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Glendale, CA

Executive Producer Jamie Nichols Presents 2015 CELEBRATE DANCE (10th Anniversary)

by Jamie Nichols
January 30, 2015
Alex Theatre
216 North Brand Blvd.
Glendale, CA 91203
818-243-2539
Executive Producer Jamie Nichols is delighted to present the 10th Anniversary CELEBRATE DANCE at 8:00pm on Saturday March 7, 2015 at the historic Alex Theatre in Glendale, California. This year is our tenth season of offering audiences exceptional concert dance made by Los Angeles companies. We recognize the historic importance of this annual festival series by bringing back nine outstanding audience favorites that originally premiered for CELEBRATE DANCE in a technically accomplished professional production that promises to inspire, enlighten and entertain.

The audience will have "front row seats" for a celebratory retrospective with 9 dance companies re-staging original works which premiered in CELEBRATE DANCE including: Pennington Dance Group 2006, Backhausdance 2007, Motion/Tribe 2008, Viver Brasil 2009 BARE Dance Company 2010, Monat Dance 2011, RhetOracle Dance Company 2012, SoleVita Dance Company 2013 and BPM beatsperminute 2014.

WHERE: Alex Theatre 216 North Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA. 91023
WHEN: Saturday, March 7, 2015, 8:00pm
TICKETS: $18-$38 (all children seated with an adult, $12) Discounts: students and senior citizens. Group rates for 15 or more @ 25% off are available by calling the Box Office
HOW: Alex Theatre Box office 818-243-2539 or http://www.alextheatre.org.

WHO:
- Pennington Dance Group 2006 "Out of"
- Backhausdance 2007 "Push"
- Motion/Tribe 2008 "Le Coeur Illuminé" (a memorial tribute to Marie de la Palme)
- Viver Brasil 2009 "In Motion" (with live music)
- BARE Dance Company 2010 "Drift" (celebrating their own 10th anniversary in this show with a reunion of 30 dancers in "Drift" with a "twist")
- Monat Dance 2011"Beyond The Edge"
- RhetOracle Dance Company 2012 "The Dancing Man – a fairy tale"
- SoleVita Dance Company 2013 "The Way West"
- BPM beatsperminute 2014 (Tap Dance with a live band)

Plus some surprise performances!

Show time runs approximately 2 1/2 hours with a 20-minute intermission, and is suitable for all ages. This is the dance event of the year. ONE NIGHT ONLY! Celebrate 10 years of dance!

Celebrate Dance 2015 Biographies in Order of Appearance

Pennington Dance Group (PDG) was established in 2000 and is celebrating fifteen years as a Southern California based multi-generational dance company. PDG is honored to be a part of the 10th anniversary of Celebrate Dance and we applaud Jamie Nichols for her work in the dance community. As a non-profit organization, the PDG promotes dance through performances, education, and outreach programs, and has its creative home at A Room To Create (ARC) Pasadena.

Pennington Dance Group has performed at local, national and international venues, presenting new works, established repertory, and historic reconstructions alongside residencies that include classes, workshops, lectures and teacher training seminars. Committed to community building, the PDG offers subsidized rehearsal rates at ARC Pasadena and administers its PDG Space Grant Program to support the work of local choreographers.

Pennington Dance Group is supported by grants and gifts from the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs, Los AngelesCounty Arts Commission, Durfee Foundation, Z. Clark Branson Foundation, California Community Foundation, Princess Grace Foundation, Goethe Institute, Thomas Foundation, and funding from private donors. John Pennington, the Artistic Director of the Pennington Dance Group and A Room To Create (ARC) Pasadena, serves on the faculty at Pomona College and California State University Long Beach. Pennington enjoyed a 14-year career with the Lewitzky Dance Company as a performer and master teacher before establishing his own touring group in 2000. He has received numerous grants and awards including five Lester Horton Awards forachievement in dance and one for Excellence in Teaching. He was educated at Northwestern University, California Institute of the Arts (BFA), and received his MFA in Dance from Hollins University.
www.penningtondancegroup.org

