Archive for the ‘DSL Dance Wire’ Category

The gala finale for the Young Dancemakers Company will begin at 7:30 p.m. July 31 at the Ailey Citigroup Theater in New York.

Young Dancemakers at their 2009 gala

The ensemble of 16 dance students was drawn by audition from public high schools throughout New York City in a free summer program that’s now in its fifteenth year. Its oldest choreographers graduated from high school this year; the youngest, Micaela Hall, is 14.

The company is winding up a seven-performance tour of New York venues that began July 21. For reservations for the finale, call 718.329.7250 or email aliceteirstein@aol.com.

In April, two longtime supporters of Pacific Northwest Ballet anonymously pledged $150,000 to match contributions made to the Seattle-based company by the end of its fiscal year.

PNB has not only met but exceeded this goal, which means that the full target amount was matched dollar for dollar, the company has announced, enabling it to sustain its dance, music, education, and outreach efforts.

“The results of our spring challenge were heartwarming for all of us at Pacific Northwest Ballet,” said artistic director Peter Boal. “Whether we received $10 gifts or $10,000 gifts, we learned how much you value our institution. We feel the same way about you (but please don’t ask us for money).”

The Ailey organization recently launched a redesigned website extending the online reach of all of Ailey’s components: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, The Ailey School, The Ailey Extension, and Ailey Arts in Education and Community Programs.  

The new website, www.AlvinAiley.org, features expanded content and streaming media, including video clips highlighting Ailey’s performances and program, along with interactive historical timelines.  The site incorporates bold colors and graphics and new navigational tools.

The project was made possible by funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s “Leading for the Future” initiative, administered by the Nonprofit Finance Fund. 

For more than a year, Ailey worked on the site redesign with a number of vendors, including Capacity Interactive as project manager.  HUGE, a digital design and technology firm, was responsible for the design of the site. 

“We wanted to capture the passion and grace of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, while simultaneously making it visually arresting and intuitive to navigate,” said Lilie Chang, engagement director at HUGE.

A high-powered gala will be the centerpiece of the Anaheim International Dance Festival (AIDF), which will take place August 6 to 8 in the Southern California city.

Misty Copeland

Gennadi Saveliev

AIDF will also offer workshop classes with international master dance coaches, an exhibit of dance memorabilia, and a dance film screening at Chapman University.

The gala starts at 8 p.m. August 7 at the Grove of Anaheim. It will feature Sascha Radetsky from the film Center Stage; Marcelino Sambé of Portugal, a gold medalist from the 2010 International Ballet Competition; the contemporary dance duo of Drew Jacoby and Rubinald Pronk; and American Ballet Theatre soloists Gennadi Saveliev and Misty Copeland.

Dancers from New York City Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Houston Ballet, and other companies will also perform. The evening’s program will include Twyla Tharp’s Sinatra Suite.

Tickets range from $20 to $225, with higher-priced tickets including dinner and a post-performance VIP reception. To order, visit www.Ticketmaster.com or call 714.712.2700. 

AIDF is presented by Anaheim Ballet and Chapman University, in association with Youth America Grand Prix. Other events include:

-          a week-long dance exhibit, with Russian treasures and Ballet Russe artifacts, at  the Anaheim Muzeo.

-          a screening of the documentary Ballet Russes and a question-and-answer session and reception with stars of the legendary troupe at 7 p.m. August 6 at Chapman’s Folino Theatre. Tickets are $20; to purchase, visit www.ticketweb.com.

-          classes August 7 and 8 at Chapman with Stanton Welch, artistic director of Houston Ballet, and other master teachers.

To learn more, call 714.490.6150 or email aidf@anaheimballet.org.

Patrick Armand will join the staff of the San Francisco Ballet School in September as the trainee program principal. He will teach the trainees in daily classes, stage and rehearse repertory, and oversee trainee performances. He will also teach in the school at various levels.

Born in Marseille, France, Armand won the Prix de Lausanne in 1980. He joined Ballet Theatre Français in 1981 and was promoted to principal dancer in 1983. In 1984 he was invited to join the London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet), and in 1990 he joined Boston Ballet.

Armand served as a jury member of the Prix de Lausanne in 1998 and 2009 and returned as a teacher and coach for the 2010 competition. In 2006 he was appointed teacher and ballet master of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

In its only East Coast engagement this year, Trey McIntyre Project will perform August 4 to 8 at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts. The program includes three contemporary ballet pieces.

Arrantza, McIntyre’s newest work, will premiere in Boise, Idaho, where the company is based, just days before it comes to the Pillow. Its title is a Basque word for “fishing,” and the piece is set to Basque music incorporating traditional instruments such as the txistu, a three-hole flute, and the alboka, a double hornpipe, interspersed with spoken interviews.

 (serious) comprises a series of solos and duets by two men and one woman dressed in oxford shirts and slacks. It’s set to music by Henry Cowell, a 20th century American composer and an early proponent of experimental technique, rhythm, and harmonies within the classical lexicon.

Wild Sweet Love deals with a woman’s search for affection and includes music by The Zombies, The Partridge Family, Lou Reed, Jose Alfredo Jimenez, Roberta Flack, and Queen.

Tickets range from $58 to $63 at jacobspillow.org or by phone at 413.243.0745.

Angelina Ballerina™ will be lending her support to hundreds of ballerinas as they gather August 2 in New York City’s Central Park in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for most ballerinas en pointe at one time. 

Ballet dancers age 13 and up are invited to take part. Proceeds from the gathering will benefit the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club performing arts program, a partner of the newly launched Angelina Ballerina Stars of Tomorrow (AB Stars) campaign that promotes the joys and benefits of dance for children around the world.

