New World Dance Theater. May 17 through 20, 2012.
NWSA is honored to have been granted permission by the Balanchine Trust to perform the first movement of Balanchine’s signature work, Serenade. Guest artist Jerri Kumery, former dancer with the New York City Ballet, spent a week in Miami last January teaching this masterwork to a select group of NWSA High School students. After her departure, NWSA faculty member, Gerard Ebitz (also a former New York City Ballet dancer) continued to rehearse the work. First performed in June 1934, by students from the School of American Ballet, the dance is set to Tchaikovsky’s beautiful work, Serenade for Strings in C. When Mr. Balanchine was asked what Serenade is about, he said that it is just “a dance in the moonlight.”
The evening will also include a new contemporary work by Lara Murphy entitled Liminally Venn. The work is a powerful dance for twelve dancers, some in ballet pointe shoes, set to a driving score by both the classical composer Gabriel Prokofiev and contemporary Japanese group, Kodo.
The exciting tour-de-force jazz piece, Jazzapalooza, choreographed by Dance Division faculty member Tina Santos, set to a collage of jazz works and danced by twelve talented high school students will electrify the evening with a hip-hop section choreographed by college sophomore Jeffrey Docimo.
Three other premieres by NWSA faculty choreographers will be presented, including Rebecca Cannan’s work, Movement is My Language, which will feature live performance of a new composition by composer/performer Sean Dibble. The work is a lyrical and moving contemporary-style dance in which the choreographer has incorporated the movement of sign language to amplify and underscore the dance. Choreographer Josée Garant will premiere her new work, Miniatures, about which she says: Miniatures presents interpretations of common French ‘sayings’ translated and transformed into short contemporary dances. The dance is set to a score by the same title by French composer Georges Aperghi. And finally, Dale Andree will present her new work, Flux, set to music by Meredith Monk, and incorporating directional pulls, which reflect the demanding and ever changing pulls/demands/expectations in the lives of high school students.
Another high-energy piece will be the program’s final work choreographed by faculty member Peter London, entitled Celia. It is a work for this year’s talented Senior Class set to the music of Celia Cruz and evoking the dance heritage of her native Cuba.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary, New World School of the Arts was created by the Florida legislature as a center of excellence in the performing and visual arts, is an educational partnership of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Miami Dade College and the University of Florida. Through these educational partnerships NWSA’ audition-based dance program, accredited by the National Association of Schools of Dance, Music, Theater and Art & Design, offers the high school diploma as well as the four-year BFA and BM college degrees. Areas of concentration in Dance include Ballet, Choreography, Modern Dance and World Dance.
General admission is $12. Students and seniors $5. Tickets are available at nwsa.mdc.edu. Information about the HS Spring Dance Concert is available at 305.237.3341.
New World School of the Arts Spring Dance Concert
25 NE 2nd Street, 8th floor
Miami, FL 33132
305.237.3341
nwsa.mdc.edu
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