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Global Dance Network

April 16, 2012 by 4dancers

by Jessica Wilson

Global Dance Network has just been launched after a two year build as a huge social networking site for all styles of dance worldwide, from ballet to street dance. In an incredibly powerful yet easy to navigate resource, GDN holds a multitude of dance-related articles, reviews, a jobs and auditions recruitment system, an online dance context, details of dance events, forums, discount coupons and more. The founders of GDN advocate the enormity of the site as partly social network, part information platform, part interactive dance contest, encompassing everything dance-related for the dance enthusiast, student and teacher.

As a virtual dance community, GDN has become the host of the ultimate features of a dance website through the evolution of a social networking site to provide more for its users. The website justifies a multitude of reasons for dancers to spend even more time communicating about dance on considerably more levels than has been achieved previously, without losing sight of the dance aesthetic. The huge achievement that has emerged as the result of the building of the GDN emphasises, now more than ever, the vast importance of keeping the dance spirit alive for now and the future.

A main feature of the new site is the incredibly interactive dance contest, the “Global Dance Chart” competition. Members of the GDN site can enter a video of themselves dancing in any of the fourteen categories, which immediately goes live on the site.  Other users and even the general public can then vote for videos, with votes displayed in real time. The player can be used like a television, allowing users to flick between dance channels, styles and videos whilst voting. The creators of the GDN aim to make this the best real time dance contest anywhere on the internet, representing their huge investment into the site. [Read more…]

Filed Under: 4dancers, Online Dance Resources, Organizations Tagged With: dance jobs, global dance network, social network for dancers

Brooklyn Ballet: Revolutionaries and Romantics

April 13, 2012 by 4dancers

Brooklyn Ballet’s 2012 season, “Revolutionaries and Romantics” is currently underway, and it includes a performance at the Kumble Theater today, Friday, April 13th. We corresponded with Artistic Director Lynn Parkerson about live music, different dance styles and more. Here’s a behind-the-scenes peek…

Photo by Julie Lemberger

The project started with a conversation with Kumble Theater Director, Rodney Hurley. He wondered what kind of program Brooklyn Ballet would create to illuminate major influences in classical ballet at the turn of the century ca.1890-1920. My first thought was Isadora Duncan and the Russian ballet. Research suggests that Isadora had a profound influence on classical ballet. Michel Fokine, Anna Pavlova, Sergei Diaghilev were all mad about her performances. I was curious about the structural and artistic ideas of both Duncan and Fokine and sought to interweave Duncan’s Chopin Waltzes and Fokine’s Les Sylphides. I found wonderful similarities and harmonious contrasts, a dance of great ghosts. She is the Revolutionary, he is the Romantic. Her courage gave life to his romantic ideas heretofore suppressed by the constraints of the Russian Imperial Theater. There are other tie-ins to the theme. Isadora’s own work plums the depths of love and her Chopin Dances are all about romantic love. Isadora’s powerful Revolutionary Etude, one of her last works, expresses like no other work the spirit of Revolution.

Photo by Julie Lemberger

I like the way different dance styles connect with each other even though they are seemingly quite different. I like to find connections, then expand on them as opposed to fusing two styles. For example, when I add three African-based modern dancers to The Marzipan Dance from The Nutcracker, the dancers remain in separate opposing diagonals, the choreography of the ballet dancers, spiky, light and vertical, the choreography of the modern dancers low-slung, lateral, weighted. They dance in unison nonetheless, a rhythmically-related flirt fest!

I’ve also been working with pop and lock dancers since 2005, collaborating primarily with Michael “Mike Supreme” Fields. In this season our departure point was Stravinsky’s “Suite Italienne.” What is so interesting is how the “pop and lock” dancers respond to the Stravinsky in such a directly personal way. The ballet dancers, on the other hand, have step material through which the music is interpreted more abstractly. Still, when performed all together the dancers are characters on the stage, relating to each other in their given forms. The ballet dancers are at times improvising and the “pop and lock” dancers are choreographing. Both sets of dancers are exploring new territories.

Photo by Julie Lemberger

A whole world, of human interaction, of sound coming from human hands on acoustic instruments. The musicians–violinist Gil Morgenstern, director of The Reflection Series, and pianist Julius Abrahams–are world class. Their music soars and gives the dancers such a ground to dance on and an energy that changes from minute to minute, is slightly unpredictable, that forces the dancers to interact.

What is next for Brooklyn Ballet?

Next season I’d like to create a work that uses digital technology to map out floor patterns of the dancers in real time. I want to reveal the conscious use of space that I and all choreographers use as we create. Choreographers don’t take space for granted. I want to let the audience in on this. Music choices will include Harpsichord works by Louis and Francois Couperin. It is also Brooklyn Ballet’s 10th year anniversary so we’ll be celebrating our education and outreach programs as well.

BIO: Lynn Parkerson, Founding Artistic Director of Brooklyn Ballet, began ballet studies as a child with Barbara Bounds in Chapel Hill, NC. She later danced with the Boston and Chicago Ballets, performing many Nutcrackers and Balanchine ballets. In New York City, she was a trainee at the Harkness House for Ballet Arts and on scholarship at the Merce Cunningham School, where she studied technique and learned repertory. In addition, she trained in the Limón Technique with Libby Nye and ballet with the Corvinos. From 1986 to 1996, she performed the repertory of Isadora Duncan as interpreted by Hortense Koulouris and Julia Levien.