The goal of the campaign is to assemble 1,000 ballerinas from around the country at the Bandshell in Central Park, where they will stand en pointe for one minute at 6:30 p.m. The current record is 220 dancers. Participating dancers are encouraged to donate $10, with all funds going to the Kips Bay dance program.

Angelina Ballerina, the ballet-obsessed young mouse of the children’s books and animated TV series that bear her name, will be present at the event. American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Michele Wiles will serve as the event’s host, and ABT Soloist Craig Salstein will direct the dancers in dance steps leading up to the moment they stand en pointe.

Participants in the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club AB Stars program will perform with Angelina Ballerina and host an Angelina Ballerina-themed children’s activity area during the event.

The Central Park event is being organized by Gene Schiavone and his wife, Ellen. Gene Schiavone is a professional dance photographer whose clients include ABT, Boston Ballet, Maryinsky Theater, and Bolshoi Ballet. Ellen Schiavone has served on ABT’s board of trustees and is currently head of its Costume Fund.

To learn more about the record-breaking attempt, visit www.principaldancer.com.

For more information about the Angelina Ballerina Stars of Tomorrow program, visit:
www.angelinaballerina.com/usa/stars.asp.

Chicago Human Rhythm Project, the city’s hub for tap dance performance and education, will hold “Roaring in Our Twenties,” a gala benefit, at 5:30 p.m. October 25 on the Jay Pritzker Pavilion Stage in the city’s Millennium Park.

The evening begins with a cocktail reception and silent auction, followed by performances by CHRP’s performing ensemble BAM! and other tap and percussive artists from Chicago and beyond. The evening will conclude with dinner and a dessert reception where guests can meet the evening’s performers.

Tickets go for $150, $250, and $500. To buy them or to learn more, visit www.chicagotap.org or call 773.281.1825.

Sarasota Ballet has hired Mary Anne Servian as the business director for the Florida-based company.

Servian has worked as a consultant with municipalities and local governments to improve their management and operation practices. She is a former mayor, vice mayor, and city commissioner for Sarasota. At Sarasota Ballet she will be responsible for special projects in operations and development.

She takes the position in a challenging financial climate for arts organizations. In June, Sarasota Ballet learned that it would be getting $6,622 for general program support from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs. It had asked for $15,000.

Jackrabbit Technologies, producers of class management software for dance studios and other educational settings, has unveiled a new option that is free to users and will help them market to prospects with greater ease and cost-effectiveness.

The Unlimited Lead File gives Jackrabbit customers a way to segregate inactive users from active users and keep them in the system so they can market to them. By offering this option, Jackrabbit also enables customers to reduce their active student count and in turn, reduce their active student-based fees.

The option also opens up new marketing capabilities because customers can not only move inactive students from their Jackrabbit active file, but they can also enter prospects who have never enrolled with their organization and create a full-fledged marketing database.

The new feature allows prospects to be placed in the Unlimited Lead File in three ways.

Contacts can be uploaded from data files, such as Excel; entered individually; or moved from the active contacts in the Jackrabbit system. 

The Unlimited Lead File has no associated quantity limits, so users can aggressively build prospect databases and maintain contact with students and families that have a history with them. The size of a customer’s Unlimited Lead File also has no impact on active student numbers, and therefore adding contacts to it does not increase monthly system cost.

To learn about Jackrabbit solutions for specific types of class-based organizations, visit www.Jackrabbittech.com.

The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago presents the Chicago debut of Hiroshima-born choreographer Yasuko Yokoshi with her work Tyler Tyler from October 28 to 30 at The Dance Center, 1306 South Michigan Avenue.

Tyler Tyler by Yasuko Yokoshi (Photo by Shimpei Takeda)

Yokoshi’s inspiration for Tyler Tyler comes from The Tale of the Heike, a classic twelfth-century Japanese epic of warring clans that has as its central theme the Buddhist law of impermanence.

Tyler Tyler continues Yokoshi’s collaboration with Masumi Seyama, a master teacher of Kabuki Su-odori dance (a stripped-down form of Kabuki revered for its purity and simplicity, performed without the facial makeup and dramatic gestures of traditional Kabuki).

The cast of six—two U.S. dancers, a U.S. musician/singer, and three Japanese dancers/actors, has trained for many years with Seyama, who has provided several pieces of classic Su-odori repertory for the project. With both Japanese and U.S. dancers, Yokoshi is deconstructing and rearranging Fujima’s classic repertory using postmodern techniques.

The piece features original music performed live by Steven Reker, as well as recordings by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Cat Power, Lou Reed, and The Carpenters.

A discussion with the artists will follow the October 28 performance. Also, Yokoshi will lead a master class for intermediate and advanced dancers at 6 p.m. October 25 at the Lou Conte Dance Studio at the Hubbard Street Dance Center.

Performance tickets are $26 to $30; the master class fee is $15. To learn more, call 312.369.8330 or visit www.colum.edu/dancecenter.

New York-based choreographer Yin Mei returns to the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts, from August 4 to 8 with City of Paper, an evening-length contemporary dance-theater work that merges movement, paper and ink, and video projections with live and recorded music.

Yin Mei will be joined by butoh artists Kota Yamazaki and Kanako Yokota and by Dai Jian, who performed with Shen Wei Dance Arts before joining the Trisha Brown Dance Company.

The four performers dance and interact with a digitally enhanced set, designed by Yin Mei, in a series of dreamlike vignettes inspired by the choreographer’s childhood during China’s Cultural Revolution.

The original score by Richard Marriott is performed live by violist Stephanie Griffin. The piece also includes music by experimental American composer Bora Yoon and French bossa nova singer/songwriter Camille.

Tickets range from $31 to $36, with $20 tickets available for those 35 and younger. Call 413.243.0745 for details.

Artistic personnel from Yin Mei Dance will lead a master class at the festival for intermediate and advanced dancers from 10 to 11:30 a.m. August 8. To register, call 413.243.9919, extension 5. The fee $15, or $8 for dance instructors with proper identification. Observation is free and open to the public.

