Seattle Theatre Group offers
DANCE This SUMMER DANCE TRAINING INTENSIVE
JUNE 25 - JULY 7, 2012
The DANCE This Summer Dance Training Intensive provides an opportunity for young dancers at all levels to immerse themselves in dance over the course of 2 weeks. Students will be exposed to a wide range of dance styles and techniques in a supportive, yet challenging atmosphere. Instruction includes Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Musical Theatre, Choreography, Ballroom/Salsa, African, Conditioning & special workshops. Instruction includes African, Ballet, Choreography, Hip Hop, Improvisation, Jazz, Musical Theatre, Salsa, & special workshops.
WHEN: Monday June 25 – Saturday July 7, 2012 10am - 4:30pm
(no classes Sunday July 1st OR Wednesday July 4th)
WHERE: All classes will be held at Pacific Northwest Ballet - The Phelps Center, located at 301 Mercer Ave, Seattle WA 98109 (on the Seattle Center campus). A showcase for friends and family will be held on Saturday, July 7, 2012 at the Moore Theatre, located at 1932 Second Avenue Seattle, WA 98101.
WHO: The Intensive is open to young aspiring dancers ages 13-21 ANY LEVEL of experience. Three class levels offered in most disciplines.
COST: $400 per participant* for the entire Intensive program if registration is postmarked by May 20th; $425 after May 20th.
*A limited number of scholarships are available to students based on financial need. Please indicate in your registration form if you would like scholarship information sent to you.
Instructors include:
Etienne Cakpo (African Dance)
Etienne Cakpo is a professional dancer, choreographer and musician from Benin, West Africa. He teaches and performs traditional and contemporary African dance styles, and has been building his dance repertoire for over twenty years. Currently the director and lead choreographer of Gansango Music and Dance based in Seattle, Etienne contributes regularly to the cultural arts community in Western Washington, and performs in solo events and group shows. Etienne enjoys collaborating with multi-cultural dance groups and educating people of all ages and backgrounds about African culture through the arts.
Kirsten Cooper (Jazz)
Kirsten Cooper studied dance and performed professionally in Los Angeles where she received experience in film, music videos and stage productions. Kirsten was an assistant teacher on the LA Dance Force convention tour and was a featured dancer on Costa Cruise Lines. She is the director of Westlake Dance Center's competition and performing group and teaches lyrical and jazz. Kirsten's former students have gone on to dance on cruise ships, Vegas industrials, the WICKED national tour, the L.A. based dance company Hysterica, with the Backstreet Boys, Fiona Apple and Celine Dion and most recently on “Dancing With the Stars” and the movie “Fame.”
Sonia Dawkins (Modern)
Sonia Dawkins is the founder and artistic director of Sonia Dawkins/Prism Dance Theatre. She is a graduate of The University of the Arts and received a Master’s in Dance from SUNY Brockport. Ms. Dawkins has been a faculty member at Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle and Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington D.C. She has also been an Artist-in Residence at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and North Carolina School of the Arts. Ms. Dawkins has performed extensively with choreographers and companies in the United States and the Caribbean. Her national and international choreography credits include: Seattle Repertory Theatre (The Breach, Three Musketeers, Brother Size), Pacific Northwest Ballet, Nevada Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre School, Seattle Theatre Group (Dance This), Bulgaria Dance Festival, Mexico International Festival and Broadway Bound (God Lives in Glass).
Rex Kinney (Hip Hop)
Rex Kinney grew up in Seattle and began learning hip hop as a teenager. He has performed and choreographed for the Seahawks and Seattle Sonics/Storm Half-Time shows, Poncho's Auction Gala, Village Theater, Experience Music Project, Seattle Academy, Kube 93.3 FM's Summer Jam, opener for Cypress Hill, the music video “Do You Want Me” by Mion Lee Drew several other community events. He is currently the director and choreographer for the Shorecrest High School Dance Team. Under his direction, the team has won six straight District Titles, two WIAA State Dance/Drill Championships, a third place ranking at Nationals in 2007 and National Championship in 2010. In addition, he has taught at Cornish College of Arts, Pacific Northwest Ballet's REACH program, the UW Experimental College and Westlake Dance Center.
