Columbia native nominated for award from prestigious dance academy
June 17, 2020
The Royal Academy of Dance in London, UK has nominated Columbia, SC native Cooper Rust for their Community Engagement Dance Teacher Award. This award is considering nominees from all over the world, including Mexico and South Africa.
Rust, Columbia, SC native and a former professional ballet dancer from the USA has taken her love of ballet to East Africa where she inspires students through her love of the arts. Rust co-founded Dance Center Kenya in Nairobi in 2015 to provide top-level dance training to interested students, regardless of their economic background. Recognizing that many students would be unable to access studio training even with assistance, Rust founded and serves as executive director of the US charity Artists For Africa which provides funding for free arts classes, including ballet, drama, music and creative writing, to the children in Kenya. With an enrollment of 600 students at DCK and 1200 students in the A4A program, Ms. Rust is living her personal dream to touch as many lives as possible through dance.
To vote for Rust follow this link and submit your vote here.
Royal Academy of Dance
The Royal Academy of Dance is one of the world’s most influential dance education and training organizations, with its global headquarters in London. The RAD’s patron is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Their higher education programs are regulated and a recent Ofsted inspection found the RAD to be an ‘outstanding’ provider of initial teacher education.
