September 23rd the FAC PM Dancers performed a dance choreographed by Joan Wadopian during an open rehearsal in the dance studio of the FAC. The dancers performed their dance to the song "Radio Toure" by Free Planet Radio on their album The Unraveling. The choreographic work was performed "live" with the three musicians from Free Planet Radio so that the dancers and musicians were listening and feeding off of each other's energy and performance. The musicians in Free Planet Radio, from Asheville, are River Guerguerian, Chris Roser and Eliot Wadopian. Their four-day residency was made possible by a grant by The Braitmayer Foundation.

Joan Wadopian was guest artist at the Fine Arts Center for 2 weeks teaching classes and setting a new work on the afternoon dancers to music composed and performed by Free Planet Radio. Joan originally from Asheville, NC, received her B.F.A. from the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase (2002) and has danced with New York-based Shen Wei Dance Arts (SWDA) since 2005. She has performed in renowned festivals and venues in the United States, Mexico, Europe, Israel, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia. Prior to joining SWDA, Joan performed with the Kevin Wynn Collection and as a guest artist with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

The dance residency was in part made possible by the Quarterly Grants Program from the Metropolitan Arts Council which is made possible by support provided by public and private entities including MAC's workplace giving program, Campaign for the Arts, the City of Greenville, BMW Manufacturing Corp., Michelin North America, Inc., and the South Carolina Arts Commission which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation of SC.

The Fine Arts Center dancers held a car wash at Pebble Creek Pizza on September 19th and were able to raise enough money to pay for their annual National Honor Society for Dance Arts membership fee. The annual fee is $150. The FAC has had two state winners in their NDEO Artist Merit, Leadership, and Academic Achievement Award who have gone on to recognition and Honorable Mention at the national level (Amanda Porter and Lauren Miller). For more information go to http://www.ndeo.org/

Joan Wadopian will be in residence at the Fine Arts Center from September 13-14. She has extensive performing experience with the dance company Shen Wei Dance Arts in the major venues world-wide. Shen Wei is currently one of the most important and celebrated choreographers and directors internationally in the field of dance. Ms. Wadopian has taught conservatory dancers to professional dancers throughout the country developing skills in dance technique, dynamics, and musical phrasing in such schools as the Baryshnikov Arts Center (New York City); Duke Ellington School for the Arts (Washington, DC); Lehigh Valley Charter School for the Performing Arts (Bethlehem, PA); and The Dalton School (New York City).

During her two-week residence (September 13-24) she will work in the studio each day with all of the dance students and will choreography a dance on the afternoon dancers to a piece of music composed and performed by Free Planet Radio, a music trio, which will be in residence at the Fine Arts Center working with student musicians and composers. Ms. Wadopian will perform with Free Planet Radio in an evening performance (September 23) at the Fine Arts Center, open to the public. Another level of collaboration is the fact that her father, Eliot Wadopian, is an award-winning bass player with Free Planet Radio.

An open rehearsal and informal performance for Fine Arts Center students and faculty is scheduled for September 23rd where she will give insight into her choreographic work and process. The dancers will perform to the rehearsal CD of one of Free Planet Radio's pieces and the the dancers will perform to the same piece of music played "live" by the Free Planet Radio musicans. We are expecting to have a lively discussion with comments, observations and questions from the audience as well as the performers. It is rare for two different arts disciplines to have this opportunity to interact artistically on such a personal and multi-generational level.

The life of this project extends beyond the two weeks Joan Wadopian is in residence as the Fine Arts Center dancers will perform the choreographed work in their dance concert May 6th. There may be other opportunities throughout the year for the dancers to perform the piece as well.

Brian McGinnis and Kate Skarpetowska perform in Boone, NC

Dancers and friends of Brian McGinnis and Kate (Katarzyna) Skarpetowska traveled to Boone, NC to see them perform with the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company on July 16th. Brian and Kate performed beautifully in all three of the dances, but especially in the duet, "Prelude to a Kiss" in the dance piece Nature Boy: Kurt Elling, choreographed by Lar Lubovitch.