Backhausdance is Orange County, California's critically acclaimed contemporary dance company. Founded in 2003 by Jennifer Backhaus, the company has emerged as a powerful and entertaining voice in the dance world. The repertory is engaging, accessible and innovative, performed by dancers who are dynamic, technical and stunning to watch. The non-profit company exists to perform on world-class stages and directly to the community through outreach and educational programs. Backhausdance has performed in numerous venues throughout California including Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Irvine Barclay Theatre, Ford Amphitheatre, Shakespeare Orange County, Alex Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Laguna Dance Festival and others. Outside of California the company has performed at Pace University's Schimmel Center, Joyce SoHo, Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre, Pinedale Fine Arts Council and others. Each year the company serves thousands through its arts community engagement and education programs. Backhausdance is a member of the Segerstom Center for the Arts education program and is also a part of the Lincoln Center Aesthetic Education Program through the McCallumTheatre Institute in Palm Desert. Each year Backhausdance engages over 100 students annually at its Summer Intensives held at Chapman University, a life-changing experience for pre-professional and professional dancers.
www.backhausdance.org

A native of France, Artistic Director of Motion/Tribe, Marie de la Palme (born August 19, 1959 – December 14, 2014) earned a certificate of Professional Ballet Dancer from the Princess Grace Academie, Monte Carlo. She completed her contemporary and modern studies with scholarships from the Serge Golovine School of Ballet and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. While in New York, Marie was a principal dancer for Alvin Ailey III, Trisler Danscompany, Keith Lee Ballets and others. She choreographed for Jacques d'Amboise's National Dance Institute, and worked on industrials and musicals before focusing on concert choreography, for whichshe's received multiple Lester Horton Dance Awards nominations.

Her acclaimed work Le Coeur Illuminé (2002) was awarded the Grand Prize at the McCallum Theatre's Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival, while The Cage (2006) and The Barre (2009) earned the festival's Engagement Award, and Immortal Beloved captured the Virginia Waring Award for Best Duet (2003). A finalist at the McCallum Theatre's choreography festival with The Door (2004), she has been a featured artist in the McCallum Institute's Focus Work Series in 2005 and 2007.

Marie's ballets have been presented at CELEBRATE DANCE (2008-2010), Dance Kaleidoscope and Los Angeles Dance Invitational, as well as California State University, Fullerton and Long Beach. A two-time guest choreographer at KCET's Annual Holiday Celebration at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (2008 and 2009), Marie was honored to be invited by the French Consulate to perform at their 2008 International Benefit Ball, La Vie En Rose, also at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. In 2009, at the request of Nigel Lithgoe, producer of the hit TV show So You Think You Can Dance, she was asked to present The Barre for the Dizzy Feet Foundation Gala at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles.

A much in-demand artist, Marie was commissioned to create a new work for the opening ceremony of the Shinnyo-en Buddhist order's International Festival of Joy in Japan. She also created a multi-cultural dance for the order's Saito Homa Peace Ceremony in Yorba Linda. In 2008, she again collaborated with Shinnyo-En to create a Taiko concert in honor of their founder at Royce Hall on the grounds of the University of California, Los Angeles. Marie is a tenured faculty member at Irvine Valley College where she teaches ballet, Floor Barre™, dance history, and is the Artistic Director of IVC's Performing Dance Ensemble. She has also taught at several Southern California dance institutions, including DeFore Dance Center, Huntington Academy of Dance, Focus Dance Center, Orange County High School of the Arts, Orange Coast College and California State University Long Beach.
www.motiontribe.com

Linda Yudin and Luiz Badaró founded Viver Brasil in Los Angeles in1997. Viver Brasil honors Brazil's African legacy through bold contemporary dance theater and increases awareness of the rich history of Afro-Brazilian dance and music through performances, residencies, lectures, interactive workshops, an annual cultural immersion travel program to Salvador, Bahia, and arts education programs that engage a variety of communities from youth to adults and seniors. Through rigorous research and continuous dialogue with living masters and virtuoso musicians and choreographers in Bahia, Viver Brasil is the premier Brazilian dance organization.

The company is the recipient of 2 Lester Horton Dance Awards and has performed at the following venues: Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Alex Theatre (Los Angeles, CA); Lensic Performing Arts Center, National Hispanic Cultural Center, and Taos Center for the Performing Arts (New Mexico); Herbst Theatre (San Francisco, CA); Bergen Performing Arts Center (Newark, NJ); American Theatre (Hampton, VA); and abroad in Mexico, Canada and South Africa.

