Hello Dancers!
The blog is quite literally PACKED with information so I'll keep my comments short. It's been an amazing year so far and, as you'll see below, there are many great things to come in the remaining weeks of the semester. And, of course, there are the many, many details of your lives as students and individuals. It's no news that life as a dancer is full of challenges. It's times like this where we get to practice activating our deep love for this art to keep us positive and engaged in every part of our dancing lives. I appreciate how much energy and commitment all of you bring to your training and studies in our program and I'm truly excited about closing out the year on a high note with all of you. In other words...
Keep up your energy and enjoy the ride! You can do it!!!
And now, on with the rest of the blog!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
GUEST
ARTISTS:
We've
had such an incredible year with a veritable stream of amazing guest artists
and teachers bringing new information and training practices to share with our
great students. Joe-Joe Smith, Hassan
Christopher, Ryann Lievens, Pamela Sofras, Christian Donnelly, Suzanne
McCartney, and the gorgeous dancers of Koresh including our very own Shannon
Bramham and Micah Geyer! What a great
year and there are more to come!
But first, please join me in thanking our current ECDA officers, in particular
president Kelsie Jayne and vice-president Sarah Kleinke, for bringing in
Tiffany Rae-Fischer from the Elisa Monte Company in New York. We feel lucky as a faculty to have such an
engaged and proactive student organization and are very excited to have Tiffany
with us for a few days of classes next week.
Thanks, ECDA!!!
Here
is a list of the remaining guest artists for the year with their class
schedules. Please be on the lookout on
Callboard for details regarding signups in the classes with space for
additional students.
Jason
Aryeh (West African & Contemporary fusion)
March
26
9:30-10:50am
beginning
11-12:20pm
advanced
12:30-1:50pm
intermediate
Tiffany
Rae-Fischer/Elisa Monte
Monday,
March 30th
Improvisation
class 3:30-5pm.
Tuesday,
March 31st
Intermediate
Ballet 9:30 - 10:50 am.
Intermediate
Modern 12:30 - 1:50 pm
Advanced
Ballet 12:30 - 1:50 pm.
Advanced
Modern (rep) 2 - 3:20 pm.
Wednesday,
April 1st
Beginning
Ballet 8 - 9:20 am.
Beginning
Modern 11 - 12:20 pm.
Advanced
Ballet 12:30 - 1:50 pm.
Advanced
Modern 2 - 3:20 pm.
Q&A
session 3:30 - 4/4:30
Diana
Byers (Ballet)
April
16th
11am-12:20pm
12:30-1:50pm
Valerie
Robin (Ballet)
May
1
Time
TBA
May
4
Adv
ballet - 11–1pm
UPCOMING EVENTS
Random Acts!
Make sure you get
your tickets in advance for this weekend's Random Acts show, highlighting works
in jazz, tap and musical theater (3/28 &29). It's
always a fabulous show packed with heartfelt and entertaining pieces. The shows are at 4pm and 8pm on Saturday and
1pm on Sunday. Tickets are $5 and can be
purchased at our box office or online at ecuarts.com. See you there!
Other
Upcoming Shows:
Spring
2015 Senior Choreography Showcase
April
25 & 26
Sat:
12 & 4pm; Sun: 5 & 8pm
LIGHTS
UP!
An
informal evening of student choreography
Wednesday,
April 30 at 8pm
Last
Dance
The
final showings for the Composition II class projects
May
4 at 8pm
New
Admitted Student Day
This
weekend will be the first annual "New Admitted Student Day" at
ECU. The focus of the event is to
welcome new students who have been admitted to ECU while beginning to orient
them to the many things the university has to offer. In addition, it gives students a chance to
engage with the various programs they are interested in as majors. Since we already have a fabulous incoming class of talented freshmen, we'll be using the
opportunity to meet with them to introduce some of the specifics of our yearly
calendar and to talk through their first year in school. We want to give them as much information up
front so that they come in feeling like they are a part of our dance
family. Please contact me if you'd like
to volunteer to help with the meeting with the new students at 2:30pm. Thanks!
Congratulations
to Teal Darkenwald and the many students from our program and school for their
excellent presentations as part of Intersection: Arts@Sciences during the
current Research and Creative Activity Week on campus. Teal has been an incredible force for
generating activity in this area and it is a testament to her energy and
engagement that so many students presented in this event. In a conversation with the Dean of our
College, Chris Buddo, he spoke at length about
how impressed he was by the excellence of our students. High praise, indeed! Here is a list of the fabulous presenters at
this year's event:
· Mask Making: From Production to the Stage (Dylan Ritch and
Jordan Brown)
· Dance as a Teaching Tool (Megan Rhodes)
· I Lie Awake (Kristalyn Gill with her dancers Hailey Bates and Chloe Ament)
· Determining the Effects of a Dance Specific Anaerobic Warm-up
Protocol to Enhance Pelvic Alignment in University Ballet Dancers (Teal Darkenwald and
Amy Parrish)
Speaking
of creative activity, a huge congratulations to all the incredible
choreographers and dancers who have contributed to the amazing shows we've had
already this semester.
Contemporary
Concert - I'm proud to say that our Contemporary Concert included the most
student works to date - seven gorgeous dances by Erica Bolick, Bridget
Corrigan, Nicole Gemmell, Jazlyn Moore, Sarah Kleinke, Megan Rhodes and Kanon
Sapp. Along with two great works by
Patti Weeks, the show displayed the variety of approaches to contemporary
dance. It was particularly exciting to
see our freshmen class take the stage in Weeks' contemplative group work,
"The Golden Rule." Great
dancing and rich choreography made for a wonderful evening. Well done
ACDA
- Megan and Bridget went on to present their works to much applause and acclaim
at the American College Dance Association's Mid-Atlantic Conference in Towson,
Maryland over spring break. And our
queen of comedic dance, Patti Weeks, received incredible feedback and responses
from both the audience and adjudicators for her work at the conference. I've also heard from a couple of colleagues
at other institutions that our students were, once again, some of the strongest
dancers at the conference and that their positive and open attitudes were a
pleasure in classes. Yep, no surprise
there - you guys ROCK. Thanks to all for representing our university, school
and program in such a positive way!
: )
John Dixon