around the time of World War II the morale in the country was a little bit down um we were just coming out of the war and there was a group of very influential women who got together and they wanted to bolster the spirit of the country and they felt that a a society was only as good as the art that it produces this group of influential women they started the society that would take Young Artists and Mentor them um have competitions and scholarships and get them at the very beginning of their career and help Boer their career you know they they brought in experts to work to do master classes they brought in people that could you know help financially support them and that's exactly what we're doing to this day the Florida chapter's been around since 1981 and we Encompass the entire state today you're going to have a wonderful opportunity to see an in-person competition they compete against each other they win Financial prizes and and they get in our hearts and our souls and they we stick with them you know we we follow them and we help them in any way that we can everything that we make goes back into the students we do not have any paid staff at all it's purely volunteer and we don't spend money on anything really but the students what NS does is it attracts very talented students from the high school level and through college and we really provide a platform for them to be able to share their talents and also afterwards as they win scholarships with nsal or they win competitions then we also provide mentorship and that mentorship has enabled a number of our recipients to go on and to reach a professional [Music] level in order to be able to provide this type of support to these talented young people um we do have an annual gala where we appeal to the public to support these same students the star makers Awards is almost magical because this is our Showcase of the finest talent that you have for these students and young professionals and the wonderful thing about it it does take so much work to continue an organization of our sort but when you go to the star makers Awards Gala and you see these students perform you hear them then everything comes alive and the full meaning of what NSA is showcased and so I would say the really heart of star makers Awards is being able to see and hear those young people because that often is what will stay with people to encourage them to come back again and also to support us during the [Applause] year it's different than it was years ago Young Artists used to be uh very nervous and a lot dependent on it now I think with social media constantly being on our cell phones we're connected so much more that there's less nerves and more I'm here and I and I want to win and uh this is this is my big chance and I'm going to advertise this all over social media and you're going to know exactly what I'm doing every minute so there are a little more confident than they were years ago that's what I'm noticing this particular competition there's classwork judged classwork each one of them come in with a number on the front a cloth number and the judges will judge them on their form on their technicality how they fit in and there's always that oomph factor that uh a dancer has some dancers are just very technical and and they can get a 10 but they don't have that other factor of confidence and so that's where it starts that's an hour uh or an hour and a half of uh jued classwork then they do ballet variation and National sets up about 10 that they pick um they send in their music and it's about a minute and a half and they do their ballet variation and then the next one is contemporary which is interesting why we call it a dance competition rather than a ballet competition and so they can make up their own contemporary they can choreograph their own uh they take it from somewhere else it's it's very uh free form and it's wonderful and it shows a different side of the dancer and also they're judged on that and then at the end the judges added up and the one who gets the highest score gets $2,000 from this competition last year one of our scholarship students won a place at the Royal Ballet naen Sierra has turned out to be one of if not the most prominent Sopranos in the world she was asked to sing at the opening of notredam she has been all over the world and naen Siara started her career by winning a competition at The National Society of arts and letters and we are so so proud of her well let's talk about Megan Hilty for instance she won a competition and she's starred in Wicked Shirley mlan we're going back won a competition Jesse Norman the the great vocal artist won competition it's a great opportunity because it's can start everything in your career they invited me again to come in and be a judge for this because of my dance background I've never been on the jury before and I found it to be a very honest competition and uh something that gives the students an opportunity to be in front of people and perform their variations and take their classes and uh gives them a little bit more self-confidence and for when they go out into the professional world when I think about I can imagine what it's like for a young person to have the opportunity to do this in front of us and I'm thinking about them and how they what they're doing is uh really important in their lives and uh I'm glad I'm here to experience with them and I'm going to do the best I can I'm not overly a fan of competitions when it comes to ballet because we're all competing with ourselves to be better balentin my boss the great George balentin and John's boss for a while too used to say what are you saving it for dear when we did it this way as opposed to this way so I think that's the validity of a competition like this because these young talented gifted kids are competing against themselves at the end of the day not one another and something like this gives them that kind of nervous inspiration to do great don't give up you'll find your calling where where you fit within the World of Dance keep your mind open it may not be Classical Ballet there are many Avenues um what was important to me was to be in ballet my teacher used to say be a team player wherever you land and uh believe in yourself in a healthy way and know that the good news is you're never as good as you will be tomorrow um and not uh take it too personally if you have a good day or not so good day because that's normal that's life we dance people oh yeah we're our hardest critics of ourselves I try to write little notes of encouragement or what could have been done better I I would just say if I have to be honest you're just you're an artist are you an artist are you someone is that is this what you're supposed to do well then that's your answer you'll find your place in that art form the energies are set up for you I applaud them for using classwork as part of what is being adjudicated as opposed to Just One Dance or solo that they practiced for weeks or months for that matter the technical aspect is so important because they are students they are they haven't started their professional careers yet so we need to see how they train how they function how they think how they pick up movement as well as class prepares them for being able to dance so it it duy serves it warms them up ready for their dance competition as well as the judges get to see them working individually on a in a classroom I just want to thank them certainly for keeping this organization alive regionally and then going to National so that the it's not even just an important thing for each dancer that competes and especially the winner that gets a prize but I think it's so important that the National Society of arts and letters is making it known within communities that it's important to support the Arts we can't do it without support and so really it's like National Society of arts and letters are a cheerleader for the Arts God bless him my name is ja Ling I'm from Miami Florida and I train at Hollywood Ballet Academy I just entered this competition I thought it'd be a great opportunity to get uh in front of judges get feedback and yeah it was just so much fun I've never been in front of such amazing people before I felt really comfortable in the studio and it was more of like a atmosphere I'm used to with the mirrors and everything so yeah I just felt like I just try to think of it as a normal ballet class and then just doing my variation in contemporary the Nationals are in May so they have two months to to get together I'm absolutely certain that one of the judges will uh speak to them the winner and say why don't you come to this studio and we'll we'll work with you why do we do this to to with young people mainly because so many of us who are in the business uh I happen to be in the business and the judges are in the business we never retire what we do is it's a giving back that's what it is it's our responsibility to give back these are children well young adults that professionally want to pursue their discipline whether it's opera singing whether it's uh musical theater whether it's literature it's it's the excitement of the students that come in and that is really why we do this you know we we love to see how excited they are we love to see students that love the Arts