Patricia Barker

Grand Rapids Ballet Company in Michigan has named Patricia Barker, a former principal dancer with Pacific Northwest Ballet, as its interim artistic director. A national search for a new artistic director will commence this summer.

Barker has appeared as a guest artist with national and international ballet companies. She danced the lead role of Clara in Nutcracker the Motion Picture and starred as Titania in the BBC film A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and has also been artistic advisor for the Slovak National Ballet.

Her one-year appointment in Grand Rapids follows the resignations of the troupe’s artistic director, Gordon Peirce Schmidt, in May and of its associate artistic director, Laura Berman, in June.

Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre and Forty Steps Dance of Nahant will perform at 8 p.m. August 6, 7, and 8 on the outdoor stage at the Windhover Center for the Performing Arts, 257 Granite Street in Rockport, Massachusetts. (In case of rain the performances will be held indoors.)

Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre in Middlegame

The Dušan Týnek troupe will perform Middlegame, a piece that takes its inspiration from the game of chess and 19^th-century café life, and Base Pairs, in which the only accompaniment is a single ticking metronome.

 Forty Steps Dance of Nahant, directed by Sallee Slagle, will perform Lux Aeterna and Two from Tull, as well as their latest work, Beneath the Surface, which premiered in Boston in May.

General admission tickets are $15, or $12 for students and seniors. To order, call Windhover Center for the Performing Arts at 978.546.3611 or email windhover@verizon.net.

The Department of Communication and Dramatic Arts at Central Michigan University is looking for a full-time temporary dance instructor for the 2010-2011 academic year.

The position’s duties include teaching modern dance and ballet technique, dance history, composition, rhythmic analysis, and body sciences, as well as supervision of the dance minor program, management and artistic direction of dance concert productions, and choreography for the dance company’s concerts.

Candidate requirements include an MFA in dance or an MA with commensurate professional experience; three years of college-level teaching; substantial dance performance and choreographic experience; experience with dance production; and excellent organization and interpersonal skills.

The position includes full benefits. Interested candidates should submit a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, copies of college transcripts, a DVD of his/her choreography or staged repertory, a statement of teaching philosophy, and the names, telephone numbers and email addresses of three references.

Send materials to: Dance Search Committee Chair, 333 Moore Hall, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI 48859   The College of Communication and Fine Arts website is http://www.ccfa.cmich.edu.

Artistic Motion School of Dance in Greensboro, North Carolina, is joining the push to launch National Dance Day on July 31 by offering free classes all that day.

The one-hour offerings start with yoga at 9 a.m., followed by ballet at 10 a.m., modern at 11 a.m., and Nia Technique at noon. After an hour-long lunch break, classes resume with musical theater dance at 2 p.m., jazz at 3 p.m., Zumba at 4 p.m., and ballroom at 5 p.m.

TV’s hit show So You Think You Can Dance and the Dizzy Feet Foundation are promoting the idea of National Dance Day as part of their commitment to support dance education and physical fitness in the United States.

Artistic Motion will also accept donations of money or used dance shoes to the Dizzy Feet Foundation. To learn more, call 336.286.2911 or visit www.artisticmotiondance.com.

What do Robert L. Reed, Domeshia Sumbry-Edwards, Avi Miller and Ofer Ben, and Melba Huber have in common (besides having names familiar to lovers of tap)?

They’ll all be in St. Louis, Missouri, the week of July 26 to 31 for the 19^th annual St. Louis Tap Festival, which this year will be honoring tapper Gene GeBauer, who danced on Broadway in Hello Dolly, Camelot, Once Upon a Mattress, and other hits.

Most of the action will be happening at the Sheraton in Clayton, the site of tap workshops from 8:30 a.m. to 7:15 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8:30 to 11:15 a.m. on Saturday. A salsa class and party are planned for 8:30 p.m. July 27, with a Tap Jam at the same time the following day and a participants’ showcase at 8:30 p.m. July 30.

“All That Tap,” a show featuring prominent festival participants, starts at 7 p.m. July 31 at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

To learn more, visit http://www.tapheritage.org/2010a/index.html.

Monica Bill Barnes brings her blend of theatricality, intelligence, humor, and physicality to Jacob’s Pillow Dance from July 28 to August 1 at the annual festival in Becket, Massachusetts.

Barnes and her dancers will perform excerpts from Another Parade, set to music ranging from Bach to James Brown; mostly fanfare, a world premiere co-commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow and set to songs recorded by Nina Simone; and here we are, a 2009 solo set to Simone’s “Wild Is the Wind” and choreographed and performed by Barnes herself.

Tickets are $31 to $36. To order, visit www.jacobspillow.org or call 413.243.0745.

While at Jacob’s Pillow, Barnes will lead a master class for intermediate and advanced dancers from 10 to 11:30 a.m. August 1. Master classes are $15 per class, or $8 for dance instructors with identification. Registration is required; to sign up, call 413.243.9919, extension 5. (Observation is free and open to the public.)

Also, starting at 5 p.m. July 29, Barnes will screen and comment on film clips of classic comic dancers such as Lotte Goslar, Iva Kitchell, and Myra Kinch during a discussion on the use of humor in concert dance. Admission to the talk in Blake’s Barn is free.

San Francisco Ballet has announced the addition of 12 new dancers for the 2011 season.

Artem Yachmennikov will join the company as a principal dancer and Vito Mazzeo will join as a soloist. Yachmennikov trained at the Vaganova Academy and joined the Bolshoi Ballet in 2008 as a first soloist. In 2009, he won the Silver Medal at the Korea International Competition. Mazzeo received his early training at La Scala Ballet School. From 2005 to 2008 he performed with The Royal Ballet, and in 2008 he joined Teatro dell’Opera.

