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WARREN -- Patriotic songs will mix with American standards for Jordan School of Ballet's spring program, and Lisa Jordan wants an audience filled with military veterans and active duty personnel to see it.
Veterans and active service members will be admitted free to "Journey Through America," which will be presented at 2 p.m. June 4 at the Robins Theatre, 160 E. Market St., Warren.
"I love to teach, I love to choreograph, but I also want to reach out to the community with these shows," said Jordan, artistic director of the school.
"With this being a patriotic show, I thought it would be a cool idea to bring some people out who might not normally come to something like this."
Veterans and active duty military members only need to show their ID at the door the day of the performance for free admission.
The program is described as a patriotic celebration of the United States through dance. It will include works choreographed to "America the Beautiful," "Stars and Stripes Forever" and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture."
Jordan said she was inspired to use the Tchaikovsky piece because her father, Clem Zumpella, is a longtime member of the W.D. Packard Concert Band, which frequently performs the work at its Fourth of July concert.
Jordan said she did some research but couldn't find any evidence of anyone creating a dance work to the familiar composition.
"The music keeps changing, so it was a little bit of a challenge, but I'm happy with how it turned out," she said. "It's classical, but it has some military aspects thrown into it as well."
The program also will feature dances choreographed to the music of such 20th century American composers as George Gershwin and Scott Joplin.
"I love Gershwin and definitely wanted to include him," Jordan said.
Dancers for the program include Sofia Caruso, Charlie Lammers, Brielle Postell, Andrea Reilly, Giada Rhodes, Jillian Ricciardi and Melena Zervas.