Linda Yudin, founding Artistic Director, earned her MA in Dance (Ethnology) from UCLA in 1988, has devoted more than two decades to researching, performing and teaching Afro-Brazilian dance, embodied in Viver Brasil's innovative stage presentations. Yudin haslectured, taught, published, and performed Brazilian dance at colleges, universities, elementary, middle and high schools, academic conferences, and communities throughout the U.S., Brazil and South Africa. She is recipient of a 2012 Cultural Exchange International (CEI) fellowship from the city of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Along with Viver Brasil's co-founder Luiz Badaró, Yudin received the prestigious "Excellence in Teaching" award from the board of directors of Dance Resource Center of Greater L.A./Lester Horton Dance Awards 2009. Ms. Yudin is an adjunct faculty member at Santa Monica Collegesince 1999 and proudly guest teaches Afro-Brazilian dance at the Pierre Verger Foundation Cultural Center in Salvador, Bahia. She is equally proud to have as her principal Afro-Brazilian dance teachers, Raimundo B. dos Santos, a.k.a. Mestre King, VB co-founder Luiz Badaró, Rosangela Silvestre, Gilmar Sampaio, Joselita Moreira da Cruz Silva, Amelia Conrado, Nancy de Souza e Silva aka Dona Cici and the late Augusto Omolu. She is the chair of the Los Angeles-Salvador sister city program. Ms. Yudin was also a consultant for WNET public television series, Dancing, in the "New World, New Forms" segment. She was a keynote speaker at the University of Cape Town, South Africa's first international dance conference. Ms. Yudin appeared in Janet Jackson's "Escapade" music video. The Los Angeles Times included Yudin among the "movers and shakers" in the Los Angeles dance community.

Luiz Badaró, founding Artistic Director, critically acclaimed master dancer, choreographer, percussionist, and educator, was born in Salvador, Bahia, and has been choreographing and performing for over thirty years in Brazil, Europe, Africa, Japan and the United States. His influence is indispensable to Viver Brasil's cultural integrity, technical and artistic vitality, and dancer training.

Badaró's exalted choreography is inspired by both the traditional and contemporary worlds of Afro-Brazilian culture. The Los Angeles Times called his choreography "intoxicating… irrepressible… Brazilian to the core." Badaró studied Afro-Brazilian dance with Raimundo Bispo dos Santos (aka Mestre King), and Mercedes Batista; modern dance with Clyde Morgan; folkloric traditions with Emilia Biancardi; and capoeira with Mestre Bimba and Mestre Bandu. In 2009, he won a Lester Horton Dance Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Music for Dance" for Viver Brasil's 2008 So Moved/In Motion. Along with co-founder Linda Yudin, Badaró received the prestigious "Excellence in Teaching" award from the board of directors of Dance Resource Center of Greater L.A./LesterHorton Dance Awards 2009.
www.viverbrasil.com

Mike Esperanza established BARE DANCE COMPANY in 2005 with the help of Dance/ USA and the Irvine Foundation. Over the years, BARE's versatile approach to movement has been described as "Inventive and engaging" - Mariko Nagashima, SeattleDances. BARE has produced acclaimed productions in the Southern California area and has headlined events for the Orange County Children's Therapeutic Arts Center, The Center Orange County, Inland AIDS projects and the Epilepsy Foundation of Southern California.

BARE was nominated for numerous Lester Horton awards for productions in the Southern California including "Manhattan", a work selected by ODC Theater to tour CA as part of their 2011 "Innerstate" program. BARE was also awarded the paid engagement award at the 2011 Dance Under theStars festival in Palm Spring, CA. BARE relocated to New York City in 2012 and has produced work for Danspace Project, Dixon Place, Peridance and Ailey Citigroup Theater. In 2014, BARE produced VENOMOUS for LaGuardia PerformingArts Center with the help of the CUNY Dance Initiative. Born in Manila, Philippines and raised in Southern California, Mike Esperanza has established himself as a sought after teacher and choreographer throughout the nation. With a BFA in graphic design from California State University, Fullerton, Mike'sapproach to visual construction has influenced a unique movement orchestration described as "This is smart, affecting, technically accomplished work." – Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times. Mike has presented work across the nation including the Kennedy Center, Sergestrom Hall, McCallum Theater, Danspace Project at St Mark's Church, Ailey Citigroup Theater, Peridance Capezio Center, Dixon Place, Symphony Space to name a few. Mike was awarded the "Dance: Creation for Performance" grant presented by Dance/USA and the Irvine Foundation in, "Innerstate" presented by ODC Theater, a finalist at the Palm Desert Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival in 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010 taking second place in 2009 and winning the paid engagement award in 2010. In 2014, Mike received the inaugural CUNY Dance Initiative to create a new site specific new work for LaGuardia Performing Arts Center. Mike Currently teaches at Steps on Broadway, Peridance and serves as a guest teacher at Broadway Dance Center.
www.baredanceco.com