Joining the corps de ballet are Daniel Baker, Nicole Ciapponi, Koto Ishihara, Elena Kazakova, Dustin Shane, Sebastian Vinet, and Lonnie Weeks. In addition, Kimberly Braylock, Myles Thatcher, and Sylvie Volosov have been promoted from apprentices to the corps de ballet.

Those joining San Francisco Ballet as apprentices include Caroline Wilson and former San Francisco Ballet School students Evan Hewer, Patricia Keleher, and Raymond Tilton. The company roster now stands at 69 dancers plus five apprentices.

In the final week of the annual Bates Dance Festival, the annual “Different Voices” concert showcases the internationalism of contemporary dance, with choreographers from Canada, Mozambique and Mexico bringing compelling styles and perspectives to the stage at 8 p.m. August 5 and 6 in Bates College’s Schaeffer Theatre in Lewiston, Maine.

Tickets are $24 (or $12 for students and seniors). To buy them, call 207.786.6161 or visit www.batesdancefestival.org/tickets.php. 
To learn more about the festival, visit www.batesdancefestival.org.

On the program are new works by choreographers Claudia Lavista and Omar Carrum of Mexico’s Delfos Danza Contemporanea; the Middle Eastern performer Donna Mejia; Mozambican choreographer Paniabra Gabriel Canda; Ethiopian dancer Shiferaw Tarikou, in his first U.S. appearance; Connecticut-based company elephant JANE dance; emerging choreographer Deborah Goffe; and Quebecois choreographer Helen Simoneau, a recent winner of the first prize for choreography at the Internationales Solo-Tanz-Theater Festival in Stuttgart, Germany.

One of the festival’s most popular annual events, “Moving in the Moment,” features contact improviser Chris Aiken and more than 20 members of the festival’s community of artists performing improvisational dance and music at 7:30 p.m. August 3 in Alumni Gymnasium, 130 Central Avenue. The free event is open to the public.

“Young Choreographers/New Works Showcase,” a free, informal presentation of more than 20 new dances created by students and international artists during the festival, starts at 1 p.m. August 7 in Schaeffer Theatre. Later that evening, the “Festival Finale” features students performing modern, jazz, and Middle Eastern dance created by faculty members Lavista, Carrum, Michael Foley, Doug Varone, and Cathy Young.

The Ailey Extension will present three workshops in August that focus specifically on ballet technique, performance, and instruction that will help everyone from beginning dancers to professionals to sharpen and expand their skills.

All workshops will be held in the Ailey Studios at 405 West 55th Street in New York. Here’s the lineup:

Fabrice Herrault Ballet Intensive Program: August 9 to 27, for dancers ages 10 to 18.

Herrault’s workshop features three levels of participation, daily technique classes, weekly showings of ballet films and choreography, and studio showings for parents and friends. He will be joined by special guest teachers Sofiane Sylve, a principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet; Alexandre Proia, a teacher at New York’s Peridance Capezio Center and the Joffrey School; and Paloma Herrera, principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre.

Kat Wildish “Performing in NYC” Summer Intensive: August 9 to 29, with three showcase performances on August 28 and 29.

Wildish’s hands-on, three-week ballet workshop culminates in a professionally produced showcase at The Ailey Citigroup Theater in New York City. It includes more than 30 classes, 15 hours of rehearsal time, and three performances of classical repertoire.

Finis Jhung NYC Teacher Workshop: August 7 and 8.
At this 10-hour weekend workshop, teachers and adult beginners will learn the “untaught” preparations which make a world of difference, such as how to place the body and work the muscles for maximum strength, control, and freedom of movement.

To learn more about the workshops or to register, visit www.aileyextension.com.

To The Pointe Performing Arts Academy in Wisconsin will host a family dance event on July 31 in celebration of National Dance Day.

The event will take place from 10:00 a.m. to noon at the studio’s Hartland location at 1115 Cottonwood Avenue and from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. at the Johnson Creek location, 540 Village Walk Lane.

Choreography from Nappytabs—So You Think You Can Dance choreographers Napoleon and Tabitha D’umo—will be taught at no charge, and prizes will be awarded for a free dance-off. Participants will be featured in a video that may be shown on YouTube. Other fun activities, food, and a bounce house will be available (a small charge may apply for these features).

To learn more, call 262.367.7177 or 866.813.6519 or email info@tothepointe.com.

The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago presents Alaska-born, Native American choreographer Emily Johnson and her company Catalyst in the Chicago premiere of The Thank-you Bar, also featuring the musical duo Blackfish. Performances are October 7 to 9 at The Dance Center, 1306 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago.

The Thank-you Bar, created by Johnson with composers/musicians James Everest and Joel Pickard (Blackfish), is an evening-length performance/installation of dance, live music, storytelling and visual image connecting ideas of displacement, longing and language to history, preconceived notions, architecture, and igloo-myth.

As part of Emily Johnson/Catalyst’s residency, there will be a post-performance discussion with the artists following the 9 p.m. performance on Thursday, October 7. Also, Johnson will lead a DanceMasters class at 6 p.m. October 4 at the Lou Conte Dance Studio at the Hubbard Street Dance Center. These classes are for dancers at the intermediate level or higher.

General-admission tickets to The Thank-you Bar are $26 to $30; because of the show’s space requirements, seating is extremely limited. For more information, call 312.369.8330 or visit www.colum.edu/dancecenter.

In collaboration with Friends of the Chicago River, the Dance COLEctive will present In Your Space at noon on September 10 and 11 at the McCormick Bridgehouse and Chicago River Museum, southwest tower of the Michigan Avenue Bridge.

In order to bring attention to the Chicago River in a new way, The Dance COLEctive will use the history presented by the museum (as well as the physical location) itself to create movement vocabulary for these performances.

