Fine Arts Center students had the pleasure of seeing the lecture/demonstration performance created and performed by Brian McGinnis and Kate Skarpetowska as part of the Big Leap 2009 underwritten by the Peace Center. They performed an excerpt from their commissioned work, “Romeo and Juliet—A Death Marked Love” in our black box theatre as well as excerpts from duets that they have performed with other dance companies. Kate taught master classes to the Fine Arts Center dancers who also had opportunities to observe open rehearsals and take master classes in technique and choreography. The culmination of the three-week residency was the premiere performance in Gunter Theatre of their original work “Romeo and Juliet-A Death Marked Love” which was enthusiastically received by the audience. There is talk of a repeat performance this summer in Greenville. Dr. Roy Fluhrer and Maggie Base were also in the performance.
Photos are of Kate and Brian with Allison Leisgang, Jill Leisgang and Anna Patrick after the performance on March 2nd in the lobby of Gunter Theatre and master classes at the FAC.

The morning dancers will have an informal lecture/demonstration for parents on Friday, January 30th at 6:30 pm in the dance studio of the Fine Arts Center. This is an opportunity to observe what your student has been learning during her classes throughout the year. The dancers will demonstrate a few class combinations as well as dance compositions.

This is not a performance, but more of a behind the scenes—the process, if you will—of the training of a dancer.

The afternoon dancers had a ballet master class on December 9th with Vladislav Soldatenko, the Artistic Director and Ballet Master of the Dance Department of the Ukrainian National Academy of Dance. Mr. Soldantenko graduated from the Kiev Choreographic Institute and completed graduate classes at the Vaganova Academy in St. Petersburg. He performed extensively as a soloist with Kiev National Theater of Opera and Ballet and Kiev Theater of Classical Ballet. The International Ballet in Greenville brought Mr. Soldantenko and several dancers from the Ukraine as part of their exchange program.

Alonzo King, Artistic Director and Choreographer for LINES Ballet, based in San Francisco, taught a master class for the afternoon dancers on December 2nd. His visionary choreography is represented in repertories throughout the world in major dance companies such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Swedish Royal Ballet, Dance Theater of Harlem, Washington Ballet and North Carolina Dance Theatre. Renowned as a highly skilled master teacher, he has been a guest ballet master for National Ballet of Canada, Ballet Rambert, Ballet West, and San Francisco Ballet among others.
Mr. King, always the consummate artist, made it clear during his master class why he is considered a living legend in the art world. The dancers were totally focused on the power and energy of dance and how to trust their own individual movements. The challenging, memorable master class will resonate with the dancers for years giving them ideas and information that they will continue to use and revisit as they continue to develop as dancers and artists.

The Greenville Dance Festival was held at the Fine Arts Center and the FAC dancers were again privileged to have another master class with Gerri Houlihan who was the special guest artist at the Greenville Dance Festival on October 11th. The main purpose of the festival was to bring guest artists to teach a variety of dance styles in an effort to broaden the breadth of understanding in our dancers and community.

Dance classes in the traditional techniques of Classical Ballet and Modern/Contemporary Dance as well as dance from other cultures were offered. Besides Gerri Houlihan, other guest artists were Sybil Huskey, Professor of Dance and former Chair of the Department of Dance and Theatre at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Stephanie Milling, Assistant Professor of Dance Education at Winthrop University; Wanda Ebright, Associate Professor of Dance at Coker College; Krishna Kumar Venkataraman and Sivakami Bhavnandnan (“Sivi”), trained at the world renowned Dhananjayans and Padmashri Adyar Lakshman of Madras, India. Donald Shabkie accompanied Gerri Houlihan’s class.

Adam Maalouf (FAC Jazz student) accompanied Gerri Houlihan’s master classes during the Greenville Dance Festival and two dance alumnae were guest teachers, Jennifer Becker (Dance 2006) and Kaitlyn Martinez (Dance 2008) each taught two classes.

Fine Arts Center Dance Residency with Master Teacher and Guest Artist Gerri Houlihan
Gerri Houlihan was in residence for two days teaching master classes to the dance students at the Fine Arts Center. Ms. Houlihan is Associate Professor of Dance at Florida State University, on the faculty at the American Dance Festival and is currently the international representative for the American Dance Festival having participated in fifteen international residencies. She trained at Juilliard, earned an M.F.A. in dance from Hollins University and has danced professionally with the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. Don Shabkie accompanied the classes on the piano. Funding for her residency was made possible in part by a grant from the Metropolitan Arts Council, which receives funding from the City of Greenville, BMW Manufacturing Company, LLC, Michelin North America, Inc., and the South Carolina Arts Commission with 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 dance and creative writing (morning) students collaborated using movements and sounds to create short compositions. The students used the elements of dance design (Body, Energy, Space, Time--BEST) and the sounds of letters and words to create a "sound score" for the original small group compositions.

The dance students rehearsed Brian McGinnis's dance piece, "Sirens and the Undercurrent" in the black box theatre on the last day of his residency.

The Fine Arts Center Dancers had guest artist, Brian McGinnis in residence the week of August 25-29. He set an original piece of choreography using both classes. The title of the piece is "Sirens and the Undercurrent." Mr. McGinnis is currently dancing with the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company and also danced with the Parsons Dance Company, Hubbard Street, and is a graduate of Juilliard. He will be back in Greenville in February, 2009 performing at the Peace Center on Monday, March 2nd.

The Fine Arts Center Dance Ensemble performed in The Greenville County Museum of Art celebrating the silver anniversary of Emerys and the opening of the exhibition Katherine Porter: Celestial Electric on Tuesday, April 1st. It was estimated that 400 people attended the event, which also included the music composition “Triple Dances” by faculty member, Dr. Jon Jeffrey Grier. The dancers were fortunate to have professional musicians Connie Frigo (Baritone Saxophone), Peggy Dees (Clarinet) and Ann Shoemaker (Bassoon) perform the music. Keller Freeman, a founding member of Emerys, was instrumental in organizing the collaborative event.