Sheri Lewis (Musical Theater)
Sheri Lewis is the founder and director of Westlake Dance Center. Sheri's desire to travel and dance led her to perform in exotic places like Bermuda, Puerto Rico and cruise ships right out of high school. This chance to perform and continue to study dance all over the world opened her eyes to different dance styles that influence her teaching today. Sheri got her license in massage therapy in 2001 where kinesiology and study of anatomy gave her awareness to dance injuries and rehab to help dancers in class and out. Besides teaching at WDC, Sheri choreographs several musicals each year with CORE Theatrics and local conventions working with entertainment companies. Sheri is thrilled to have been guest teaching and choreographing for Ywam and Project Dance New York.
Timothy Lynch (Ballet)
Timothy Lynch is from Mineola, New York, and received his training at the School of American Ballet. In 1993, Mr. Lynch joined Pacific Northwest Ballet and performed featured roles in George Balanchine's Agon, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Four Temperaments, as well as the works of Jerome Robbins, Kent Stowell, and Paul Taylor. He originated roles in works by Donald Byrd, Val Caniparoli, Kevin O'Day, Stowell, and Lynne Taylor-Corbett. His character roles include Carabosse in Ronald Hynd's Sleeping Beauty and Drosselmeier in Kent Stowell's Nutcracker. In 2001, Mr. Lynch became co-director of PNB's Outreach Youth performing group, and in 2003, he joined the permanent faculty of the Pacific Northwest Ballet School. In 2005, he received his Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts, where he is currently a guest faculty member. Mr. Lynch is co-Artistic Director of Seattle Dance Project.
Amy O’Neal (Choreography, Improvisation)
Amy O’Neal is a performer, choreographer, dance educator and co-director of locust music/dance/video (locustsucka.com) and director of AmyO/tinyrage (tinyrage.com). Over the past decade, she has toured nationally and internationally with her own dance and video work as well as with Reggie Watts and the Pat Graney Company. She has created two works for Donald Byrd's Spectrum Dance Theater, collaborated with Savion Glover at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle and choreographed for the DANCE This performance. Amy teaches regularly at Seattle’s Velocity Dance Center and with STG’s DANCE This Intensive and the Young Choreographer's Lab. Amy was choreographer in residence at Bates Dance Festival in 2007, Headlands Center for the Arts in 2008 and Dance Theater Workshop/Japan Society in 2009. Amy graduated with a dance degree from Cornish College of the Arts.
Ellie Sandstrom (Modern)
Ellie Sandstrom, a Seattle Magazine "Spotlight Award Winner," is originally from Minneapolis, where she began her movement training with Minnesota Dance Theater and later BalletArts Minnesota. She has studied various forms of dance technique, body conditioning, composition, improvisation and performance at dance festivals and schools across the country including Cornish College of the Arts, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance. Ellie worked and toured with dance companies locust and Scott/Powell Performance from 2000-2010. Her choreography, under the name SANDSTROMMOVEMENT, has been produced locally and nationally by organizations such as On the Boards, Velocity Dance Center and Perpich Center for the Arts and commissioned by Seattle Dance Project and Washington Ensemble Theater. She currently teaches ballet and modern to young adults and beyond at Velocity Dance Center and hip hop to high school students at Northwest School in Seattle.
Vanessa Villalobos (Salsa)
Vanessa Villalobos is a Peruvian born dancer, actor, choreographer and educator with a degree in Theater and Dance from the University of Washington. She has worked and performed in concert dance, competitive dance, theater and film. Vanessa studied with Pierre Dulaine, Yvonne Marceau, Rufus Dustin, Taliat Tarsinov, Tony Meredith, Melanie LaPatin, Hustle legend Miguel Marrero, Andre Mintz and cajon master Juanchi Vasquez. She is an experienced teaching artist with film credits in “Mad Hot Ballroom” and Walt Disney’s “Enchanted.” She is a board member of the Dance Educator's Association of Washington and directs BALORICO LLC, an arts and entertainment company offering performance opportunities to pre-professional and professional entertainers.
Schedule and Instructors subject to change.
