Young Choreographers Set to Delight Audience at Third Annual Ballet Northwest Young Choreographers Showcase

olympia ballet
0 Shares

 

Submitted by Ballet Northwest

For the third year, choreographers from Olympia’s Ballet Northwest will surprise and delight the audience at the Young Choreographers Showcase (YCS) on August 24, 2014 at 7 p.m. at the Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts on the South Puget Sound Community College campus, an event created to allow Company dancers to explore creativity and leadership in dance.

This year the event will showcase original productions from 11 choreographers. Nine are dancers from Ballet Northwest who range in age from 14 to 18. The other two are Ballet Northwest alumni, and recent graduates from the Hartt School at the University of Hartford, with Bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance.

At the event, audiences will encounter dances in variety of styles, including ballet, modern dance and jazz. Choreographers get to take advantage of professional lighting and costumes. “This is the first year we’ll have the event at the Minnaert Center, which is a beautiful venue for dance,” said Josie Johnson, Co-Artistic Director at Ballet Northwest.

Created in 2012, YCS gives the dancers at the Company an opportunity to create their own choreography, explore creativity and produce their own work. “Our dancers were getting more and more comfortable in different dance styles and were starting to show an interest in choreography. We saw the talent developing, so we created the Showcase to give these dancers the opportunity to stage their creativity,” said Ken Johnson, Co-Artistic Director at Ballet Northwest.

In order to participate in the event, dancers had to submit an application outlining why they wanted to participate, the style of music they would use as well as how many dancers they would need to stage their production. Next, choreographers attended Choreography Master Classes taught by Master Teachers from the region.

The Johnsons mentored the students throughout the creative process as well as at rehearsals. “We provided guidance and would pop into rehearsals to make sure things were going well and progressing. We’ve discovered that this process is a great leadership opportunity for the students. They have to manage rehearsal times, make sure dancers are available and take charge of their peers,” said Josie Johnson.

Ken Johnson added, “It is exciting to see the amazing quality of work that these local, young choreographers produce. Audiences are continually blown away by the choreographer’s imagination coming to life on the stage.”

Tickets are $12 (plus $3 Washington Center service fee) and can be purchased at: www.olytix.org or by calling 360-753-8586.

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
0 Shares