14th annual DanceMasters Weekend Showcase Performance to feature Armitage Gone! Dance, Ballet Hispanico, ODC/Dance on Saturday March 9
Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts presents the 14th annual
DanceMasters Weekend
Showcase Performance on Saturday March 9 to feature
the first Connecticut appearance by Armitage Gone! Dance,
New England premiere of a work by Ballet Hispanico,
"sneak preview" of a new work by ODC/Dance;
ranging from modern dance to ballet and Latin
Middletown, Conn.—On Saturday, March 9 and Sunday, March 10, 2013 Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts will celebrate its fourteenth annual DanceMasters Weekend, an exciting event for choreographers, students, and dance enthusiasts alike. DanceMasters offers a unique combination of outstanding performances and Master Classes. "DanceMasters immerses Connecticut dance students in a wide range of contemporary techniques and allows them to experience the breadth and depth of what's out there in the dance world," said Pamela Tatge, Director of the Center for the Arts. "We are also providing regional dance teachers an important professional development opportunity."
This year's DanceMasters Weekend Showcase Performance features Armitage Gone! Dance, Ballet Hispanico, and ODC/Dance. The DanceMasters Weekend Showcase Performance will take place on Saturday, March 9, 2013 at 8pm in the CFA Theater, located on the Wesleyan University campus at 271 Washington Terrace in Middletown.
This is the first Connecticut appearance by Armitage Gone! Dance. The company will be performing the work "Mechanics of the Dance Machine" (2013), which premiered on January 31, 2013 at New York Live Arts in New York City. Featuring choreography by Karole Armitage set to "Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra" by Gabriel Prokofiev (the grandson of Sergei Prokofiev), and Craig Leon's "Four Eyes to See the Afterlife," the work alternates between fierce dance and metaphors, exploring a new framework for expressive movement suffused with eroticism, fertile impurities, improper hybrids and unexpected idiosyncrasies.
At Wesleyan, Ballet Hispanico will perform the New England premiere of the work "A vueltas con los Ochenta" (2012), which received its world premiere on December 1, 2012 at The Apollo Theater in New York City. The first work for the company by choreographers Meritxell Barberá and Inma García is set to music by David Barberá (Caldo), and uses contemporary dance to evoke the sights and sounds of the cultural revolution, known as "La Movida," in 1980s Madrid. The work recreates the memory of one night of freedom, exploration, and invention lived by a young group of friends.
Performing last at the CFA Theater in July 2008, ODC/Dance returns to Wesleyan for the DanceMasters Weekend Showcase Performance. The company will perform a "sneak preview" of the work "Triangulating Euclid" (2013), which will receive its world premiere March 15-23, 2013 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California. Inspired by a rare original edition of Euclid’s "Elements," perhaps the most influential work in the history of mathematics, ODC/Dance Co-Artistic Directors Brenda Way and KT Nelson team up with acclaimed New York-based choreographer Kate Weare to collaborate on a highly physical and emotive piece, which moves from the formal elegance of geometry to its human implication—from triangles to threesomes, from lines to connections, from the page to the heart—set to music by Olafur Arnalds, Max Richter, Daniel Bernard Roumain, and Franz Schubert.
Tickets for the Showcase Performance are $28 for the general public; $23 for seniors citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff, and non-Wesleyan students; and $8 for Wesleyan students. Showcase Performance tickets are available online at http://www.wesleyan.edu/dancemasters, by phone at (860) 685-3355, or in person at the Wesleyan University Box Office, located in the Usdan University Center, 45 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown. Tickets may also be purchased at the door beginning one hour prior to the performance, subject to availability. The Center for the Arts accepts cash, checks written to “Wesleyan University”, and all major credit cards. Groups of ten or more may receive a discount – please call (860) 685-3355 for details. No refunds, cancellations, or exchanges. Please see below for more information about the Showcase Performance artists.
Master Classes are taught by visiting artists from an array of nationally and internationally renowned dance companies, providing instruction in a diverse range of dance styles. Master Classes are designed for students with intermediate to advanced dance experience. The Master Classes are taught throughout the day on both Saturday, March 9 and Sunday, March 10 from 11am to 4:30pm. Master Class fees are $19 per class for the general public (plus a $6 registration fee); $17 per class for four or more classes; and $13 per class for Wesleyan students. A Weekend Pass includes five Master Classes and one ticket to the Showcase Performance, and costs $100 for the general public (plus a $6 registration fee); and $73 for Wesleyan students. Group discounts are available – please call (860) 685-3355 for details. To see the full schedule, please visit http://www.wesleyan.edu/dancemasters. To register for Master Classes, please call (860) 685-3355 or visit the Wesleyan University Box Office. Please see below for more information about the Master Class teachers.
