Nathan Makolandra-Dance Guest Artist

Nathan Makolandra
Photo credit: Morgan Lugo

Nathan Makolandra was the dance guest artist the first two weeks in September setting a new work, “Sonic Creature” on the afternoon dancers and teaching six master classes in the morning. Nathan began dancing and choreographing in Greenville and received his B.F.A. in Dance from The Juilliard School. He is a founding member of the L.  A. Dance Project founded by Benjamin Millepied, who choreographed and starred in the film The Black Swan. 

Rehearsal setting "Sonic Creature"

Peyton Lemen attends Boston Ballet Summer Program

Peyton Lemen

Peyton Lemen attended the Boston Ballet's Summer Dance Program for five weeks where she took two ballet technique classes and one pointe class daily along with classes in modern, partnering, character and Pilates. Her classes were taught by

members of the Boston Ballet and their faculty. She also enjoyed traveling to Saratoga Springs, New York to see the New York City Ballet perform. 

FAC Dancer attends Lar Lubovitch Summer Dance Intensive

Kiersten Rist with Lar Lubovitch
Lar Lubovitch Summer Dance Intensive

Kiersten Rist attended the Lar Lubovitch Summer Intensive at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York in June. Kate Skarpetowska, who was our guest artist in January, taught repertory and classes.

Kiersten Rist (center) with Kate Skarpetowska (right)

Rachel Spitzmiller Receives National Dance Award

Rachel Spitzmiller-NDEO National Award Recipient

Rachel Spitzmiller, Fine Arts Center Dancer, has earned the 2015 National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) Artistic Merit, Leadership, and Academic Achievement Award from the NDEO. The awardees were selected by the National Honor Society for Dance Arts adjudication committee.

Junior and senior high school students who have been inducted into the National Honor Society for Dance Arts are eligible for this award, one of the highest dance honors program in the nation. Nominees are evaluated based on nine criteria, including artistic merit, leadership, and academic achievement. Rachel also submitted a video of her performing her own work of choreography.

Photo credit: Brooke Schneider, FAC Visual Art Student

National Honor Society for Dance Arts Induction

Members of the National Honor Society for Dance Arts

Jack Beaule, Rachel Bierly, Olivia Hopkins, Lauren Hurley, Ellen Kilby, Peyton Lemen, Samuel Painter, Sydney Parker, Ashley Pavia, Nicole Pavia, Lucy Quattlebaum, Kiersten Rist, Rachel Spitzmiller, Callie Thackston and Leah Wade

Rachel Spitzmiller was the National Winner in the 2015 NDEO Artistic Merit, Leadership, and Academic Achievement Award, the highest national award given to high school dancers by the National Dance Education Organization!

Sydney Parker was one of two National Finalists in the 2014 NDEO Artistic Merit, Leadership, and Academic Achievement Award, the highest national award given to high school dancers by the National Dance Education Organization! 

Rick McCullough Ballet Guest Artist

Rick McCullough, Associate Professor of Dance at Florida State University, taught two ballet master classes for the PM Dancers in March. Rick McCullough danced in the original North Carolina Dance Theater, the Harkness Ballet of New York, and for nine years with Netherlands Dance Theater. He was Ballet Master for Pittsburgh Ballet Theater and has choreographed works for North Carolina Dance Theater, Washington Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Ballet Pacifica, Boston Ballet, and School of American Ballet. Recipient of five NEA choreographer’s fellowships, he also directs the North Carolina School of the Arts summer dance concert series on Roanoke Island.

Rick McCullough and Dr. Roy Fluhrer

Guest Artist Rick McCullough and FAC Dancers

Katarzyna (Kate) Skarpetowska Dance Guest Artist

Katarzyna (Kate) Skarpetowska

Kate ( Katarzyna)Skarpetowska spent seven days as artist-in-residence at the Fine Arts Center setting an excerpt of her work Love is for the Poets on the afternoon dancers and teaching master classes to the morning dancers. She graduated in Dance from the Julliard School before joining the Parsons Dance Company. She has also performed with Battleworks Dance Company founded by Robert Battle and with the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company since 2007 and has continued to work as a repetiteur and assistant to Lar Lubovitch.

Her piece Love is for the Poets was commissioned by Marymount Manhattan and she has choreographed for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater II, Richmond Ballet, Parsons Dance, Lar Lubovitch, Buglisi Dance Theater, Hubbard Street 2 and Houston Metropolitan Dance Company among others.

Rehearsal for Love is For the Poets (excerpt)

Kate Skarpetowska rehearsing FAC Dancers

In 2009 Kate co-designed and co-directed with Brian McGinnis Romeo and Juliet-a death marked love  commissioned by the Peace Center in Greenville, SC. Brian McGinnis set two works of choreography on the FAC Dancers in October, 2014.

Kate Skarpetowska and Brian McGinnis in Romeo and Juliet in 2009