Sophie Monat was born in London, England and began her professional career in Europe where she danced with the Lille Opera Ballet in France and the National Ballet of Portugal. Following eight years as BalletMistress to the New Jersey Ballet, she served as Director of the Classical/Contemporary Dance Department at the Orange County High School of the Arts, and was also Ballet Mistress to the State Street Ballet in Santa Barbara. Ms. Monat is currently a member of the full time faculty at the California State University Long Beach Department of Dance, where she teaches, directs and choreographs for the department's dance concerts. Ms. Monat also works extensively as a guest artist and has taught company class for ODC/San Francisco, the Lyon Opera Ballet, the Hartford Ballet, and Raiford Rogers Modern Ballet. She has choreographed, taught, and staged a wide range of classical and contemporary ballets for ballet companies, dance festivals, professional schools, and universities including Stanford University, Scripps College, Loyola Marymount University, UC Irvine, the Orange County High School of the Arts, and Montclair State University, New Jersey. She was a three-time recipient of the finalist award at the McCallum Theatre's Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival in Palm Desert. Ms. Monat formed her dance company, Monat Dance in 2009. The company performed at Celebrate Dance 2011 and 2012 at the Alex Theatre, and most recently the company won the 2011 Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival's 2nd place award for Monat's ballet,Vista.
www.monatdance.com

Nate Hodges, Artistic Director of RhetOracle Dance Company, received his training from A Chorus Line veteran, Pamm Drake, at Dance/10 Studios in the SF Bay Area. Under herdirection he received the titles of Mr. Teen and Mr. Dance of Northern California from Dance Masters of America. He moved to Orange County to attend the University of California, Irvine where he received his B.A. in Dance as well as honors in choreography from ASUCI and Bare Bones Dance Theatre. While at UCI he was a member for 4 years of the award winning hip hop company Kaba Modern and Donald McKayle's Etude Ensemble, in which he was chosen among 9 others to represent the university at the Conservatoire de Danse in Paris, France.

Since graduation in 2003, Nate has danced with Louise Reichlin, Funkanometry SF, KM Legacy, Bare Dance Company, and in Another Gay Movie as well as choreographing for the Jimmie DeFore Foundation, The Etude Ensemble, Phoenix Dance Company, and Funks SF. RhetOracle Dance Company founded in 2006 is a collective of artists who strive to bring the television-viewing, counter-culture everyman back into the concert dance setting by creating dances that entertain and speak to them in a way that isn't inaccessible or cryptic, but while also not compromising the artistic integrity of the artists. We look to use dance in this way to lure those who might not normally see dance in a concert setting so that we may educate by tackling social, political, and gender issues, inspire through thought-provoking andintriguing storylines, and challenge by pushing the envelope with controversial subject matter through thematic movement. We aim to involve ourselves in projects that speak to the everyday person, that promote social awareness, and that perpetuate a positive environment for the arts securing a healthy and happy home for dance audiences in the future.
www.rhetoracle.com

Joelle Martinec is the Founder, Artistic Director and Choreographer of Los Angeles based SoleVita Dance Company. Since it's inception in 2011, SoleVita Dance Company, has boldly forged a path in the Los Angeles dance scene by participating in Celebrate Dance 2013 and 2014, performing for The LA Philharmonic 10th Anniversary Gala, taken part in events for Ignite Dance Workshops, Pasadena Dance Festival, Nancy Evans Dance Theatre, Commonality Dance Company and LA Fashion Week as well as were finalists in Dance Under The Stars Choreography festival 2012 and 2014.

"MoveMeant", SoleVita's annual repertoire show is known as an event not to be missed. SoleVita dancers and Joelle Martinec's choreography are featured in music videos for Adjoa Skinner's "The Sun" and "Recession Song", Ashley Chambliss's "My Universe", Brad Stanley and the Foxflies' "Tik Tok Nation" Erin Muir's "Too Much" and TJ Stafford Music's "Get Up". Joelle and SoleVita have as well released three independent short dance based films produced by Ginger Sole Productions. As a dancer, Joelle Martinec, can be seen in feature films: "The Big Lebowski", "A Time For Dancing" and in the award winning music video "It's Ohh So Quiet". Recently Joelle was featured as "The Business Woman" on GLEE's episode titled "Feud". Ms. Martinec has taught all over the world and was known as "the teacher's teacher" during her many years traveling with Tremaine Dance Conventions. Lewis Segal of the Los Angeles Times called Ms. Martinec's solo performance for Liz Imperio's Instincts Live Media Dance Company "feisty". SoleVita Dance Company is honored to be taking part in Celebrate Dance for a third year in a row. Thank You Jamie.
www.solevitadance.com

