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| Posted 02.27.08 |
DanceMasters Weekend Showcases International Artists
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 Some
of the country’s top dance artists will teach and perform during Wesleyan’s
ninth-annual DanceMasters Weekend at Wesleyan 2008.
This year’s event consists of 15 master classes and showcase performances
featuring Ailey II, Susan Marshall & Company, and Zoe Scofield, recipient of
the 2008 Mariam M. McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award.
DanceMasters Weekend, scheduled March 8-9, is sponsored by the Center for
the Arts.
“The mission of DanceMasters is to introduce dance students to contemporary
techniques with the hope that they gain an understanding of the breadth and
depth of what is out there in the dance world,” says CFA art director Pamela
Tatge. “We also are providing regional dance teachers an important
professional development opportunity through contact with world-class master
teachers.”
This year’s showcase dancers include:
Ailey II, which is universally renowned for merging the spirit and energy of
the country's best young dance talent with the passion and creative vision
of today's most outstanding emerging choreographers. Alvin Ailey personally
appointed former Ailey member, Sylvia Waters, as Artistic Director in 1974.
Under her direction, Ailey II has become one of the most popular dance
companies in the country, combining a rigorous touring schedule with
extensive community outreach programs.
Susan Marshall & Company has, since 1982, performed the innovative works of
Artistic Director/Choreographer Susan Marshall in theaters throughout the
U.S., Europe and the Far East. A 2000 recipient of a John D. and Catherine
T. MacArthur Fellowship, Marshall has also received a Dance Magazine Award
and a Guggenheim Fellowship. For Dancemasters, they perform excerpts from
Cloudless, a collection of solos, duets and small group pieces which revisit
many of the concerns and structures that frame Marshall’s early work.
Zoe Scofield has been widely recognized in the northwest for her
choreographic innovation and was recently awarded a touring grant from the
National Dance Project. Scofield studied ballet as a scholarship student at
Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts in Boston. She then focused her
studies on Ashtanga Yoga, which has contributed to her signature eclectic
style of choreography. Her company merges a powerful visual aesthetic with
modern wit and balletic precision.
DanceMasters Master Classes take place from 10:30 to 6 p.m. Saturday, March
8 and from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, March 9 in the CFA’s two dance
studios. Master classes are $95 for a weekend pass (six classes plus one
ticket to the performance) or $17 per class ($15 each for four or more) with
group discounts available. This year’s 15 classes represent a variety of
forms, including ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop and contemporary dance.
This year’s master class instructors include: Robert Battle, BattleWorks
Dance Company; Brian Brooks, Brian Brooks Moving Company; Leah Cox, Bill T.
Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company; Bill Hastings; Josh Hilberman, Tap;
Elizabeth Johnson, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange; Dana Moore, Jazz; Miki Orihara,
Martha Graham Dance Company; Roxane D'Orleans Juste, Limon Dance Company;
Mireille Radwan-Dana, Mark Morris Dance Group; Zoe Scofield; Eddie Taketa,
Doug Varone and Dancers; Karla Wolfangle, Paul Taylor Dance Company; a
member of Ailey II; a member of Susan Marshall and Company.
“For a dance student to find such a high concentration of classes by
top-notch artists including many artistic directors of major companies, it
would take them several days in New York and cost them a great deal of
money,” Tatge says. “At DanceMasters, they can do it in two days for much
less.”
Since DanceMasters began nine years ago, it has been unparalleled in
presenting a diverse selection of high-level artists and companies including
Nederlands Dans Theater, Garth Fagan Dance and the Merce Cunningham Dance
Company.
The event began in 2002 when the CFA partnered with lifelong dancer Mariam
McGlone. After a dance career that spanned 70 years, had
been organizing her own annual dance workshop on the Connecticut shore for
over 10 years. Through the partnership, the Center for the Arts was able to
take McGlone’s workshop with four or five classes and a showcase and
transform it into a two-day intensive of 15 classes with a performance. In
2003, the Mariam McGlone Endowment Fund was established to support the event
for years to come.
The annual showcase performance has sold out for the last eight years. This
year's performance will take place at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 8 the CFA
Theater. Showcase performance tickets are $21 general admission and $17 for seniors
and students. For more information on the showcase or registering for DanceMasters classes, call 860-685-3355 or visit
www.wesleyan.edu/dancemasters. |
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