Member News from 2005
The CORPS de Ballet International will miss our dear friend and colleague,
Basil Thompson
1937-2004
Susan B. Anderson (Associate Professor, The University of South Carolina Dance) is pleased to announce the addition of a BA in Dance at USC, which begins Spring 2005. The degree will have an emphasis in Performance/Choreography and in Dance Education, specializing in classical ballet. In other department news, the USC Dance Company performed La Giaconda (The Dance of the Hours), George Balanchine's Who Cares?, and The 7 Deadly Sins. Sins was performed with the USC Symphony and was a triumph. For more information on the USCD, please contact Susan at 803-777-7264 or at susanes@gwm.sc.edu (Web site information can be found at www.cla.sc.edu/dance)
Joan Buttram (Associate Professor, The University of Georgia, Athens) received a grant from the UGA Office of the Vice President for Research to stage the opening of Ffirebird for the Dance Department's Spring Concert. The program will also include premieres of a new work by Joan and a contemporary work by guest choreographer Mary Ann Staib. The UGA Ballet Ensemble, under Joan's direction, had a busy fall semester. The company performed Le Grand Pas de Ouatre and excerpts from Paquita at the GAHPERD conference and at the department's annual elementary school showcase. They also performed at the department's fundraiser series, SPOTLIGHT, and at The Dance Athens Festival. In addition, the UGA Ballet Ensemble joined the Flint River Arts Council in southern Georgia to produce two performances for over 700 high school students and two evenings of public performances, which were very well received. The Dance Department at UGA is delighted with the recent addition of Dr. Lisa Fusillo (CORPS de Ballet Member) to the faculty. Lisa staged a portion of Konservatoriat and a lovely solo titled Solilique for the UGA Ballet Ensemble, which was performed at SPOTLIGHT.
Sharon Garber and David Curwen write: The 2004-2005 year has been a year of transitions and challenges at the Department of Dance of Western Michigan University. We have welcomed new faculty member Carolyn Pavlik (modern) and are in the process of three new faculty searches. Our Great Works Project is still running strong. This year's choreographic masterwork is George Faison's Suite Otis, originally choreographed for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. Mr. Faison staged the entire work on Western dancers during an intensive 10-day period during the fall. Suite Otis will be featured in the department's Winter Concert this February. This concert will also present works by CORPS members, Sharon Garber and David Curwen. Sharon's ballet, Three Threads in Time, features 6 dancers and a newly commissioned score by WMU colleague, Claudia Howard Queen. David's dance is a complete reworking of last year's Clear Day. The 'new' Clear Day was chosen as a finalist for the Michigan Dance Council Maggie Alessee New Choreography Award this past fall. Both works have been influenced by this past summer's CORPS choreographic workshop with Alonzo King. Sharon Garber has just returned from a three-day visit to BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio. She arranged a collaborative project through Artistic Director Gerard Charles for 5 advanced ballet students to take company class, learn new repertoire, receive daily private coaching sessions with Ballet Mistress Becky Rodriguez, and meet with Development Director Pam Bishop. The department is planning on repeating this internship as well as developing similar programs with jazz and modern companies. Sharon will be presenting the elements and results of this project at this year's CORPS de Ballet International's conference in San Francisco.
Jan Dijkwel (Assistant Professor, Brigham Young University) was invited to Japan during November 2004 to set choreography for the 2005 Prix de Lausanne. She also reports that Ballet in Concert, performed by BYU Theatre Ballet and directed by Jan, will be held February 17-19, 2005. This concert will feature choreographic works by Jan as well as works including guest choreographers Shani Robison, Assistant Professor of Dance at BYU and CORPS member, Jessica Harston, Principal Dancer of Ballet West, and Peter Christie. faculty member of the Ballet West Conservatory. The BYU Ballet Showcase Company, the University's second ballet company, recently performed their fall performance with original works by BYU Ballet faculty members Marsha Russell and Suzi Wood.
Nola Nolen Holland (Dance Department, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania) was inducted into the Del City High School (OK) Alumni Hall of Fame on November 12, 2004. The hall of fame was created in celebration of the high school's fiftieth anniversary. Nolen Holland was the only woman among the first group of eleven inductees. A plaque with her name and award was placed in the high school's commons area. On the SRU campus, Nolen Holland co-presented a first Dance in India lecture-demonstration. The Dance in India Initiative is a collaborative project with Dr. Srinivasa Mani, Sociology/Anthropology/Social Work, and SRU Dance Department guest artist Jaya Mani. Two dance students, who traveled to Chennai, India during the summer, presented a slide and video presentation about their internship in India. They also performed the dances they learned in India. The initiative is one which Nolen Holland and the Manis plan to continue. Eight students from this fall's World Dance class have expressed their intention to apply for the summer internship in 2005. Nolen Hollend is also conducting a collaborative Dance and Music project with Dr. Glenn Utash, SRU Music. They are experimenting with movement technologies ship that permit dancers to create sound scores without needing the expert knowledge of music composition techniques. Nolen Holland and Utsch are making a second presnentation about their collaboration at the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities in January 2005.
