Miami palms: at ARTS Week '94, held in January, talented high school seniors from around the U.S. gathered in Miami for a unique arts competition.

Young artists dream of a helping hand to lead their steps faster, more directly, toward success. After all those long hours of training, practice, and soul-searching, who would not hope for a sponsor to validate talent and to give financial support? The National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (NFAA) has been providing precisely this sort of ideal sponsorship for over a decade.

Many dancers - along with musicians, actors, writers, and visual artists - have profited from the NFAA's programs for emerging artists. The Miami-based organization invests in the future of gifted youth particularly through a competition called ARTS, the Arts Recognition and Talent Search. This year, 6,550 seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds applied to ARTS in June and October. A panel reviewed the portfolios they had put together (dance applicants sent in videos) and selected 109 finalists, each of whom they invited to Miami for ARTS Week, held January 12-16. Finalists auditioned for five levels of monetary awards, from $100 (Level V) to $3,000 (Level 1).

Winners savor their pride in participating long after they've spent the money they won. Deanna Seay, a 1989 ARTS awardee who is now a corps member of Miami City Ballet, said, "Just the prospect of coming down to meet the other dancers was very exciting for me." In addition, "The extra coaching I got in preparation turned out to be really invaluable." Seay found out about the contest through a flyer posted at her school, the North Carolina School of the Arts. She received a Level III award, which she says helped finance her company auditions.

The sense of accomplishment students get from "just having their efforts recognized" by the NFAA is a point further underscored by Maria Grandy of the Juilliard School, who chaired the panel of dance judges in Miami this year. "From New Orleans to Boston, I've run across young people wearing their ARTS T-shirts," she noted.

Students of ballet, modern, and other dance traditions find out about ARTS primarily through their high schools. At the High School of the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) in Houston, for instance, applying to ARTS has become "a sort of senior project, which gets really close attention from the teachers," relates modern dance finalist Mario Zambrano.

The concerted effort in Houston has paid off. Mario was among five HSPVA dance students who made it to Miami this year. And in the twelve years since ARTS was established, HSPVA has sent more dance finalists to Miami than any other school. Mary Martha Lappe, the chair of the dance department at HSPVA, was a recipient of the NFAA's 1994 Distinguished Teacher in the Arts award.

The busy first day of ARTS Week '94 was typical of a schedule that was jam-packed throughout with classes, rehearsals, shows, and social activities. At the end of a detailed orientation session that day, Mario said, "I didn't expect everyone to be so supportive! I've been to competitions where you get lots of suspicious looks, but here" - he glanced around the conference room and then out toward the hotel hallway, which was bustling with candidates, resident advisors, judges, and administrators - "everyone's making friends so fast! I'm especially enjoying the chance to have contact with kids in the other arts." Nicole Starbuck, a ballet candidate from Penngrove, California, was more tense. "This is all a little overwhelming!" she confessed.

Yet the days that followed worked their magic: Master classes were taught by David Richardson, a ballet master for American Ballet Theatre, and by modern dance luminary Donald McKayle. At the auditions on the third day Nicole portrayed a saucy Esmeralda, confidently hitting her tambourine as she balanced over steady, long-legged extensions.

Mario, Nicole, and the eighteen other auditioning dancers each performed two solos, in styles that ranged from clogging to edgy contemporary dance. A panel of four judges evaluated their performances for technical refinement, musicality, and stage presence.

The ultimate honor, of course, would be to figure among the twenty Presidential Scholars in the Arts. A White House committee makes the final decisions for this distinguished award, but the fifty candidates are nominated solely by the NFAA.

The aim certainly seemed high for Mario Zambrano. This student from Houston who was delighted at social interaction on his first night was totally focused on artistry during the auditions. His creative spunk in solos he had choreographed to music by Tracy Chapman and by The Chieftains had the right effect on the judges. They granted him a Level I award.

Neither Mario nor any of his peers found out about their placement during ARTS Week, however. To maintain an atmosphere of close camaraderie among participants, the judges' decisions are disclosed by mail in late January. The day after the auditions, finalists looked forward to video viewings and conferences with the judges, and to a moonlight cruise on Biscayne Bay.

"We had lots of fun on the boat, dancing under a canopy on deck," related a cheerful Bril Barrett, who described himself as a "hoofer." Brill's mother first sent him to tap classes to keep him "out of trouble" on Chicago's meaner streets. Back home in Illinois, the announcement of his Level II award must have come as good news. Yet on his last day in Miami he was just waiting to get some final pointers from a judge; maybe these would serve to guide him on the path of his heroes, Gregory Hines and the Nicholas Brothers.

The meaningful exchanges between the judges and finalists add immeasurable value to ARTS Week. In the view of William H. Banchs, the current NFAA president, it makes sense to give developing artists this kind of sustenance, "to combat their isolation and insure cultural vitality. We must encourage their accomplishments the way we do athletes'. It's an important element in raising the quality of life in our society." This was a commendable message for the young artists to take home after their farewells on a starry winter night.