November 12, 2004

For More Information, Contact: Kimberly Stark (901) 333-4023

DANCE WORKS HOLIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA ENCOMPASSES A GAMUT OF BALLET TALES AT SOUTHWEST DECEMBER 10
Release written by Pat O’Brien

Dance Works, Southwest’s resident ballet company and school, will offer an exciting range of topics December 10 in its Holiday performance at the College’s theater on the Union Campus Avenue at Manassas and Union. Students ages 4 to 22 will collaborate with local and international musicians and dancers to present a divertissement of ballet and free movement compositions, along with original and traditional ballets and set pieces.

Students Work and Dances will feature students from all levels of the program, accompanied by resident pianists Diana Stein Kabakoff, John Palmer, Matthew Sutton and Blair Seymour and choreographed by Dance Works executive director Karen J. Zissoff.

Sisterhood of Dreams (Women’s Tales from the Great Depression), choreographed by international guest artist Judith Davies of Ottawa, Canada, depicts family life in the depression with the influence of great modern dance pioneer Martha Graham and her approach to movement. The music, Aaron Copeland’s Sonata for Piano and Violin, performed by pianist Lyn Joyner and violinist Kate Ryan. Davies has also set Sleeping Beauty’s “Pas de Trios,” with variations; music by Tchaikovsky, with pianist Matthew Sutton.

Spanish Jazz Piece, written and performed by Jeremy Shrader on percussion and guitar, will feature local jazz choreographer Krysten Carl, her first jazz work with Dance Works.

Grade I-II junior students have created a piece to Spanish composer Joaquin Nin Culmell – Tonadas – from their creative movement composition class. Kabakoff accompanies; Zissoff has guided this piece.

Curtain time is 7 p.m.; admission is $10 adults, $6 children and students with ID. Reservations are required; call (901) 333-5174. Dance Works is in its seventeenth season; its eleventh since moving to Southwest. It is sponsored in part by the Greater Memphis Arts Council, Tennessee Arts Commission, and Southwest, offering scholarships to dance students.