DanceMasters Weekend is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the State of Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development's Office of the Arts, and the Mariam McGlone DanceMasters Endowment Fund.
About the DanceMasters Weekend Showcase Performance Artists
The DanceMasters Showcase Performance in the CFA Theater will feature dancers and choreography from three outstanding companies, ranging from modern dance to ballet and Latin:
Known as the "punk ballerina," celebrated director and choreographer Karole Armitage founded the New York-based company Armitage Gone! Dance in 2004. Her interests over the past four decades have been wide-ranging, from the ballet and modern dance of George Balanchine and Merce Cunningham to work as a choreographer for Cirque du Soleil, Madonna, and Michael Jackson, as well as on Broadway. For more information about Armitage Gone! Dance, please visit http://www.armitagegonedance.org.
"[Karole Armitage] is always pushing the limits of possibility, spectacularly deconstructing the body with a diabolic flair. Dance that explodes in every sense, dazzles the eye and remains vividly imprinted in your memory."
—Le Nouvel Observateur (Paris)
Under the artistic leadership of Eduardo Vilaro since 2009, Manhattan's Ballet Hispanico reflects, explores, and expands the essence of the diaspora of Latino cultures. In addition to the refreshingly contemporary choreography of Mr. Vilaro, the company's innovative repertory over the past 43 years has included commissioned works by Talley Beatty, Ronald K. Brown, and Susan Marshall. For more information about Ballet Hispanico, please visit http://www.ballethispanico.org.
"Ballet Hispanico's dancers deftly integrate hip-shakes, undulating torsos and the whip-crack releases of social dance, mixing them with ballet arabesques, and with floor work and expressionist gestures from modern dance."
—The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
Founded in 1971 by Artistic Director Brenda Way, ODC/Dance (originally the Oberlin Dance Collective) relocated from Ohio to San Francisco in 1976. The company is known for their exuberance and fearlessness, as well as their narrative content in avant-garde dance. Numerous groundbreaking works have included collaborations with Rinde Eckert, Bill Irwin, Robin Williams, and Eleanor Coppola. For more information about ODC/Dance, please visit http://www.odcdance.org.
"[ODC/Dance has] such clarity of vision and delicate, quiet choreography, the dancers were no longer dancing, but flying."
—San Francisco Examiner
Past artists that have performed as a part of the DanceMasters Weekend Showcase Performance include Ailey II, Ballet Tech, Battleworks Dance Company, Brian Brooks Moving Company, Buglisi/Foreman Dance, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Carmen De Lavallade, Cora Kroese & Ken Ossola/Nederlands Dans Theater, Dianne Walker & Young Tap Masters, Doug Elkins Dance Company, Forces of Nature Dance Theatre Company, Gallim Dance, Garth Fagan Dance, Jane Comfort & Company, Limón Dance Company, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, MOMIX, nicholasleichterdance, Nora Chipaumire, Parsons Dance Company, Pascal Rioult Dance Theatre, Peter Boal & soloists from New York City Ballet, Pilobolus, Rennie Harris Puremovement, Ronald K. Brown/Evidence-A Dance Company, Scott Rink/Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Seán Curran Company, Susan Marshall & Company, Taylor 2 Dance Company, The Cunningham Repertory Group, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, Urban Bush Women, and Zoe Scofield.
About the DanceMasters Weekend Master Class Teachers
The thirteen Master Classes on Saturday, March 9 and Sunday, March 10 provide an opportunity for intermediate to advanced dance students and dance professionals to explore diverse dance techniques. Asterisks (*) denote the five teachers who will be teaching their first DanceMasters Weekend Master Class at Wesleyan in 2013.
