To The Pointe News
The Chicago Dancing Company, Inc. and the Museum of Contemporary Art in association with the City of Chicago, Millennium Park presents the Chicago Dancing Festival - a free event featuring dancers from internationally renowned dance companies including American Ballet Theater, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Ballet Florida, Complexions Dance Company, The Joffrey Ballet, Muntu Dance Theater of Chicago and San Francisco Ballet. Wednesday, Aug. 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion of Chicago's Millennium Park. No tickets or reservations are required. For more information about the Chicago Dancing Festival, call 312.742.1168 or visit www.millenniumpark.org.
The New York Butoh Festival is accepting registration for its workshop, October 28-November 11 at Dance Theater workshop and Movement Research, NYC. This is a celebration of the art of Butoh with performances by artists from around the world, rare films, lectures, photo exhibits, workshops and classes taught by a distinguished faculty. Events will also be held in various locations around New York, including Japan Society, the Noguchi Museum, and CAVE headquarters in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. For registration or questions, please contact CAVE: phone: 212/561-9539; by e-mail: workshops@caveartspace.org
Rebecca Kelly Ballet
This NYC-based Troupe premieres works in Lake Placid, Thursday, Aug. 2, 8pm, at Lake Placid Center for the Arts.
Rebecca Kelly Ballet performances combine a contemporary point of view with classical expression, and provides "a wealth of inventiveness...luscious weddings of music and movement" says New York City's Back Stage. The restaging of the modern work, "Tear of the Clouds" (1989) considers the topic of acid rain and the death of a forest. "Tear of the Clouds" is viewed through a screen of projected images of an animist world in which dancers are the ailing spirits of trees. Kelly and photographer Mark Sadan collaborated on a vision working with the dancers in the woods by Lake Placid. Exploring the most primitive of shapes with lush movement, Kelly's work evokes a beautiful broken world. "Tear" was the first of Kelly's body of environmentally themed works which resulted in "Faces of the Earth." Costumes are hand painted by Donna Marxer.
The program also features the timely and provocative premiere of "Long Time Passing," performed to a string quartet by Australian composer Charles Vine, an ensemble work, inspired by letters to family and friends from Soldier Nolan, stationed in Baghdad. It combines without stopping 3-parts: 2002 just before the war started, 2003 when soldiers were shipping out, and now, when they should be coming home. The title is taken from a 1960's protest song by Peter Seeger.
Kelly has been making ballets inspired by The Adirondack Park for over two decades. "Adirondack Elemental" is a trilogy that narrows its focus to the textures of the region, with original scores by three mountain women.
Live From Lincoln Center Presents the Mark Morris Dance Group in "Mozart Dances"
Mostly Mozart Festival Presents Encore Performance of Acclaimed Dance to Music of Mozart; Louis Langrée to Lead Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and Solo Pianists Emanuel Ax and Yoko Nozaki
Thursday, August 16, 2007 at 8 p.m.*
Tune in to PBS on Thursday, August 16 at 8 p.m. for Live From Lincoln Center's presentation of the Mark Morris Dance Group performing the lush and evocative "Mozart Dances" from the New York State Theater (check local listings). Commissioned last year by Lincoln Center for the 40th anniversary Mostly Mozart Festival, the work premiered in August 2006 to three sold-out houses and wide critical praise. "Mozart Dances" returns to the Festival for four encore performances this year, August 15-18. The dance is set to three piano works of Mozart performed by music director Louis Langrée, soloists Emanuel Ax and Yoko Nozaki, and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra.
Mark Morris's "Mozart Dances" is a triptych, with each of the three dances--named "Eleven," "Double," and "Twenty-Seven" after the accompanying Mozart works--containing motifs that echo throughout the evening-length work. The first, set to Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 11 in F major, K.413, is primarily for the company's women dancers; the second, primarily for the men, is set to the Piano Sonata in D major for two pianos, K.448; and the final calls for the full company and is set to the Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major, K.595.
