

The TJC dancers have been practicing to ‘canned music’ since the fall while ETSO has been rehearsing the music for months. The musicians and dancers will continue to rehearse the rest of the week, including a joint technical rehearsal Friday night, then a dress rehearsal Saturday morning.

“It’s all coming together… the energy has just been through the roof,” Hampton said. “We’re really excited about our partnership with TJC as a whole. It is a match made in heaven.”

This marks ETSO’s fourth performance concert of the season.

“The dancers are the featured artists… we’ll have Copeland’s Hoedown and then the Rite of Spring,” Hampton said. “It’s basically both sides of something very classical and then very fun, kind of kick-up-your-heels. So, we’re really excited about that.”

The dancers in the program range from 8 to 18 so the audience will see the range of abilities in the performance.

“The collaboration is just the start of it,” Hampton said. “We played The Nutcracker for them about two years ago and we were really excited to be a part of that and we hope to do that again in the future. We will.”

The concert is set for 7:30 p.m. at the UT Tyler Cowan Center. Tickets are available through the Cowan Center Box Office. Call 903-566-7424, visit ETSO.org or the box office in person Monday — Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The ETSO concert season concludes March 23 with the world premiere of “Gridiron Symphony: A Tribute to High School Football in East Texas.” For additional information about this and other upcoming performances, visit ETSO.org.