Cora Tyler, Lee’s Summit resident and 7th grade student at Summit Lakes Middle School, has been selected to represent Missouri in the “Dance Across the USA” project benefiting the National Park Foundation. She was selected from nearly 3000 applicants across the United States.

Cora currently trains under Chelsie Klein at Above the Barre Dance Academy in Olathe, KS. She took her first dance class when she was only 18 months old and has been dancing ever since.
The “Dance Across the USA” project is meant to showcase the talent and natural beauty that can be found across the country. The project’s creators will travel the United States, meeting dancers in each of the 50 states and taking their photo in a national park, state park or historic location in their home state.

The locations include the Hawaii’s Volcano National Park, Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida, Grand Canyon in Arizona, Mount Rushmore in South Dakota and Glacier National Park in Montana.
Cora will be photographed at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO in the month of August.

Jonathan Givens, the photographer for the “Dance Across the USA” began his journey across the country on June 30 from Florida and will end on September 27 in Georgia. You can follow the journey and see pictures posted on their website http://www.danceatusa.com. The first leg of the trip will take them from Florida to Texas to the West Coast and begin the return throughout the Midwest.

The end result of the “Dance Across the USA” project will be to combine the images into a book, which will be sold to benefit the National Park Service and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The project creators believe that by photographing talented dancers in these nationally significant locations, we will both increase the interest in dance, as well as expose people to the accessibility and majesty of our country.