Ms. Parkerson began to choreograph while living in Munich, Germany, dancing with Birgitta Trommler’s TanzProject Munchen. Her work has been presented at many promi- nent international events and venues, including the Munich Theater Festival, Frankfurt’s Theatre am Turm, the Florence International Festival of Dance, Moers New Jazz Festival, Jazz Festival Baden-Baden and An Appalachian Summer Arts Festival in Boone, NC, among others. In New York City, she presented annual dance programs—notably the popular ballet series To the Pointe—as Director of Dance at Holy Trin- ity from 1991-2001. Her work has been supported by grants from the Harkness Foundation for Dance, Joyce Mertz-Gilm- ore Foundation and Con Edison. She was on the faculty at the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center from 1989-1996 and then served as its Assistant Director from 1996-1999. Ms. Parkerson has taught dance, improvisation, and choreogra- phy to children and adults in New York and abroad.

In recognition of her exceptional leadership contributions to Brooklyn’s cultural community, Ms. Parkerson received the Betty Smith Arts Award as part of the Women’s “Her- story” Induction Ceremony and Reception in 2007. Each year, the awards, named after some of the most outstand- ing women in Brooklyn “herstory,” are presented to six Brooklyn women. In 2006 she received the Paul Robeson Award for Artistic Excellence and Community Service.

 

Filed Under: 4dancers, Organizations Tagged With: anna pavlova, brooklyn ballet, classical ballet, fokine, isadora duncan, kumble theater, les sylphides, lynn parkerson, serge diaghilev

The Joffrey: Spring Desire Affinity Night

April 12, 2012 by 4dancers

JOFFREY DANCERS: CHRISTINE ROCAS AND MAURO VILLANUEVA | PHOTO BY: SANDRO

4dancers is delighted to announce a partnership with the Joffrey Ballet and Vicki Crain of Rogue Ballerina!

Spring Desire Affinity Night will take place at Joffrey Tower on Wednesday, May 2nd. This is a totally FREE evening where you will get to see the Joffrey perform excerpts from the Spring Desire program, followed by a Q&A session with Artistic Director Ashley Wheater. Stay for cocktails and hors d’ouervres, mingle with fellow dance lovers and get an inside look at the space that the Joffrey calls home.

This is the perfect opportunity to bring a friend and let them experience the Joffrey for the first time–and all attendees will receive 50% off on tickets* for the final weekend of Spring Desire at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University.

*Offer not valid on previously purchased tickets.  (Please note: attendees are NOT required to purchase tickets.)

Interested? There are still spots available, but be sure to act quickly–seating is going fast for this spectacular event–and you must RSVP to attend (see below).

Here’s the info:

Wednesday, May 2

Joffrey Tower — 10 East Randolph Street, Chicago
5:45 pm Registration
6:00 pm Program and Q&A
7:00 pm Cocktails and Hors d’ouevres

To RSVP, please email affinity@joffrey.org or call 312-784-4640. Provide your name and the number of people you will be bringing to the event no later than April 25th.

Both Vicki and I will be there–so if you can make it be sure to say hello!

Please share this post with anyone you think would be interested — it really is a great opportunity to introduce someone to ballet–

Hope to see you there,

Catherine

Filed Under: 4dancers, 4teachers, Adult Ballet, Organizations Tagged With: affinity night, ashley wheater, auditorium theatre, chicago, joffrey, Rogue ballerina, spring desire, the joffrey ballet, vicki crain

The Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP)

April 10, 2012 by Ashley David

by Jessica Wilson

The Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) was formed in 2000 as a non-profit educational organization in order to support and develop world-class dancers from the ages 9 to 19, of all racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds.

YAGP aims to provide educational opportunities and scholarships to the world’s leading dance schools for young dancers as a global network of resources and opportunities which connect students, teachers, schools and dance companies. YAGP is known for providing students with top-quality education and training from the directors and faculties of some of the world’s foremost companies, such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet, among others. As a result, YAGP refers to itself as the “internet of the dance world”, working to maintain and extend the dance network of the United States, and provide a multitude of prospects for the next generation of dancers.

Each year, YAGP conducts 12 regional semi-finals competitions throughout the US, and an additional 4 international competitions in Brazil, Mexico, France and Japan, considerably extending the reach of YAGP. Each season culminates in a week-long ‘New York City Finals’, in which over 1,000 of the world’s most promising dancers compete for scholarships and professional job contracts offered by YAGP. The dancers are renowned for representing 30 different countries on 5 continents, emphasising the sheer expanse of YAGP in the dance world, and just how prestigious the organisation has become since its inception. [Read more…]

Filed Under: 4dancers, Competition, Organizations Tagged With: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, american ballet theatre, dance scholarships, dance schools, dancers, New York City Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet, yagp, youth america grand prix

Interview with Trinette Singleton from the Joffrey

December 6, 2011 by 4dancers

Today we have a special feature for 4dancers readers..an interview with Trinette Singleton from the Joffrey. One of the company’s well-known ballerinas, Singleton appeared in the multi-media ballet, Astarte, created on her by her mentor, Robert Joffrey. She was also the first dancer to ever appear on the cover of a national news magazine – Time. Later, she went on to become Ballet Mistress for the Joffrey.

Listen to her reminisce about her career here, and enjoy!

Interview with Trinette Singleton from the Joffrey

If you are interested in learning more about the Joffrey and its history, be sure and keep tabs on the new documentary, Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance, slated for release in 2012. More on that soon….

Filed Under: 4dancers, 4teachers, Organizations Tagged With: joffrey, joffrey mavericks of american dance, the joffrey, the joffrey ballet, trinette singleton

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