Catherine Horta-Hayden (Associate Professor of Dance, Towson University) has been busy working on bringing the 33-member Cuban Company, Lizt Alfonso, to Towson University for a weeklong residency involving workshops, outreach, and staging a piece on the Towson University Dance Company.
Mary Margaret Holt (Director, Regents' Professor and John and Mary Nichols Chair, University of Oklahoma School of Dance) reports that she led Oklahoma Festival Ballet on its eighth performance tour to France in June 2004. The occasion for the tour was the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the sister city agreement between Clermont-Ferrand, France and Norman, Oklahoma. Professor Jeremy Lindberg also accompanied the company and a delegation from the city of Norman and the University of Oklahoma joined the celebration. In July, Holt was a guest master teacher for Ballet Nouveau Colorado and taught all levels of ballet technique, partnering, variations, character, pointe and led a workshop for teachers. In early 2005, she will create a ballet for the company as a part of its "Fractured Fairytales" project. Recently named the John W. and Mary D. Nichols Chair of Dance, Ms. Holt was successful in working with the Balanchine Trust for the third Balanchine ballet to be set on Oklahoma Festival Ballet. The company performed Concerto Barocco during its fall 2004 season. In April 2005, the School of Dance will move into its new home in the Reynolds Performing Arts Center, a project Holt has been intimately involved in since its inception. During the summer 2005, Holt will return to Ballet Nouveau as well as teach at the Sangre de Christo Arts Center and in central Texas in July.
Nicole Laliberte has returned to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro this semester as Guest Lecturer of ballet after teaching at James Madison University last fall. She created a new piece, "When the Whistle Stops," for the JMU Associate Ensemble, and is in process of making a new duet to premiere in February at the Greensboro Ballet Studios as part of the North Carolina Dance Project. She is excited to have been selected to present at this year's CORPS conference in San Francisco.
Sharon Oberst (Professor, Western Oregon University) reports that after the collision of a delivery truck with a 120-year-old dance building at Western Oregon University, the building was condemned and roped off with bright yellow tape just days before a scheduled performance. Structural engineers cautiously allowed the department to return to the building on the condition that the wind stay below 35 mph. Thankfully, the big windstorm came the day after the performance!
Janet Robertson (University of Georgia, Athens) received the Dance Athens 2004 award for excellence at a program called "Give Peace a Dance." The performance was the culmination of a week-long Dance Athens festival and showcased every dance performing group in Athens, from the UGA Ballet Ensemble to a group called DanceFX and encompassed many forms of dance from ballet to modern to hp-hop.
Karen Lynn Smith (Professor, Washington College) served on the Scientific Committee of the International Dance Council (CID/UNESCO) and presented a paper "From the Village to the Stage: Shaping Traditional Dance for the Concert Venue" at the 18th World Congress on Dance Research in Argos, Greece, Nov. 3-6. She also presented a lecture on "Brown Bag Nutrition" at the 32nd Maryland State Dance Festival.
Carla Urena Hutchinson (Ph.D. Associate in Research Learning Systems Institute, Florida State University) has had quite an exciting few months. Last summer she successfully completed her dissertation which examined skill acquisition in ballet from an expert-performance, cross-cultural perspective. Shortly after her graduation she was married and is now expecting a baby boy due in April. Carla continues to work at the Learning Systems Institute where she manages military contracts. Her goals for this new year include publishing portions of her dissertation and beginning to work on replication studies. She would love to establish collaborative partnerships with members of the CORPS to further the current understanding of the development of classical ballet skills.
Gretchen Warren (Professor, University of South Florida) traveled to Toronto in June 2004 to do an assessment of the National Ballet School for the Division of Canadian Heritage. Much to her delight, she discovered that her visit coincided with Jiri Kylian's being there to work with NBS students. He had arranged a suite of excerpts from his works for the school's annual Spring Showcase. Gretchen had the great pleasure of watching him rehearse for three days, which she reports was "absolutely amazing - pure genius!" Kylian also granted her an in-depth interview which she hopes to publish soon.
Paula Weber (University of Missouri) reports that she is invited to choreograph a new ballet for the Kansas City Ballet Company.
