Monday, March 01, 2010

DANCE MASTER CLASSES and CHOREOGRAPHY

Vladislav Soldatenko, Artistic Director and Ballet Master of the Dance Department of the Ukrainian National Academy of Dance taught a ballet
master class to the afternoon dancers on December 7th. Mr. Soldatenko completed graduate Master classes at the Vaganova Academy in St.
Petersburg and performed as a soloist with Kiev National Theater of
Opera and Ballet and Kiev Theater of Classical Ballet.
Wanda Ebright, Associate Professor of Dance at Johnson C. Smith
University, visited the Fine Arts Center and taught modern dance
master classes to both morning and afternoon dancers. Ms. Ebright
who received her MFA from Florida State University, is also the
director of her own dance company, The Wanda Project.

On December 8th Dr. Stephanie Milling, Assistant Professor at
Winthrop University, taught master classes to both dance classes
at the Fine Arts Center. She will set a dance on the afternoon
dancers during February, which she originally choreographed
for dancers at Winthrop University. Dr. Milling earned her Ph.D.
in Dance from Texas Women’s University.
The second week in February, Andrew Kuharsky choreographed
a new dance work for the morning dancers, which is titled
“Comings and Goings”. Mr. Kuharsky graduated from the
esteemed National Ballet School in Canada, was an apprentice
with the Joffrey Ballet in New York, a principal dancer with
The Atlanta Ballet, and a soloist with Les Grands Ballets
Canadiens in Montreal.
Marcy Yonkey, Visiting Artist-in-Residence at Columbia College,
will teach master classes to both dance classes on March 12th.
Ms. Yonkey received her MFA in Dance from Texas Women’s
University where she was the recipient of the 2008 Excellence
in Teaching Award. She currently performs with The Power
Company in Columbia, SC as well as teaching and
choreographing at Columbia College.

DANCE FIELD TRIP to LEAGUE ACADEMY
On January 27th the afternoon dancers traveled to League Academy
(thank you to Dirk Holleman for driving the bus for us) to dance
with the advanced 8th grade class. The dancers shared and discussed
their choreography with each other. Several of the Fine Arts Center
dancers had taken dance at League Academy with Lynne McCain
Sargent, so it was a great visit.

DANCE CLASS LECTURE-DEMONSTRATION
The afternoon dancers performed their class demonstration, which
included solos created by Dance III and Dance IV dancers (dancers
who are in their third and fourth year at the Fine Arts Center). The
lecture-demonstration for the morning dancers had to be rescheduled
due to the weather and so was performed on February 3rd. The
dancers showed what they do in class as well as their own
compositional dance “studies”.

SATURDAY DANCE FESTIVALS at the FINE ARTS CENTER
The idea of a Saturday Dance Festival was formed and implemented
by a former ARMES and FAC dance graduate, Lauren Miller (2009),
during her senior year last year. The event proved to be so successful
that the afternoon dancers helped organize and run three Saturdays
of dance this year. The intent of the all day workshops is to offer
dancers the opportunity to take class with other dancers in the
community who have a similar passion and interest in dance. Classes
included modern dance technique, improvisation, repertory,
Japanese dance, ballet and jazz.
DANCE ALUMNI NEWS
Fulton Burns (FAC Dance 1988) has been awarded two grants
from the University of South Alabama where he is an assistant
professor. They are the Summer 2010 Arts and Sciences
Professional Summer Development Award and the Spring 2010
Support & Development Award.
Kevin Boseman (FAC Dance 1990) is performing with the
National Tour of “The Color Purple.”