DANCEMASTERS PERFORMANCE
Carmen deLavallade, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Taylor 2
Saturday, March 6, 8pm, CFA Theater
Tickets: $24
General; $19 Senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff and non-Wesleyan
students; $8 Wesleyan students (Tickets available for purchase online 24/7)
This year's eleventh anniversary showcase features work by two legendary companies and an esteemed dancer and choreographer. Carmen deLavallade has been a dynamic force in the dance world for more than sixty years. As a dancer, choreographer, actress and teacher, deLavallade has collaborated with and influenced many. Long associated with Alvin Ailey's American Dance Company, deLavallade's career includes work in film and theater as well as roles with the Metropolitan and New York City Operas. Merce Cunningham Dance Company is a group of dancers who perform Cunningham's works with the collaboration of contemporary musicians and visual artists. Company members Andrea Weber and Rashaun Mitchell with musician John King will perform solo and duet excerpts from repertoire pieces including Changing Steps (1975), Fractions (1977), Split Sides (2003), and Nearly Ninety (2009). Paul Taylor established Taylor 2 in 1993 to ensure that his work could be seen by audiences all over the world. The company brimming with Taylor's signature youthful exuberance will perform the masterwork Esplanade.
Company and Dancer Profiles
Carmen deLavallade
Carmen de Lavallade has been a dynamic force in the dance world for more than sixty years. As a dancer, choreographer, actress and teacher, deLavallade has collaborated with and influenced many. Long associated with Alvin Ailey's American Dance Company, deLavallade's career includes work in film and theater as well as roles with the Metropolitan and New York City Operas. During the 1970s, deLavallade taught at Yale University. She left Yale around 1980, but continues to teach, lecture, and perform. In October 1993 she appeared with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company at the Joyce Theater in New York, still commanding admiration with her unique stage presence. In the fall of 1993, she also choreographed the dances for a new production of Antonin Dvorak's opera Rusalka at the Metropolitan Opera.
Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Merce Cunningham Dance Company is a group of dancers who perform Cunningham's works with the collaboration of contemporary musicians and visual artists. Company members Andrea Weber and Rashaun Mitchell with musician John King will perform solo and duet excerpts from repertoire pieces including Changing Steps (1975), Fractions (1977), Split Sides (2003), and Nearly Ninety (2009).
Taylor 2
Paul Taylor established Taylor 2 in 1993 to ensure that his work could be seen by audiences all over the world. The company brimming with Taylor's signature youthful exuberance will perform the masterwork Esplanade.
MASTER CLASS TEACHERS
ROBERT BATTLE
Robert Battle is a graduate of the New World School of the Arts where he trained with Ms. Gerri Houlihan. He earned a BFA from The Juilliard School, under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy, where he studied choreography with Bessie Schoenberg, Elizabeth Keen and Doris Rudko. While at Juilliard, he received a Princess Grace Dance Scholarship and the Martha Hill Prize. After graduation, Mr. Battle joined the Parsons Dance Company, with whom he danced for seven years. His choreography has been performed by the Parsons Dance Company in Sydney, Australia; Italy and across the United States. In addition, his works have been commissioned by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Hubbard Street 2, Dallas Black Dance Theater, The Juilliard School, Introdans, Ruth Rosenberg Dance Ensemble, Evolving Arts Inc., the Repertory Etudes Project and Point Park College. In 2002, Mr. Battle established his own company, Battleworks, which has performed in Germany, South America, New Orleans, St. Louis and most recently at Jacob's Pillow. Mr. Battle was the first recipient of the Mariam McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award from Wesleyan University Center for the Arts in 2003.
BRIAN BROOKS
Brian Brooks started his first dance company at age 14 in his hometown of Hingham, MA, with a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Since moving to Brooklyn in 1994, he has worked as a Teaching Artist of Dance at the Lincoln Center Institute (1999 to present), co-founded and managed a 3,500 square-foot arts facility in Brooklyn, WAX, that housed the company's rehearsal studio and black-box theater (1999-2004), and performed internationally with MacArthur Foundation Award-winning choreographer Elizabeth Streb (2000-2002). He founded the Brian Brooks Moving Company in 1997, when he presented his choreography at the Merce Cunningham Studio. The production featured MIGHT, a short film of Brooks dancing at eleven different public locations within eight hours, being stopped only once by the police at South Street Seaport. In 2002, following 5 years of self-produced seasons, the group began touring, and has since been presented by over 40 venues throughout the US, Canada, and South Korea.
PAUL DENNIS
Paul Dennis (Limón Dance Company / Modern) is a visiting artist/ lecturer in the dance program at the University of Massachusetts and The Five College Dance Department. A former member and current guest artist with the Jose Limon Dance Company, he received his BFA in dance from the Juilliard School and an MFA including a certificate in Arts Management from Purchase College, State University of New York. He has performed with Works/Laura Glenn Dance and the Jacob's Pillow Mens Dancers: The Ted Shawn Legacy. He has been in residence abroad with Dance International in Burgos, Spain, and an adjudicator for Certamen International de Choreografia, Burgos - New York. Paul is Festival Director for the White Mountains Summer Dance Festival at Sarah Lawrence College and is on faculty at the Ted Hershey Dance and Music Marathon, guest artist/faculty at Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College, Springfield College, Central Connecticut State University, Ridgefield Conservatory of Dance, and Trinity College, having restaged seminal masterpieces of Ted Shawn, Jose Limon and Doris Humphrey.