The Dance COLEctive, founded in 1996, “aspires to challenge assumptions about how dance is presented, through the use of cutting-edge choreography, innovative collaborations, and inspired, creative, site-specific works,” according to its website.

To learn more, call 773.604.8452 or visit dancecolective.com.

Christopher Fleming, an evaluator and teacher at the USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Miss., in June, will be conducting free master classes in August for advanced ballet dancers age 16 and older in the Tampa Bay, Florida, area.

Classes will be held at Gibbs High School, St. Petersburg, August 13, 14, and 15; Hillsborough Community College, Tampa, August 16, 17, and 18; and the University of South Florida, Tampa, August 19 and 20. To register, email: GasparBallet@gmail.com.

Fleming is the former artistic director of the Compania Colombiana de Ballet in Bogota, Colombia, and of Bay Ballet Theatre in Tampa.

For more information, visit: www.gasparballet.com.

Teen Tix, a service in Seattle, Washington, that provides the city’s teenagers with low-cost tickets to arts events, has presented Pacific Northwest Ballet with three Teeny Awards.

The 2009-2010 season awards, announced via singing telegram by the Teeny Awards Delivery Squad, were for:

· Best Selling Show: Roméo et Juliette

· Best Dance Performance: 3 by Dove

· Favorite Organization Overall (large): Pacific Northwest Ballet

Now in its sixth year of operation, the Seattle Center’s Teen Tix provides 13 to 19-year-olds with access to 37 arts organizations. Members can buy day-of-show tickets to music, dance, theater, and arts events for only $5.

The Teeny Awards were created last year as a way to honor youth-friendly programming choices and acknowledge organizations where young audience members feel valued and welcomed. The awards are given by Teen Tix’s Steering Committee based on Teen Tix members’ voting in 20 categories.

To find out how to join Teen Tix or to view a list of participating organizations, visit www.seattlecenter.com/teentix.

The Beach Bums, the10-member cheer squad of the Brooklyn Cyclones minor-league baseball team, are offering the “Beach Bum ’10 Dance Clinic” from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, July 31, at MCU Park, where the Mets-affiliated Class A team plays.

For $25, attendees get—in addition to a dance lesson—two general-admission tickets to a Cyclones game and an official Beach Bums T-shirt. The clinic is for ages 7 to 16; dance experience is helpful but not essential.

Attendees are asked to register by July 24 by calling 718.382.2620. The ballpark is at 1904 Surf Avenue in Brooklyn.

Leggz Ltd. Dance of Rockville Centre, New York, has been chosen as the official dance school of the Beach Bums. The Leggz Ltd. Dance Ensemble is scheduled to perform for upcoming Cyclones games at MCU Park, the studio says.

Denise Jefferson, director of The Ailey School for 26 years, died July 17 in New York of ovarian cancer. She was 65.

Denise Jefferson (Photo by Andrew Eccles)

“Words cannot express the magnitude of Denise’s loss to both the Ailey organization and to the world of dance,” Judith Jamison, artistic director of the Ailey company, said in a statement. “It is a testament to her leadership that 87 percent of current Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater dancers honed their skills through training from The Ailey School.”

Jefferson was born in Chicago, where she began her ballet studies with Edna L. McRae. She was awarded a scholarship to the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance and later danced with the Pearl Lang Dance Company.

After teaching at The Ailey School for 10 years, she was appointed its director in 1984.

Her tenure saw the development in 1998 of the Ailey/Fordham BFA program, which offers Ailey students the chance to pursue liberal arts studies at Fordham University.

Tracy Inman and Melanie Person have been named acting co-directors of The Ailey School. Ana Marie Forsythe has been appointed acting director of the Ailey/Fordham BFA program.

Jefferson is survived by her daughter Francesca Harper, her sister Margo Jefferson, and her mother, Irma Jefferson. A memorial concert is being planned at The Ailey Studios; donations may be made in Jefferson’s memory to the Denise Jefferson Scholarship Fund at The Ailey School.

San Francisco Ballet will offer a free performance at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, August 8, as part of the 73rd concert season in the city’s Stern Grove Festival.

The company will perform Helgi Tomasson’s Prism; the pas de deux from After the Rain by Christopher Wheeldon; the pas de deux from Act 3 of Don Quixote, with choreography after Marius Petipa; and Mark Morris’ Sandpaper Ballet.

Sigmund Stern Grove is at 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard in the city’s Sunset/Parkside district. Attendees should arrive well in advance to secure lawn seating; picnicking is encouraged. The festival provides no parking, which is always a challenge, but there’s a free bicycle valet service and a free shuttle within the grove for elderly and disabled visitors.

To learn more, visit www.sterngrove.org or call 415.252.6252.

Fifteen students from Joy of Motion Dance Center will perform July 19 at the White House alongside some of musical theater’s biggest names in a show hosted by President Obama and his wife, Michelle.

JOMDC took part in this year’s White House Easter Egg Roll.

The music special, A Broadway Celebration: In Performance at the White House, will be broadcast nationwide (in a 60-minute version) on October 20 as part of the PBS In Performance at the White House series.

Among the Broadway performers scheduled to take part are Nathan Lane, Idina Menzel, Brian d’Arcy James, Audra McDonald, Chad Kimball, Marvin Hamlisch, Karen Olivo, Tonya Pinkins, and Assata Alston. Members of Joy of Motion Dance Center (JOMDC) companies—the Youth Dance Ensemble, Urban Impact, and resident company DCypher Dance—will perform “You Can’t Stop the Beat” from Hairspray. 

JOMDC is a nonprofit dance education and performance organization that offers classes to adults and children seven days a week at three locations in Washington, D.C., and Bethesda, Maryland. It was invited to perform in the Broadway concert following its dancers’ recent participation in the 2010 White House Easter Egg Roll.

