CNADM 2005 Fall Dance Workshops Feature Two Days of Dance Education

 

The Chicago National Association of Dance Masters (CNADM) will hold its annual Fall Dance Workshops November 5–6, 2005, at the Sheraton Chicago Northwest Hotel in Arlington Heights, Illinois. The event features classes in ballet, tap, and jazz for dance students and teachers, taught by six nationally renowned dance educators. This year’s CNADM workshops are expected to attract more than 750 participants.

 

Founded in 1912, CNADM is an internationally recognized association with members throughout the United States and Canada. Its member-certification program ensures that dance educators meet and maintain the highest standards.

 

For class details or more information, visit www.cnadm.com or call (815) 397-6052.

 

Ballet Arizona’s 20th-Anniversary Season

 

Ballet Arizona will celebrate its 20th anniversary and return to the newly configured Symphony Hall in 2005–06 with a performance schedule of new works, full-length favorites, and modern classics.

 

Romeo and Juliet, November 3–6. Artistic director Ib Andersen’s portrayal of Shakespeare’s tragic tale, set to Prokofiev’s evocative score.

 

The Nutcracker, December 9–27. The captivating story of a little girl’s fantasy of beauty, magic, and sugarplums, with Tchaikovsky’s timeless music performed by The Phoenix Symphony. Adjunct activities include a reading of the Nutcracker story by a character from the ballet, a chance for children to appear onstage as guest Soldiers, and portrait sessions with the Sugar Plum Fairy.

 

Mosaik, February 17–19. Ib Andersen’s first full-length ballet, featuring his costume and set designs. This ensemble piece was described as a “daring leap forward” by former Arizona Republic performing arts critic Kenneth LaFave.

 

Spring Collection, March 24–26. Olga Evreinoff stages Raymonda Variations, set to music by Alexander Glazounov. The program also introduces a new work by award-winning choreographer and former San Francisco Ballet principal dancer Julia Adam.

 

For more information: www.balletaz.org; box office (602) 381-1096

 

Nutmeg Ballet Approved to Distribute Foreign Student Visas

 

After a long history of accepting foreign students into its summer program, Nutmeg Ballet has received approval from the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service to accept full-time foreign students under the F-1 Student Visa. The admissions office has a waiting list of students eager to explore study in the United States. Its first year-round foreign student is a 14-year-old dancer from Cyprus.

 

Sharon Dante, Nutmeg’s founder and artistic director, says, “This is a perfect time in our history for Nutmeg to become an international school and gathering place. We have a distinguished, diverse, and international faculty that has a tremendous amount of expertise to share with the students gathered at Nutmeg.” Dante, a longtime advocate of classical ballet and the arts in education, believes it is important for arts organizations to take leadership roles in their communities.

 

Nutmeg Ballet is a division of the Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts. It is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Dance and is a recipient of the prestigious Governor’s Arts Award in the State of Connecticut.

 

For more information, contact Marguerite Sabia at (860) 482-4413 x303, or Msabia@nutmegconservatory.org.

 

10th Anniversary of Spotlight Dance Cup National Dance Competition

 

Spotlight’s 2005 Diamond Anniversary Tour included nearly 20,000 competitors, 29 regional competitions in 31 cities nationwide, and two national competitions. These events, which emphasize performance and personal achievement, are built on the philosophy of providing a fun, fair, and professionally conducted competition.

 

Spotlight Dance Cup features a unique system of Diamond, Ruby, Emerald, and Sapphire awards along with technological innovations, such as real-time, computerized scoring and individual judge critiques on CD. It’s the only place to find the Dance Down, an audition-like category in which competitors learn new routines to new music on the spot, and the Triple Crown, in which dancers perform in three different categories of dance.

 

More than 800 dancers attended the Spotlight Events Midwest National Championship Finals in Branson, Missouri, and nearly 1200 dancers participated in the West Coast National Championship Finals in Las Vegas, Nevada.

 

For more information, contact Michelle Kresge at (208) 939-2015 or visit www.spotlightevents.com.

 

NDEO Confers Awards

 

The National Dance Education Organization Awards Committee has announced the recipients of its 2005 awards. The Lifetime Achievement Award, NDEO’s most prestigious honor, recognizes exemplary leadership, research, scholarship, and philanthropy or service to dance education. The 2005 honoree, Bill Evans, is a performer, teacher, choreographer, lecturer, administrator, movement analyst, writer, adjudicator, and consultant with a comprehensive background of accomplishments. He is a full-time visiting professor/artist in residence in the Dance Department of the State University of New York College at Brockport; artistic director of the Bill Evans Dance Company, the Bill Evans Summer Dance Intensives, and the Bill Evans Rhythm Tap Ensemble; and director of the Evans Modern Dance Technique Teaching Certification Program.