On Saturday, March 9, Master Classes will be taught by the following seven teachers:
*Karole Armitage (Artistic Director of Armitage Gone! Dance), teaching her first DanceMasters Weekend Master Class, founded the New York based company Armitage Gone! Dance in 2004. She was rigorously trained in classical ballet. As a professional dancer she performed in Balanchine’s Grand Théâtre de Genève Company and in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Ms. Armitage, known as the "punk ballerina," is renowned for pushing the boundaries to create works that blend dance, music, and art, drawing upon her technical knowledge of dance to blend virtuosity with conceptual ideas from the frontiers of movement research. She directed the Ballet of Florence Italy (1995-1998), the Biennale of Contemporary Dance in Venice (2004), served as resident choreographer for the Ballet de Lorraine in France (1999-2004), and created works for many companies including The Bolshoi Ballet, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, the Paris Opera Ballet, The Kansas City Ballet, and Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. She collaborates frequently with composers and artists including Jeff Koons, Brice Marden, David Salle and Phillip Taaffe. She choreographed two Broadway productions ("Passing Strange" and "Hair," which awarded her a Tony nomination), videos for Madonna and Michael Jackson, and several films for Merchant Ivory productions, among others. Known for directing opera from the classical repertoire for important European opera houses, she also choreographed "The Cunning Little Vixen" for the New York Philharmonic (2011), for a William Wegman dog (2012), and the Cirque du Soleil production "Amaluna" (2012). Ms. Armitage was awarded France’s most prestigious award in 2009, Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
*Donald Borror (Company Dancer with Ballet Hispanico), teaching his first DanceMasters Weekend Master Class, trained with The Martha Graham School, The Joffrey Ballet School, Arts Umbrella Dance Company, and was awarded a DAAD grant to study at the Palucca Schule in Dresden, Germany. He graduated from Juilliard with a B.F.A. and the Martha Hill prize in 2010. As well as dancing works from Merce Cunningham to Ohad Naharin, he has worked with Buglisi Dance Theatre and Sidra Bell Dance New York.
Camille A. Brown (Artistic Director of Camille A. Brown & Dancers, and recipient of the 2012 Mariam McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award) returns to DanceMasters Weekend following the Master Class she taught in the CFA Dance Studio in 2012. Her company was featured during the Showcase Performance at the 13th annual DanceMasters Weekend at Wesleyan in March 2012. Past recipients of the Mariam McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award include Andrea Miller of Gallim Dance (2011), Zoe Scofield (2008), Nora Chipaumire (2007), Nicholas Leichter of Nicholas Leichter Dance (2006), and Robert Battle of Battleworks Dance Company (2003).
Ronald K. Brown (Artistic Director of Evidence Dance Company) returns to DanceMasters Weekend following the Master Class he taught in the CFA Dance Studio in 2011. His company was featured during the Showcase Performance at the 12th annual DanceMasters Weekend at Wesleyan in March 2011.
Carolyn Kirsch (Broadway veteran, teaching "Never Stop Moving: A Fosse-Style Jazz Workshop for Older Dancers") returns to DanceMasters Weekend following the Master Class she taught in Crowell Concert Hall in 2012. Ms. Kirsch appeared in fifteen Broadway musicals over a 21 year period, during which she worked extensively the director/choreographer Bob Fosse, appearing in both the first national and Broadway productions of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," "Sweet Charity," and the first national company of "Chicago," in which she played Velma Kelly (the role originally created by Chita Rivera). In 2012, Ms. Kirsch became the first person to be sanctioned by the Verdon-Fosse estate (by Nicole Fosse) to teach the styles of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon.
*KT Nelson (Co-Artistic Director of ODC/Dance), teaching her first DanceMasters Weekend Master Class, joined ODC/Dance in 1976 while attending Oberlin College. She danced with the Company from 1976 to 1997. Since 1976, Ms. Nelson has choreographed more than 60 works as well as composing and commissioning numerous sound scores. In 1986, she created and directed ODC’s first full-length family production, "The Velveteen Rabbit," which has since toured across the country reaching an audience of over 350,000. She was awarded the Isadora Duncan award in 1987 for Outstanding Performance, in 1996 for Outstanding Choreography, and in 2001 for Sustained Achievement. Ms. Nelson’s collaborators have included Bobby McFerrin, Geoff Hoyle, Shinichi Iova-Koga, Gina Leishman, Marcelo Zarvos, Zap Mama and Linda Bouchard. She has been a guest choreographer for Diablo Ballet, Ballet Met, Maximum Dance, California Shakespeare Festival and Ballet Austin. In 1995 she founded ODC’s youth company, the ODC Dance Jam and is a critical player in the development of ODC’s Educational Outreach Program. In 2002, Ms. Nelson received the California Dance Educators Association’s Artist Award for outstanding artistry, creativity, outreach, and dedication to the field of dance. In 1998 her work "RingRoundRozi" was selected for the International Tanzmesse Dance Festival. She currently sits on the Zellerbach Foundation Community Arts Board.