 New York’s Columbia University offers free dance lessons in ballet, samba, and waacking on July 22 in the rotunda of the university’s Low Library as part of its Shall We Dance? program, now in its fourth year.

Aus Ninja

The action starts at 6:00 p.m. with ballet as taught by Robert Garland, a former principal dancer and resident choreographer with Dance Theatre of Harlem.

He’ll be followed at 7:15 p.m. by Quenia Ribeiro teaching salsa. Ribeiro is a dancer and choreographer from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who teaches samba and Afro-Brazilian dance at the Ailey Extension in New York.

The evening’s last instructor is Aus Ninja, also known as Aus Spotted Eagle, who has been a featured dancer with Madonna and Jody Watley. Starting at 8:30 p.m. he’ll teach vogue and waacking, a 1970s dance popularized on TV’s Soul Train (a video from the show, at www.waacking.com/the-rebirth-of-waacking.html, will show what it’s about—and maybe revive some old memories) and now enjoying a revival.

The evening will end with a dance party at 9:35 p.m. “Absolute beginners in all styles are welcome,” the university says. To learn more, visit www.neighbors.columbia.edu.

Visitors can sample a variety of free dance classes and talk to faculty and returning parents about the ODC School’s Youth & Teen Program during a Family Day open house August 29 at the ODC Dance Commons in San Francisco.

The Youth & Teen Program is designed to serves students seeking serious training as well as those looking to dance as an outlet for fun, creative expression.

During Family Day, placement classes for ballet and contemporary classes will take place for new students with dance experience who are interested in enrolling in the fall curriculum. Afternoon youth sampler classes include Little Bears Music & Dance for ages 2-3 and Aerial for ages 8-12.

While the kids are dancing, parents may take a free Pilates class. Then, the entire family is invited to try 30-minute family dance classes in salsa, African, and flamenco.

Also, Susan Weber, a certified college admissions adviser and dance specialist, will discuss college dance programs in a free seminar from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m., while ODC’s Kimi Okada and KT Nelson will shed light on the professional dance world. Parents as well as prospective college dance students are welcome.

Three new dance studios will be added for classes with the opening of ODC Theater on September 30. ODC’s two-facility, 36,000-square-feet campus will become the largest and most comprehensive state-of-the-art dance center in the region, with a free health clinic for dancers, a community lounge, a Pilates center, gallery spaces, locker rooms, and showers.

To learn more, visit http://www.odcdance.org/event_view.php?param=57.

New York City’s Peridance Capezio Center is proud to present, as the first professional production in its new Salvatore Capezio Theater, Nimbus Dance Works in collaboration with Taipei Crossover Dance Company on July 17 and 18.

The evening will include the world premiere of The Butterfly Dream, choreographed by Xiao-Xiong Zhang and performed by dancers drawn from both companies, with music by Judd Greenstein performed  live by the NOW Ensemble.

Also on the program are Samuel Pott’s Memo and Puzzle Pieces and Xiao-Xiong Zhang’s Rain. A reception will follow the 8:00 p.m. performance July 17. The program will be repeated—without the reception—at 1:00 and 7:30 p.m. July 18.

Tickets for the reception and performance are $65. Performance-only tickets are $20, with seniors and students admitted for $12. To order, call 800.838.3006.

Scarsdale Ballet Studio in Westchester, New York, is adding a third classroom at the school in the Vernon Hills Shopping Center as the studio celebrates its 19^th anniversary in September.

 “More space gives our students and teachers more opportunities to share and enrich their dance experience,” said artistic director Diana White.

The studio also has added Abi Stafford, a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, as a master teacher. Stafford, who remains with NYCB, recently moved to Westchester. She will join faculty members from NYCB, the Bolshoi, Ballet Hispanico, and other companies.

For further information visit www.scarsdaleballetstudio.com or call 914.725.8754.

AXIS Dance Company, an acclaimed ensemble of performers with and without disabilities, presents works by choreographers David Dorfman and Alex Ketley on July 30 and 31 as part of the Bates Dance Festival at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

AXIS Dance Company in Alex Ketley’s Vessel (Photo by Andrea Flores)

The weekend program at the college’s Alumni Gymnasium will include the most recent AXIS commission, Dorfman’s Light Shelter, and Ketley’s Vessel. For tickets, call 207.786.6381 or visit http://batestickets.universitytickets.com/user_pages/category.asp?id=27.

In addition, Judith Smith, the founder and artistic director of AXIS, and some of the company’s dancers will discuss their mixed-abilities work and their collaborations with choreographers in a lecture-demonstration at 7:30 p.m., July 26, also in the Alumni Gymnasium. Admission is free.

Kiner Enterprises Inc. has launched its second annual national recruiting campaign for dance teachers across America.

Kiner, founded in 2007, describes itself as the largest dance teacher staffing company in the U.S. It provides professional dance instructors and choreographers nationwide for last-minute subs, dance workshops, master classes, private dance lessons, and group lessons. Kiner also provides social media management and development for dance studios and dance companies, and consulting on marketing clients’ dance business.

“There are talented and experienced dance teachers across America who are looking for work and are not able to access the types of opportunities that they desire in their local area. We help to connect them with jobs at dance studios and schools in their area that they may not have been able to access otherwise,” says Ashani Mfuko, Kiner’s CEO and president.

Dance teachers should email their head shot, resume, bio, and two references to recruiting@kinerenterprises.net. Each candidate will be screened, and those who pass will be contacted for a preliminary phone interview.

The majority of Kiner’s registered dance instructors have a bachelor’s or master’s degree in dance or the performing arts, have taught internationally, are members of AEA or AGMA, and have from 2 to 25 years’ experience in dance.

To learn more, visit Kiner’s Facebook page at http://facebook.com/KinerEnterprisesInc.

