March 31, 2006

For more information, contact: Kimberly Kreider (901) 333-4023

DANCERS DELIGHT: NATIONAL DANCE WEEK CELEBRATION
Written by Pat O’Brien

Dance Works, Inc., resident school of ballet at Southwest, will host the 18th Annual National Dance Week Celebration in Memphis April 22 and 23 at the Union Avenue Campus Theater. The concert continues a Memphis tradition inaugurated by the Memphis Dance Alliance in 1987. Worldwide observance is designed to focus on the values, importance, and numerous contributions of dance as it touches everyone and is intrinsically woven into the cultural fiber of human existence.

The performances bring together dancers of all ages, from Downtown to Germantown. The dance students, their teachers, choreographers and dance professionals, all with strong backgrounds in a variety of dance idioms, will come together to celebrate their art form in performances dedicated to 18th century ballet innovator and dance theorist Jean George Noverre. His philosophy, Bring love as well as enthusiasm to your art…. To be successful, the heart must be touched, the soul moved, and the imagination inflamed, is still upheld in the pursuit of perfection by dancers today.

Karen Zissoff, executive/artistic director of Dance Works, will host the celebration. The choreographers and performing groups will include Elizabeth Anne Brown, Performing Arts of Germantown; Katie Smythe Thinnes, New Ballet Ensemble; and Tony Austin and Marianne Bell, Project: Motion. Free lance Memphis choreographers participating include Sandy Baldwin, Noelia Garcia Carmona, Kevin Guy, Christopher Roberts, Sharona Rubinstein, and Dennis Spaight; and Matthew Keefe of Minneapolis.

Local musicians include Lyn Joyner, accompanist for a Chopin and a Bach piece; and Tony Thomas, keyboard and Scott Thompson, trumpet, musicians for a Charles Mingus piece.

The theater lobby will be graced by water colors, representing nine years of dance poster celebrations, by painter-sculptor Don Allen, as well as a poster by Denise Rhodes. Both specialize in painting dancers and other performers. This year’s poster, created by Angela Goodman, is a collage of dancers in various poses. It will be shown, along with Jimpsie Ayres’ paintings of various Memphis dancers.

Tickets for the performances are $10 for adults and $6 for students with ID, and are available in advance. Church and school rates are also available. For information, call (901) 333-5174.