 

In her nomination letter, Cheryl Palonis Adams wrote, “. . . I would like to . . . acknowledge Bill for the depth of impact he has had on me, and, I believe, innumerable others . . . , for the lesson in creativity he has taught: the openness to new ideas, the willingness to embrace change, and the acceptance necessary to create and re-create oneself. . . . I now see a man who . . . exudes a passion for self-discovery and is constantly creating new ways to help students uncover that passion in themselves. And isn’t that the foremost attribute of an educator in the true sense of the word!”

 

The Visionary Award acknowledges excellence in creating ideas for programs or projects that have made important contributions to dance education on a national level. Candidates are judged on their innovative ideas that promote growth in dance education, the impact and sustainability of their programs, and the extent to which the programs and their creators act as catalysts for change in the field. This year’s award goes to Thomas Hagood, founding president of NDEO.

 

Hagood, an associate professor and director of dance at Florida International University, has been a driving force in the development of NDEO. He played an essential role in the planning and implementation of NDEO’s Research in Dance Education project, which resulted in the development of a dance-education database. He is the author of A History of Dance in American Higher Education: Dance and the American University, and is working on Margaret H’Doubler: The Legacy with Buff Brennan and John Wilson.

 

Brennan notes that Hagood “continues to give service to dance in ways that have major impact on the field. He is indeed a ‘mover and shaker.’ He is not content with the status quo if it is not functioning as it should or could be. He sees possibilities that others do not, and he acts on them. . . .”

 

Hagood “is committed to building informed consensus from the wide range of points of view . . .,” says Larry Lavender. “He is fair minded, receptive to different ideas and approaches, and quite visionary; he can see well down the road and has a knack for anticipating both the obstacles and opportunities that may lie ahead. Most important, he knows how to act on his vision, circumvent obstacles, and maximize opportunities for success. . . .”

 

The new Outstanding Dance Educator award honors those who embody the mission and objectives of NDEO in their teaching and interactions with students, colleagues, administrators, and the public. Marty Sprague, a certified dance educator at the Providence Academy of International Studies, is the recipient of this award in the K-12 category. She is coauthor of several textbooks, including Building More Dances: Blueprints for Putting Movement Together; Experiencing Dance: From Student to Dance Artist; and the forthcoming You Can Dance About Anything: Facilitating Integrated Projects. She has participated in reviewing and writing Dance Content Standards, Opportunity to Learn Standards, and the RI K-12 Arts Framework, both in Rhode Island and nationally. As the first artistic director for Chance to Dance, a statewide program in Rhode Island, Sprague developed the methodology and researching techniques that have contributed to the program’s success.

 

Helene Scheff says, “Marty works to infuse her students with a love of dance and teaches her students how learning to dance hones life skills. She helps them learn how dance plays out important roles in diverse communities, how to learn about other subject matter through dance, how dance can unite communities, along with the physical benefits of dancing.”

 

Two Outstanding Dance Educator awards were given in the private sector, to Kathryn Austin and Kim Stroud. Austin is owner and director of the Center for Dance and the Performing Arts in Winter Garden, Florida, and proprietor of dancewear and costume supplier Geared to Dance. She writes a column, “Let’s Talk Dance,” for Dancer magazine. A teacher of Scottish Highland dance, Austin has established an outreach partnership with students with disabilities. In her letter of nomination, Elsa Posey attested to Austin’s “demonstrated ability to articulate and communicate her philosophy of dance education, promotion of standards-based dance education, high quality of standards in teaching her students technique and facilitating artistic processes in creating, performing, and responding to dance. . . .”

 

Former Martha Graham Company and Metropolitan Opera Ballet dancer Kim Stroud is a dance educator and assistant director of the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, where she teaches and helped develop a standards-based curriculum. She is active in establishing dance teacher certification in Connecticut and has begun an arts exchange program between her students and those in Cape Verde, Africa. Stroud’s colleague Lynn Hoffman praised the “risk taking and innovation” in Stroud’s student showcases. All of Stroud’s students, Hoffman says, “learn that striving to excel, taking risks, and committing to their work is one path to attaining their goals.”

 

The new Outstanding School or Program award acknowledges the advancement of dance as an art in education. The Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, an inner-city magnet high school, will receive the first award. The mission of its dance program is to foster both technical knowledge and creative abilities. Judi Tolomea, a core dance faculty member, says that students “are required to . . . talk about their process [and learn about] . . . the healthy use of the body, the audition process, how to collaborate, how to find their own expression and creativity, how to critique constructively, and how to work with and appreciate the diversity within the student body.”

 

The awards will be presented at the October 2005 Annual Conference in Buffalo, New York. Guidelines, deadlines, and application forms for the 2006 awards are available by contacting Patricia Cohen, chair of the Awards Committee, at patcohen1@optonline.net.

 

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