American Ballet Theatre soloists Yuriko Kajiya and Jared Matthews are scheduled to perform on Fox TV’s “So You Think You Can Dance” on Thursday, July 22.

Jared Matthews

Yurikko Kajiya

In a special guest appearance, Kajiya and Matthews will perform the Grand Pas de Deux from Act III of Don Quixote. The program will be broadcast live.

Kajiya was born in Nagoya, Japan, and joined ABT as a corps member in June 2002. She was promoted to soloist in August 2007. Matthews, born in Houston, joined the ABT corps in April 2003 and was appointed a soloist in August 2007.

For more information about “So You Think You Can Dance,” visit www.fox.com/dance.

Tickets go on sale July 19 for the annual “Director’s Choice” program at Pacific Northwest Ballet, highlighting the addition of new works to the Seattle-based company’s repertory and the work of noted choreographers.

This year’s program will run from September 24 to October 3 and will include the PNB premieres of Jiri Kylian’s Six Dances and Jerome Robbins’ Glass Pieces, as well as Nacho Duato’s Jardí Tancat and a reprise of last season’s premiere, Kylian’s Petite Mort.

Tickets start at $27. To buy them, call 206.441.2424 or visit www.pnb.org.

Jacoby & Pronk, the freelance contemporary ballet duo of Drew Jacoby and Rubinald Pronk, will perform three world premieres as part of their appearance July 21 to 25 at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts.

Along with the premieres by One (reworked as a quartet) by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Leo Mujic’s Change Me, and Two by Lauri Stallings, the duo will perform an excerpt of Christopher Wheeldon’s Rhapsody Fantaisie and a pas de deux by Hans van Manen.

Jacoby and Pronk will be joined onstage by Mujic; David Hallberg of American Ballet Theatre; Shirley Esseboom, formerly of Nederlands Dans Theatre; and Victor Mateos Arellano of Dresden SemperOper Ballett.

Short films of Jacoby and Pronk, directed by filmmaker Alvin Booth, will serve as interludes between works.

Tickets range from $30 to $36. To buy them, visit www.jacobspillow.org or call 413.243.0745.

With a month and a half to go, there’s still dance for every taste in Chicago’s parks this summer. Admission to all events is free.

Most of the action at the 14^th annual Chicago SummerDance festival is in the Spirit of Music Garden in Grant Park. The attractions—which include on-the-spot free dance lessons—include:

Red Baraat: Punjabi funk, July 15.
The Flat Cats: Jump blues and swing, July 16
Grupo Rebolu: Salsa dura, July 17
Steve Cooper Orchestra: Ballroom, July 18
Chicago Afrobeat Project: Dances of the African diaspora, July 22
The Etcetera Band: Steppin’, July 23
Tum Balalaika Klezmer Band: Freylekhs, sher, hora, nigun, and kolomeike, July 29
The Boilermaker Jazz Band: Jitterbug, July 30
Eddie Korosa Jr. & His Boys from Illinois: Polka, waltz, oberek, mazur, and czardas, August 5
Kabile, a traditional Bulgarian band: Horo, rachenitsa, August 19
The Ragtops: Dances from the 1950s and ’60s, including the pony, mashed potato, and twist, August 27

The concerts run from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays and from 5 to 7 p.m. on Sundays. In all cases, dance lessons begin an hour before the show.

Other venues around the city—the Humboldt Park boat house, Athletic Field Park, Navy Pier, and the Jackson Park 63^rd Street Beach—also have summer dance concerts.

SummerDance is organized by the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and presented with the Chicago Office of Tourism.

For details, visit www.explorechicago.org/city/en/supporting_narrative/events___special_events/special_events/dca_tourism/chicago_summerdance.html.

The Dance Council of North Texas will hold an awards ceremony, including a reception and a silent auction, on September 19 in Dallas to recognize a range of the region’s dance professionals.

The event at Dallas Black Dance Theatre, 2700 Flora Street, will include a showcase featuring that company and selected 2010 DCNT scholarship recipients. Proceeds from the event will benefit the scholarship fund.

The awards and honorees are:

The Mary McLarry Bywaters Award for Lifetime Contribution to Dance: Bruce Wood, artistic director of the Bruce Wood Dance Company.

The Natalie Skelton Award for Artistic Excellence: Jay Franke, a Dallas native who danced with Twyla Tharp and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and now is a member of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company.

The Mary Warner Award for Service to Dance: Randy Boyse, owner of Sandy’s Shoes and Dancewear.

The Larry White Dance Educator Award: Danny Buraczeski, associate professor, Southern Methodist University.

The Texas Tap Legend Award: Terry Wolters, founder and co-artistic director of Rhythm Junkies, and the late Jacqueline Davidson Hunter, a longtime teacher in the Dallas area who organized the Farmers Branch Bomberettes, a dance and twirl team.

Ad Deum Dance Company, a professional contemporary dance company based in Houston, is offering a summer dance and mime intensive August 1 through 6.

The faculty will include Randall Flinn, Ad Deum’s director; Wesley Brainard, a former member of Marcel Marceau’s mime troupe; Cynthia Newland, the dance chair at Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi; and Steve Rooks, dance chair at Vassar College and a former principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company.

The program offers 90-minute daily morning ballet classes and 90 minutes of modern each day in  the early afternoon, followed by electives that include mime, jazz, tap, pointe, choreography and composition, worship dance, and musical theater.

Tuition is $350. To register or learn more, visit www.danceaddeum.com.

Darrah Carr, the artistic director of Darrah Carr Dance and a contributor to Dance Studio Life, has been named one of the 50 most influential women in the Irish-American community by the Irish Voice.

Darrah Carr

Carr, an adjunct professor of dance at Hofstra University in Long Island, New York, is the inventor of what she calls ModERIN, a blend of traditional Irish step and contemporary modern dance.