In the talk with the artistic director and choreographer, Lar Lubovitch after the performance, several in the audience wanted to know more about the duet and the dancers (Brian and Kate) as they thought that it was one of the most beautiful duets they had ever seen! They wanted to know how the two dancers made their dancing so seamless and fluid. The duet was definitely the highlight of the performance, not only in our opinion, but obviously many in the audience as well. Brian met with us following the concert.

Brian will be back in Greenville in early October and will be the featured guest in the Greenville District Dance Festival on October 9th.

FAC Dancers from the morning class will be performing three ensemble pieces choreographed by guest choreographers on May 7th at 7:00 pm in the Black Box Theatre of the Fine Arts Center. Brian McGinnis choreographed two dances Run and Bisque. Andrew Kuharsky choreographed the ballet Comings and Goings for the ensemble.

Fine Arts Center Dance students Ashley Attaway, Charlotte Brown, Lael King, Abigail Pinkerton, Jamie Taylor and Maren Trofatter were inducted into the National Honor Society for Dance Arts on April 22nd. Receiving the distinction of the Gold Star Award were current members Allison Leisgang, Jillian Leisgang, Gianni Monteleon and Jamie Taylor. Ashley Becking received two Gold Star Awards. NHSDA President Ashley Becking and Vice-President Ashley Brown conducted the ceremony. Flowers were donated by A Arrangements Florist for each new inducted NHSDA Dance student. Students must earn 30 points through dance performances and events as well as maintain a good academic grade aversage to be eligible for membership and may earn a Gold Star Award by earning an additional 10 points.

On Thursday April 22nd several of the dancers will be performing in our Generation-to-Generation performance, which is a celebration of student created artwork. Please come and visit the visual art students' exhibit and reception at 6:00 pm at the Fine Arts Center. The performance portion begins at 7:00 in the Recital Hall with student music compositions and then moves into the Black Box Theatre for the dance and theatre portion. A selection of six student pieces of choreography will be performed followed by a student created/directed condensed play. The performance should run just over an hour.

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.”

Students and Faculty Visit Florida State University
The afternoon dance students, theatre tech student Andrew Mulkey, Dirk Holleman and Jan Woodward traveled to Tallahassee, Florida to visit Florida State University November 12-15. The dance students observed two classes in two of the six dance studios in the spacious Dance Department building. All of the dancers watched a modern technique class with Dan Wagoner. Mr. Wagoner was a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company and the original Paul Taylor Dance Company before founding his own company Dan Wagoner and Dancers. Students were also able to observe a second class choosing from four different classes. Several of the dancers watched a class with Gerri Houlihan, who has been a guest artist at the Fine Arts Center, or a Graham technique class with Anthony Morgan, who danced with the Martha Graham Dance Company. Ms. Houlihan danced with the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, formed her own dance company and is currently directing the international Choreographers in Residence Program at the American Dance Festival. Several dancers also had the opportunity to observe ballet classes with Anjali Austin, who danced with Dance Theatre of Harlem or Rick McCullough, who danced with Netherlands Dance Theatre. Jan Woodward also had a chance to speak with her FSU mentor, Lynda Davis, who performed with the Bella Lewitzky Dance Company.
The highlight of the visit was seeing FAC dance graduates Amanda Porter (Dance 2009) and Maggie Base (Dance 2009) perform in two different Days of Dance Concerts. Besides attending the dance matinee and evening performances, the group saw the theatre production of Waiting for Godot in the Theatre Department’s black box theatre.
Students were taken on a backstage tour with Ralph Walker, Scenic Studio Manager of the Theatre Department which was arranged by Dirk Holleman who worked with Mr. Walker as a student at FSU. The dancers were also given an hour-long tour of the Music Department by Associate Dean Dr. Leo Welch along with Larry Gerber, who has recently been named head of their Voice Program. Mr. Gerber was the Voice Teacher at the Fine Arts Center when the school first opened and helped arrange our tour of the music facilities at FSU. The students also had a chance to take a walking tour of the campus and enjoy the beautiful Tallahassee weather on Saturday morning.