Eleanor Altholz, Jane Howard, Hannah Wallace, Emily Belanger, Emily Avery and Jacqueline Bolduc, students in Portland School of Ballet’s pre-professional dance program, are headed to the Youth America Grand Prix semifinals in Connecticut this weekend.

The group has been selected to perform an ensemble piece for the scholarship competition, which awards more than $250,000 annually to help students attend dance schools.

Three hundred dancers will compete in the finals in New York, out of 5,000 initial competitors worldwide.