Her company has performed on NBC’s Today show and with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall.

Donna Faye Burchfield will leave her post as dean of the American Dance Festival School in Durham, North Carolina, at the end of the 2010 ADF season to become director of the University of the Arts School of Dance in Philadelphia.

Donna Faye Burchfield

A dancer, choreographer, and teacher, Burchfield joined ADF as a student in 1982 and began working at ADF in 1984. She was a faculty member and associate dean before becoming dean in 2000.

Her innovations as dean included the school’s MFA, post-baccalaureate, and combined BA/BFA programs in collaboration with Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, where Burchfield was a professor of dance.

“We are grateful that she will continue what she loves—creating dynamic situations where dancers can thrive. She has passionately supported dancers here at ADF and we will sorely miss her vigor and innovation,” said Charles Reinhart, ADF director.

The ADF School serves more than 400 students from around the globe every June and July on the campus of Duke University in Durham. For more information on the ADF or Donna Faye Burchfield, visit http://www.americandancefestival.org/staff/dean.html.

Jamar Roberts and Rachael McLaren of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will perform an excerpt from Ulysses Dove’s Bad Blood on Fox TV’s So You Think You Can Dance on July 15.

Rachael McLaren

Roberts graduated from the New World School of the Arts and trained at the Joffrey Ballet School and The Ailey School. He was a member of Ailey II before joining the main company in 2002.

McLaren began her formal dance training at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. Like Roberts, she studied at The Ailey School before joining Ailey II. McLaren joined the main company in 2008.

Jamar Roberts

Bad Blood, which Dove created for Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal in 1984, is set to three recordings by Laurie Anderson.

Final performances for American Ballet Theatre’s New York Summer Intensive Program are scheduled for noon and 4 p.m. July 30 at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, New York. The performances mark the conclusion of ABT’s 15^th annual New York Summer Intensive, a six-week training program for dancers ages 12 to 22.

Summer Intensive students will perform excerpts from La Bayadère, including the “Kingdom of the Shades” scene, as well as excerpts from Don Quixote, The Sleeping Beauty and Raymonda and original choreography by Aszure Barton, Leslie Browne, Olga Dvorovenko, Joe Istre, Jessica Lang, Brian Reeder, and Kanji Segawa.

Tickets are $16 for adults and $11 for children and students. They will go on sale to the public at 11 a.m. July 30 in the theater lobby. For more information, call 212.477.3030, extension 3416, or email summerintensive@abt.org.

Thai performer and choreographer Pichet Klunchun will present the U.S. premiere of the full-length work Chui Chai (Transformation) July 14 to 18 at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts.

Klunchun entwines khon, a form of traditional Thai masked dance drama, with contemporary movement in Chui Chai, which the first time Jacob’s Pillow has presented classical Thai dance in its 78-year history.

Tickets range from $30 to $36 and are available at www.jacobspillow.org or by calling 413.243.0745.

While at Jacob’s Pillow, artistic personnel from Pichet Klunchun Dance Company will lead a master class from 10 to 11:30 a.m. July 18 for intermediate to advanced dancers. For required pre-registration, call 413.243.9919, extension 5. Master classes are $15 per class or $8 for dance instructors. Observation is free and open to the public.

Dance New Amsterdam (DNA) in New York will offer a series of musical theater master classes in September with Broadway dance stalwarts Charlotte d’Amboise, Mary MacLeod, and Mary Ann Lamb. The three will focus on Broadway technique and choreography from luminaries for whom they have danced such as Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, and Michael Bennett.

D’Amboise’s lead roles include Cassie (A Chorus Line), Roxie (Chicago), Charity (Sweet Charity), and Lola (Damn Yankees). “I’ve been blessed to have worked with giants in this business and I’m excited to pass this on,” she said.

Mary MacLeod recently set the original choreography of Damn Yankees for City Center’s Encore series. She danced Fosse’s choreography directly under Gwen Verdon and Ann Reinking and also served as dance captain for Smokey Joe’s Café and A Little Night Music.

A veteran of a dozen Broadway shows, Lamb worked directly with Robbins and recently led a Robbins intensive in Japan. 

Here’s the schedule: MacLeod, 4 to 6 p.m. September 6 and 13; Lamb, 4 to 6 p.m. September 9 and 16; d’Amboise, 4 to 6 p.m. September 20 and 23. Single classes at DNA, 280 Broadway, are $16 for DNA members and $16.50 for non-members. Those who register for all six classes by September 1 pay $89 ($86 for DNA members).

To register or learn more, visit www.dnadance.org.

Cynthia Oliver’s COCo Dance Theatre will perform its current evening-length work, Rigidigidim De Bamba De: Ruptured Calypso, at this summer’s Bates Dance Festival at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

The multidisciplinary work is a meditation on transnationalism, featuring six women from the Caribbean diaspora, that takes calypso in and out of the carnival context and layers it with mythology.

Performances take place at 8 p.m. July 23 and 24, in the college’s Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St. Tickets are $24 for the general public and $12 for students and seniors. For more ticket information and performance details, visit www.batesdancefestival.org/perform-listings.php.

A discussion with the artists will immediately follow the July 23 concert. At 7:30 p.m. July 24, dance writer Debra Cash will give a pre-performance talk about COCo Dance Theatre.

Cash also will moderate a panel discussion, “Global Exchange: Sharing Across Cultures,” at 7:30 p.m. July 20, in Room 301 of the college’s Pettigrew Hall, in which choreographers from Mozambique, Ethiopia, and Mexico will show video and discuss their approach to making work.

In the same venue, Dawn Stoppiello, co-founder of Troika Ranch, a dance-theater company, will offer a video lecture about her hybrid, media-intensive performances at 7:30 p.m. July 22. Admission is free to her lecture and the earlier panel discussion.