Teaching dance in public schools can be filled with joy—but not all the time. The endeavor has to have the support of school principals as well as access to excellent teachers. This month New York area folks will be able to see PS DANCE! a documentary that gives five examples where those two ingredients line up and every kid gets to dance.
Five master teachers in NYC schools—Catherine Gallant, Ana Nery Fragoso, Michael Kerr, Ani Udovicki, Pat Dye—reveal how they use contagious energy to instill the love of dance in their students. All the kids jump in willingly—the shy, the loud, the nerds, the jocks—and they move without fear or inhibition and they speak on camera about how dance stimulates the imagination.
Nel Shelby directed this film with an eye to the innocence of the children and generosity of the teachers. Jody Gottfried Arnhold, initiator of NYC’s blueprint for dance education (her motto has always been #danceforeverychild), was the mastermind behind the film, and Joan Finkelstein, former director of dance for that NYC Department of Education, was advisor.
For any dancer interested in teaching, this film is valuable and uplifting.
Tune it to where PS DANCE! will be shown:
• Friday, May 15 on Channel Thirteen at 10:30 pm,
• Sunday May 17 on WLIW21 at 3:30 pm and 10:00 pm
• Tuesday, May 26, at NJTV at 10:00 pm.
For more info and to view the trailer, click here.
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Jan 25, 2021
Still frrom Shobana Jeyasingh's Contagion, courtesy Sadler's Wells
This Free Online Festival Showcases the Crème de la Crème of the U.K. Dance Scene
As most theaters across the world remain closed, London's contemporary dance hub Sadler's Wells and cultural broadcaster BBC Arts have come together to produce a day-long digital dance festival on January 28.
Dancing Nation will showcase 15 new and beloved works by world-class, U.K.-based companies and choreographers over three hour-long, pre-recorded segments. Highlights will include Akram Khan and Natalia Osipova performing together for the first time in Mud of Sorrow: Touch, a new work inspired by Khan's 2006 duet with Sylvie Guillem; Matthew Bourne's New Adventures' seminal 1988 work Spitfire; and Shobana Jeyasingh's timely restaging of Contagion, which explores the spread of the virus that caused the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918.
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<p>Hip-hop festival Breakin' Convention will take the show off the main stage and into the theater's public spaces, transforming them with a unique dialogue between popping, voguing and flamenco dance styles. Additional rep comes from Candoco Dance Company, Oona Doherty, English National Ballet, Boy Blue, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Far From The Norm and Rambert, to name a few.</p><p>In addition to performances, <em>Dancing's Nation</em>'s programming will also feature exclusive interviews with participating artists, including a conversation with legendary ballet dancer and Birmingham Royal Ballet artistic director <a href="https://www.dancemagazine.com/carlos-acosta-2649041447.html" target="_self">Carlos Acosta</a>.</p>
<p>Part of BBC Arts' <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts" target="_blank">Culture in Quarantine</a> initiative, which seeks to support the creative sector during the pandemic, <em>Dancing Nation</em> will be streamed on BBC iPlayer for U.K. viewers, and <a href="https://www.sadlerswells.com/whats-on/2021/dancing-nation" target="_blank">on Sadler's Wells website</a> for international audiences, both options free of charge. Originally scheduled to be broadcast live on January 14, the program was pre-recorded and pushed back two weeks due to the recent UK lockdown.</p>The performances will be available to view for 30 days after the festival, while a 90-minute highlights program will be viewable for the next 12 months. A box set of the entire program will also be sold on the Sadler's Wells website.
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<p>"We're really looking forward to starting the New Year as we mean to go on, by partnering with incredible artists to bring you world-class performances in <em>Dancing Nation</em>," said Sadler's Wells' artistic director Alistair Spalding in a press statement. "The event is a… celebration of their talent to inspire us to look forward to 2021 with renewed optimism."</p>
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