NORWAY – For the second year in a row, Art Moves Dance Studio has received grant funding for a summer dance festival in the Oxford Hills.

The $5,000 from the Maine Community Foundation’s Oxford County Fund will be combined with a $1,500 grant from Northeast Bank to sponsor workshops and performances by professional dancers throughout the state, said Art Moves Director Debi Irons.

And this year, unlike last, many of the classes, demonstrations and performances will be held outside in downtown Norway during the first two days of Norway’s Summer Festival on July 11-13.

Last year, the dance festival was also planned as part of the summer festival, but it didn’t feel like that because the dance festival was held at the high school, Irons said.

“That was hard, because we really wanted to be connected,” she said. She’s working with summer festival sponsor, the Norway Revitalization Group, to secure a few locations for outdoor dance stages.

Western Maine Development, the parent agency of the Growth Council of Oxford Hills, was the fiscal sponsor for the Art Moves grant application to the Oxford County Fund, Irons said.

Art Moves has also received grant funding from the Oxford County Fund to bring dance workshops to students in the SAD 17 School District.