The premiere of "Mozart Dances" earned wide critical acclaim with The New York Times proclaiming the work a "masterpiece, a triumph for the Mostly Mozart Festival...and one of Morris's grandest achievements." The Village Voice said, "Morris lends us his ears, shows us what he hears--the tender camaraderie in the music; the way melodies and phrases are exchanged; the instrumentalists sharing sweet secrets, asking questions, answering them. That sense of sharing infuses both the structures and the ambience of the choreography."
Live From Lincoln Center, hosted by Beverly Sills, is currently in its 31st broadcast season. The series has received 12 Emmy Awards and was honored with two 2006 nominations for its broadcasts of "Jazz at Lincoln Center--Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert" and "A Lincoln Center Special: 30 Years of Live From Lincoln Center." The show is produced by Lincoln Center's John Goberman and directed by Kirk Browning. This series has made the world's greatest artists on Lincoln Center's renowned stages accessible to home viewers in virtually every corner of the United States. It remains the only series of live telecast performances on American television today.
OCU Honors Dancer
with Living Treasure Award
Oklahoma City University recently honored tap artist Deborah Mitchell with a Living Treasure in American Dance Award. Mitchell, the founder and artistic director of New Jersey Tap Ensemble, accepted the award from OCU's Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Arts Management.
The award honored Mitchell for preserving American culture in her feet, mind and spirit.
"We found her delightful as a friend, as a teacher and as someone to share American tap dance with our students," said Jo Rowan, chair of Oklahoma City University's dance department.
Mitchell said she appreciates the criteria for the award.
"Receiving the award was not only an honor," she said. "It touched me deeply because it not only honored the contribution I continue to make in my lifetime with my feet as a tap dancer, but it also recognized my mind and spirit, which I call the soul of my contribution."
Mitchell called OCU's dance program, under the leadership of John Bedford and Jo Rowan, impressive.
"The program addresses the art and business of dance and that is important to me because it addresses the total well being of the artist and how to manage art in one's life," she said.
Mitchell is a protégé of Leslie "Bubba" Gaines of the Copasetics and a student of many tap masters including Broadway choreographer Henry LeTang. Her credits as a professional tap artist include "The Cotton Club" on screen, "PBS Great Performances," Broadway and Paris productions of "Black and Blue," five international tours with the legendary Cab Calloway and a partnership with Germian Goodson as The Rhythm Queens duo.
Mitchell is chair of the tap department at Sharron Miller's Academy for the Performing Arts. She participates as an instructor and performer in the New York City Tap Festival and other similar events.
FDEO Conference 2007
Exceeding Expectations in Dance
Today's world brings many challenges to the world of dance. As dance educators it becomes both our personal and professional goal to not only meet the expectations that surround our art form, but to exceed them. This year the opportunity to equip ourselves for reaching our goals will present itself in the Florida Dance Education Organization (FDEO) Conference 2007: Exceeding Expectations in Dance. Join other dance educators for the chance to learn our craft, exchange ideas, create new connections, share in performances, and prepare for the upcoming year.
Bringing a focus to the 2007 Conference, Sally Fitt, author of Dance Kinesiology, the book on dance kinesiology used at most colleges and universities, will share her expertise in sessions designed to help the dancer and educator maximize their training time with students.
Refresh and renew with conference events and accommodations. Friday and Saturday evenings sample dance performances from across the state. New this year, National Honor Society of Dance Arts middle and high school chapters from the state of Florida will be presented in concert. Nightly, enjoy beautiful accommodations at the Radisson Hotel. Special conference rates are available at $99 per night with free parking and a shuttle to the conference center. Downtown West Palm Beach is vibrant and we are only minutes from the inter-coastal waterway and the beach.
This year's FDEO Conference will take place in the Cohen Pavilion at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts (downtown West Palm Beach) and is hosted by Florida Atlantic University, Dreyfoos School of the Arts and the West Palm Beach Dance/Arts Community. In addition to the opportunities to study and share with fellow dancers, come and enjoy the performances and the culture of this thriving arts community.
The FDEO Conference is October 11-13, 2007. As an affiliate of NDEO (National Dance Education Organization), they are a non-profit advancing dance education centered in the arts. For more information and to register, please visit their website: www.fdeo.org