Dancers!
I'm so happy I get to see all of your bright and shining faces in a little over a week! I hope you have all had truly fabulous summers chock full of exciting adventures, satisfying learning experiences, delicious dancing and, of course, SLEEP! We have another great year coming up and I wanted to send out some important details so that you can plan ahead.
One of the most exciting aspects of this year is the presence of our new faculty member, Ji-Eun Lee! Professor Lee will be serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor for this academic year and will be teaching two levels of both ballet and modern as well as dance history. Originally from South Korea, she has danced internationally and her award-winning choreography has been presented in 25 countries around the world. Her work is cutting-edge, smart, extremely physical and articulate and fluidly moves within the realms of contemporary ballet and contemporary modern dance. As a doctoral candidate in dance at the University of Surrey in the UK, Lee has a rich academic background that will provide much in the way of helping to deepen her students' understanding of dance art on every level. I hope all of you will welcome her with as much excitement and enthusiasm as we feel in bringing her here!
We also are putting together what we feel is a great roster of guest artists for the year. Our main residency will be with Zalman Grinberg who danced with NYCB and ABT and now choreographs for Carolina Ballet. We also have residencies with Megan Bowden, who danced with Urban Bush Women and David Dorfman Dance, and are proud to bring back Tiffany Rae-Fischer, Artistic Director of the Elisa Monte Dance Company in NY. We're working on several other residencies with NY-based choreographers and teachers and will send out updates as soon as those details are in place.
In addition to our Dance Activities Calendar I'm also attaching our tentative Wright Show Master Rehearsal Schedule for everyone to stay up to date and plan as needed. Make sure that you review the calendar before school starts. In particular, please note that we have a number of important events in the first week of school. The Tap Ensemble auditions on Tuesday, the SoTD mandatory meeting on Thursday and then our Dance 2016 mainstage show auditions will be held on 8/29 from 11:30am to 2:30pm with callbacks from 3-5pm. This is a quick start to our year so make sure you're actively preparing yourself to do your best dancing!
That's it for now! I'm looking forward to having a great year working with all of you and can't wait to get started.
See you soon!!!
John
John Dixon
Dance Area Coordinator
PS - One note about Dance 2016 rehearsals…
Unless announced otherwise, faculty choreographers for Dance 2016 will not begin their rehearsals until after Fall Break. In other words don't worry, we're going to start fast but not too fast! ; )