Dianne Walker (Artistic Director of Boston's TapDancin, Inc; teaching a Tap Master Class) previously taught DanceMasters Weekend Master Classes at Wesleyan in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, and 2011. Dianne Walker and Young Tap Masters were featured during the Showcase Performance at the 7th annual DanceMasters Weekend at Wesleyan in March 2006.
On Sunday, March 10, Master Classes will be taught by the following six teachers:
Brandon "Peace" Albright (Artistic Director of Philadelphia's Illstyle & Peace Productions, teaching a Hip Hop Master Class) previously taught DanceMasters Weekend Master Classes at Wesleyan in 2006 and 2007.
Brian Brooks (Artistic Director of Brian Brooks Moving Company) previously taught DanceMasters Weekend Master Classes at Wesleyan in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011; his company was featured during the Showcase Performance at the 10th annual DanceMasters Weekend at Wesleyan in March 2009. Brian Brooks Moving Company received their first dance engagement outside of New York City as a part of the Breaking Ground Dance Series at Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts in November 2002. Mr. Brooks returned for solo performances in the Patricelli '92 Theater in October 2007. The company also performed the New England premiere of the work "Big City" at Wesleyan University in July 2012.
*Christal Brown (Artistic Director of New York's Inspirit, former Principal Performer with Urban Bush Women) is teaching her first DanceMasters Weekend Master Class.
*Dana Moore (Broadway veteran, teaching a Jazz/Broadway Musical Theater Master Class), teaching her first DanceMasters Weekend Master Class, was last seen on Broadway playing Hunyak in "Chicago," and was also featured in "Fosse." Other Broadway credits include "A Chorus Line," "Sweet Charity," "Bob Fosse's Dancin'," "On Your Toes," "The Will Rogers Follies," "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," "Singin' in the Rain," "Dangerous Games," "Sugar Babies," and "Copperfield." She has toured with "Chicago" and "Falsettos," and appeared in the films "The Producers: The Movie Musical" and Woody Allen's "Everyone Says I Love You."
Troy Powell (Artistic Director of Ailey II) previously taught DanceMasters Weekend Master Classes at Wesleyan in 2005 and 2010. In July 2012, Mr. Powell became only the second person (after Sylvia Waters) to lead Ailey II since its inception in 1974. A native New Yorker, Mr. Powell began his dance training at the age of nine as a scholarship student at The Ailey School. Following his graduation from The High School of Performing Arts, he became a member of Ailey II and then joined Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1991. He toured throughout the United States, South America, Europe, and South Africa for ten years with the Company before becoming a master teacher at The Ailey School and resident choreographer of Ailey II. Mr. Powell has choreographed ballets for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, The Ailey School, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, National Dance Company of the Bahamas, and Alaska Dance Theater, as well as three episodes of "Sesame Street." His guest artist credits include performing with companies including Batsheva, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, and Complexions. Mr. Powell has been featured in an American Express commercial with the Ailey company and has also appeared on television in George C. Wolfe’s "The Colored Museum," the PBS "Great Performances: Dance in America" special "A Hymn for Alvin Ailey," choreographed by Judith Jamison, "America’s Next Top Model," and most recently the Polish version of "So You Think You Can Dance."
Kate Skarpetowska (Dancer with Lar Lubovitch Dance Company) previously taught DanceMasters Weekend Master Classes at Wesleyan in 2005 and 2006, when she was a member of Parsons Dance Company. Ms. Skarpetowska joined the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in 2007; she has also worked for the Battleworks Dance Company, and has appeared as a guest artist with the Buglisi Dance Theater since 2009. In addition, her own choreography has been performed by various universities, Houston Metropolitan Dance Company, Hubbard Street 2, Parsons Dance and Buglisi Dance Theater.
For more information and to see the schedule of Master Classes, please visit http://www.wesleyan.edu/dancemasters or call (860) 685-3355.