Only after the final and well-deserved ovation settles down at the end of the exciting, and intellectual program offered by the Rioult Ballet Company, do you begin to understand the extraordinary vision of RiverArts. This is the non-profit community based organization, now in its 47th year, that provides arts education and related events in the villages of Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry, Hastings-on-Hudson and Irvington

RiverArts first presented its dance initiative as a showcase for local talent and community enjoyment, but it evolved into a mission to educate audiences. Mary Ford-Sussman, Vice-President and Dance Chairperson, explained the RiverArts position recently: “Dance is the only art form that utilizes the entire human being as its instrument, thus, it has great power to reach its audience on a visceral, emotional and spiritual level.”

This is the 17th year that RiverArts has presented a New York City-based dance company. The performances take place in the 450-seat Claudia Boettcher Theatre on the The Masters School campus in Dobbs Ferry. Although the companies that are invited are selected by the Dance Committee, leadership roles are shared by Ford-Sussman and Maxine Sherman. Ford-Sussman, dance chairman, was formerly a principal dancer with The Limon Dance Company. Sherman, artistic director, is a former principal dancer with both The Martha Graham Dance Company and The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. During the May 15 concert, she made a guest appearance with the Rioult company, dancing in the ‘No Exit’ ballet.

“We are bringing world-class dance to the river towns at prices considerably less than what is charged in New York City,” Ford-Sussman happily reported. “Our mission is to bring our audiences a choreographic poem, an abstraction, an exposure to classic-modern and contemporary dance as interpreted by the leading and emerging companies of today. We have accomplished that, but it’s not easy. We have to deal with many schedules, availability, travel, an audience-friendly repertoire and pieces that are appropriate to our stage limitations.”

Besides Rioult, previous programs have featured The Limon Dance Company, The Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, Battleworks Dance Company, plus Art Bridgement and Myrna Packer.

One very special event stemming from the Rioult company performance in Dobbs Ferry was the arrangement they made to teach a class at Dobbs Ferry High School. Dancers from the company served as instructors for a master class at the school. Using several dance derivations of their ballet ‘Bolero,’ students were invited to experience the physical energy of the choreography combined with the rhythmic power of the Ravel score for an exciting and unusual experience. As Ford-Sussman explained, “It was an experience by ‘doing,’ and learning the meaning of commitment, and of being involved.”

Summer Arts’10, another successful 27-year program, and part of the RiverArts mission, is registering children online now. It is a series of multi-discipline workshops divided into two programs: for those entering grades 3-6 and for grades 7-9. Each program includes four one-hour workshops each day, led by working professionals in separate disciplines, plus additional counselors, for a well-structured learning environment. The varied curriculum is designed to appeal to the beginner, as well as those ready to explore new directions and more advanced projects. Those projects include drawing and painting, music, movement and drama, clay and ceramics, 3-D construction, fiber arts, mosaics and printmaking.

The Program Director for Summer Arts is Helen Elliott, vice president for arts education. Elliott also serves as teacher and art specialist at Good Shepherd Early Childhood Center in Irvington.

“We try to give every opportunity for the emerging artist to find his or her primary interest and talent at an early age in an atmosphere that is friendly, enjoyable and creative,” she said. “And, one very important note, we emphasize the other 3-Rs: Re-use, Re-invent and Re-cycle.”

The maximum enrollment usually numbers between 50 and 60 students. Both programs are for a two-week period, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at a cost of $295 per week, although eight to 10 scholarships, per week, are available. A RiverArts Family Membership is required and must be in effect at the time of registration.

RiverArts also makes sure that music is in the air during the hot, lazy summer months on the banks of the cooling Hudson. It co-sponsors the Jazz Forum Arts Annual Dobbs Ferry Summer Music Series, now in its 11th year. The 10 free Wednesday Evening Concerts will be held between June 23 and August 25 at Waterfront Park in Dobbs Ferry.

Jazz Forum Arts was formed in 1985 by Mark Morganelli, executive director. It is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is “to present top-quality arts events to the public at little or no cost, while enhancing the appreciation of Jazz, America’s pre-eminent indigenous musical artform.” That’s quite a tall order until you meet this whirling-dervish, entrepreneur, producer, teacher-musician and, oh yes, a widely respected trumpet player. Talking to him is like finding and mining the mother-lode of American jazz, of yesterday and today.

Besides his gig in Dobbs Ferry, Morganelli will present four free Jazz Concerts in Pierson Park in Tarrytown, on four Fridays in July, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Following that, there will be four free Sleepy Hollow Jazz Concerts at Kingsland Point Park on four Thursdays, August 5-26. The concerts will be presented in association with the Village of Sleepy Hollow and The Tarrytown & Sleepy Hollow Art Council.

And, in between, Morganelli will present the free “Sunset Jazz @ Lynhurst” on four Thursdays, August 5-26, at 6:30 p.m. in Tarrytown. You have to pay for parking if you drive, but you can just walk in, too.

RiverArts also partners with the Irvington Theatre Commission in presenting the new “Best of Film” series in the Irvington Town Hall. The theatre has been outfitted with the latest cutting-edge technology especially to introduce this series so as to display, perfectly, the hi-definition quality of the featured first-run art-house films, plus ballets and operas, photographed live on Europe’s most famous stages with talent admired around the world.

So, after their 17th Annual Studio Art Tour, and their 17th Annual Program of Dance, RiverArts continues, during the summer, with a full and varied menu of events for everyone to enjoy, to learn and, most importantly, to get involved. That’s their mission and they mean it!