Glyn Gray has been involved in the arts for over 30 years. He has performed on London's "West End" and in numerous musicals such as Songbook, Slice of Saturday Night, The Boyfriend, The Man of Steel and SHOUT! The Musical. Glyn's television and film credits include "Star Factory", "Good Morning Australia", "Kerry-Anne Show", "Sunrise", Baz Luhrmann's movie "Moulin Rouge", and numerous ads for "Coca Cola", "Duluxe Paint", "McDonalds" and "Converse". He is on faculty at Los Angeles' Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio and has taught throughout New Zealand, Australia, United States and Europe in various performing arts centers and institutions.

Glyn is co-creator of AJDA tap syllabus and co-creator/director/choreographer to his show BPM beatsperminute which has toured Australia, 3 sold out seasons at the Sydney Opera House and more recently premiered in Los Angeles as part of The Nvitational Festival, Pasadena Dance Festival, Industry Voice Awards and Celebrate Dance. Glyn co-founded/created DancePlug.com in 2008, which now stands as a prominent dance resource throughout the United States and abroad.

Aside from being CEO he oversees media production and web development. Glyn is co-owner/director of StirStudios your one-stop design house for all your creative needs, for the past 15 years. Created by Glyn Gray and Nathan Sheens, BPM beatsperminute is a 7-piece band with a twist - including 3 tap dancers, 3 musicians and a vocalist/rapper. BPM beatsperminute intertwines tap dance; vocals, bass, guitar and drums, layering live rhythms to invent a new interpretation of the art of tap dance.

With an original score of percussive groove sounds, the performance features a unique full body style of smooth,sophisticated tap. Performing in and around the audience, BPM beatsperminute challenges the conventions of audience interaction. Performed by an ensemble of seven talented musicians and dancers, BPM beatsperminute is a fusion of exhilarating tap set to an original score. BPM beatsperminute is renowned for dynamic stagecraft coupled with dance that is raw, fresh and invigorating.

Eileen Cooley,Lighting Designer and Production Manager, received her Master's Degree in Choreography from UCLA and uses that as the foundation for her work as a lighting designer specializing in dance. She currently creates designs for such companies as Regina Klenjoski Dance Company, Danza Floricanto/USA, Rangoli Foundation, Francisco Martinez Dance Theatre, Pennington Dance Group, Everybody Dance!, Shakti Foundation, Westside Ballet, and the National Children's Chorus. She has been honored with ten Lester Horton Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Lighting for Dance and the Gary Bates Award for Service to the Los Angeles Dance Community. This will be Ms. Cooley's 10th year as Lighting Designer/Production Manager for Celebrate Dance.

Executive Producer Jamie Nichols has been critically acclaimed for the emotional intensity, and for the eloquence of her dancing and choreography as Artistic Director of the contemporary dance company, Fast Feet (1980-2003). "A memorable performance for its depth of feeling" "remarkable gestural detail" "galvanizing" from The Los Angeles Times, and "She's not quite Google, but producer Jamie Nichols certainly is a one-woman search engine for anyone who wants to know about the L.A. dance scene…" Ann Haskins - LA Weekly. Ms. Nichols is the recipient of 6 LesterHorton Dance Awards for Outstanding Achievement, The Lester Horton Furthering the Visibility of Dance Award and the Dance Resource Center of Los Angeles Meritorious Award for Outstanding & Extensive Years of Service. As Executive Producer of Celebrate Dance since 2006 she has presented 70 dance companies at the historic Alex Theatre in Glendale, California to critical acclaim by press and audiences alike. She has served on multiple boards, committees, panels for grants awardees', and mentored many local dance companies and choreographers. She has been an adjudicator for the Palm Desert International Choreography Festival and The Open Call at the McCallum Theatre, worked as a publicist for dance companies, and has produced a variety of dance events in Los Angeles. Ms. Nichols currently teaches theatre movement and dance for actors at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Hollywood, and contemporary dance at Live Arts Los Angeles.
www.celebratedance.org
www.youtube.com/user/twofastfeet
www.twitter.com/CelebrateDance
www.facebook.com/CelebrateDance
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