Programs
Touring Residency Activities
San Francisco Workshop and Masterclass
"Moving, Thinking, Making"
San Francisco Dance Center Community Workshop
Associate Artistic Director Janet Wong led a weekend workshop that explored the physical aesthetic and creative devices of the company through a technique class and choreographic methods workshop.
She also taught a master class for students in the LINES Training Program, focusing on the company's unique approach to cultivating precision, range, and the ability to cover space in movement. "The LINES Ballet philosophy fosters the application of experiences and techniques in balance with the value of each individual's inherent gifts of intelligence, self-expression and virtue." By uniting this philosophy with our own, we helped LINES students further their exploration of their creative potential.
Ravinia Residencies
September Ravinia Residency Activities
While in residency at The Ravinia Festival for the premiere of Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray, the company had a great intersection with diverse parts of the Chicago dance community, including:
-Curie High School: We revisited Melinda Wilson's dance class.
-Whitney Young Arts Magnet High School (the high school of Michelle Obama!) We revisited the students of Jeanette Gordon. They contributed their reflections of our open rehearsal showing in May in the form of poems and drawings. On our return visit, we gave them a collage of all of their art combined with mementos of the company and its work. Dear Christine,
Thank you for making last Thursday night possible for my students.
The performance conjured up a lot of conversation and discussion for our bus ride home. This was the first time many of them have seen modern dance. It was a lot for them to take in with so many different elements to the performance. Technology, props, set, live music, narration....it was an enormous undertaking and I applaud Bill and his company.
In addition, the master class with Leah Cox was superb! The time/class management, appropriate/vast content and inspirational delivery gave the students a lot of material to reflect on. I appreciate her generosity and caring nature. Leah presented the dancers with a montage of our students artwork and photos of the company. A truly beautiful expression of our partnership!
Thank you for everything!
Jeanette Gordon
-Joffrey Professional Training Program: We taught two groups of the advanced trainees, focusing on imparting performance skills and the overlap between modern and ballet training. Trainees rehearse and perform classical and contemporary works from The Joffrey Ballet repertoire and have the opportunity to work with guest choreographers. The program strives to assist students in becoming whole, healthy, and happy adults who have a true passion for dance, and a clear understanding of how to make dance a career.
-Joffrey Outreach Program: We taught students that are brought together from all over Chicago to learn about dance and perform in the community. They learned how movement is made from ideas and immediately put those skills to use. The Joffrey Ballet's Community Engagement Program serves more than 4,000 young people each school year and helps to inspire a greater appreciation for dance while introducing participants to the benefits this art form offers.-Columbia College
Through the generosity of the Ravinia Festival and its spectacular Education Program, headed by Christine Taylor, all students who participated in the above classes were given free tickets to see the performances.
Photos by Luciano Pedota.
When we returned to Ravinia in September, we presented the students with this collaborative artwork, created from their art and poetry, and text and pictures from the company!
View image Poem and Drawing by Beata Ramza
Collage by Lindsay Howard
Created by students from Whitney M. Young Magnet High School in Chicago, IL in response to an Open Rehearsal of Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray.
May Ravinia Residency
While in Chicago in for a weeklong residency at Ravinia, working on the creation of the Company's newest work, Fondly Do We Hope...Fervently Do We Pray, over 600 students from Chicago area schools came to watch an open rehearsal. Some students also took Master Classes held at their schools taught by Company artists. Students responded to the rehearsal and Master Classes through poetry, art work, and critical reflections.
Click Here to see a video of the Open Rehearsal!
–– Education, Thursday, February 25, 2010
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