MONCELL DURDEN
Moncell Durden (Hip Hop) is a Philadelphia-based choreographer, instructor, dancer, and professor who has been performing for rap and R&B acts since 1988. Moncell has opened up for and performed with such acts as NWA, MC Hammer, Crystal Waters, Notorious BIG, and WU-Tang Clan. In 1998 Moncell became a member of MOT TOP PRODUCTION, the dancers for pop sensation Mariah Carey. He has danced in music videos for Will Smith (Men in Black), Martha Washington and Mariah Carey. In 1999 Moncell joined hip-hop theater company, Rennie Harris Puremovement. Moncell teaches funk styles, lockin, popping/boogaloo, social and collective hip hop and house dancing. Moncell is an adjunct professor at Drexel University and The University of the Arts. Mr. Durden has taught hip hop history at Yale University, Wesleyan University and Wm. Patterson University. Moncell started the HIP HOP FUNKSHOP, a dance workshop, to properly instruct people on the history of hip hop and the technique of true funk.
BILL HASTINGS
Bill Hastings has performed in over forty musicals and plays including the Broadway and National Tours of A Chorus Line, Cabaret, Bob Fosse's Dancin' and Sweet Charity. He has choreographed over forty productions across the United States, Europe, and Japan. In 2000, his piece Nabta Playa premiered at Jacob's Pillow by RhythMEK. Previously, Hastings was the Artistic Co-Director and Co-Founder of The Dance Connection. Throughout his career, he has worked with such dance luminaries as Bob Fosse, Michael Bennett, Graciela Daniele, Ron Field, and Chet Walker (whom he assisted during the creation of the Broadway musical Fosse).
ANDY LEBEAU
Andy LeBeau (Taylor 2) moved to New York City in 1993 as one of the original members of Taylor 2. In 1995, Mr. Taylor invited him to join The Paul Taylor Dance Company where he has enjoyed original roles in greats such as The Word, Piazzolla Caldera, Cascade and Promethean Fire. He has danced in favorites such as Roses, Aureole, Company B, Arden Court, Syzygy, Musical Offering, Esplanade, Airs and Black Tuesday, among many more. Traveling abroad with the Paul Taylor Dance Company to China, Russia, India, Brazil, much of Europe and Africa has enabled Mr. LeBeau to teach Taylor master classes throughout the world. Since retiring from the Paul Taylor Dance Company in August of 2005, he has been honored by Mr. Taylor entrusting him to recreate his choreography on other dance companies and educational institutions. In December of 2008, Mr. LeBeau became the newest Director of Taylor 2.
TROY POWELL
Troy Powell (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater), a native New Yorker, began his dance training at the age of nine at The Ailey School. Following his graduation from The High School of Performing Arts, he became a member of Ailey II. Mr. Powell joined Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1991. He toured throughout the United States, South America, Europe and South Africa for ten years 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, Dallas Black Dance Theater, National Dance Company of the Bahamas and Alaska Dance Theater. His guest artist credits include performing with companies such as Batsheva, Dallas Black Dance Theater and Complexions. In addition, Mr. Powell teaches master classes and workshops throughout the country.
IDDI SAAKA
Iddi Saaka is a dancer, dance teacher and choreographer from Ghana, West Africa. He obtained his first degree in dance from the dance department of the University of Ghana and his MFA in dance from the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA. He currently teaches West African Dance at Wesleyan University. Saaka has choreographed and performed at the World Festival of Sacred Music, the International Festival of Masks, the Skirball Center, Royce Hall, the Fowler Museum, Dance Arts Academy, Debbie Allen Dance Academy, El Portal Forum Theatre and the Music Center in Los Angeles. He has also served as visiting instructor of dance at UCLA, UC San Diego and the University of Ghana. In 2006 Saaka together with his wife and collaborator Galia Boneh designed and implemented a new model for creating culturally appropriate performance interventions on HIV/AIDS in Africa, through collaboration between local artists and people living with HIV/AIDS in Ghana. In the summer of 2008 they implemented a similar project in Malawi. Check out their projects at www.iddiandgalia.com and www.thisismystory.info
DIANNE WALKER
Dianne Walker (tap) is one of the world's greatest living tap dancers, Dianne Walker has been called the "Ella Fitzgerald of Tap Dance." Throughout her 30-year career, she has appeared on Broadway, on television, in film, on the international dance circuit, and in jazz clubs. She has mentored many younger dancers, including Savion Glover, and is a pioneer in the resurgence of tap. The elegance of her style earned her the nickname "Lady Di." Walker appeared in the film Tap with Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis Jr. She was the only woman in the famous "Hoofers Line" in the 1989 Broadway production of Black and Blue. Walker has been awarded numerous grants from institutions such as The National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts, Jacob's Pillow and the Massachusetts Cultural Council as well as received several lifetime achievement awards.
ANDREA WEBER
Andrea Weber (Merce Cunningham Dance Compnay) graduated with a BFA from The Juilliard School, under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy. Andrea has danced and taught for Canadian based Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie, participating in the Manitoba Project in August 2007 and in the Gros Mourne Project in July 2006. In November 2006, Weber danced an excerpt from Jessica Lang's Splendid Isolation II for Kanji Segawa's Dance Project New York. She has assisted and staged Lila York's works on ballet companies throughout the United States and in Denmark. Weber was a collaborator in Anne Carson's Possessive Used As Drink (Me). In 2008, Weber performed in Stacks, a collaboration between Carson, Jonah Bokaer and Peter Cole. She has also worked with Charlotte Griffin, Sue Bernhard and Ellen Cornfield. Weber joined MCDC in January 2004 and is currently a faculty member of the Merce Cunningham Studio.
