Support and 'Celebrate Dance'

WHAT: CELEBRATE DANCE 2008 ALEX THEATRE SATURDAY MARCH 15, 8:00PM

Executive Producer Jamie Nichols will present eight cutting edge dance companies one night only, that will inspire and entertain all ages Saturday March 15, 2008 at 8:00PM at the historic Alex Theatre in Glendale, California. Last year, CELEBRATE DANCE 2007 was a smashing success and topping off the season, Executive Producer Jamie Nichols received prestigious Lester Horton Dance Award For Production of A Festival at the 16th Annual Lester Horton Dance Awards in May 2007!
CELEBRATE DANCE is fast becoming a coveted event for dance companies to participate in, as many have received Lester Horton Dance Award nominations and awards from showing their work in this highly produced festival presented by “impresaria” Jamie Nichols. This year will be no exception as Executive Producer Nichols raises her “barre” again for Los Angeles dance to be presented at its finest.
CELEBRATE DANCE 2008 will include:
Jennifer Backhaus’ exceptional contemporary company BackhausDance in Arrive a premiere for Celebrate Dance with eight dancers including 2007 Lester Horton Dance Award winners William Lu and Andrea Brache
Provocative and highly physical dance drawn from West African and post-modern genres by Baker& Tarpaga Dance Project in a premiere titled Dar Es Salaam which translates as Land of Peace with live contemporary African music
Hot urban salsa by Ana Marie Alvarez’s Contra-Tiempo in a premiere for Celebrate Dance
Hybrid break’n (break dancing) by the international icon Jacob “Kujo” Lyons’ inspiring Lux Aeterna Dance Company in a premiere for Celebrate Dance
The ever-brilliant Viktor Kabaniaev and Dancers with contemporary ballet from San Francisco in the bewildering solo work Episodes Of…
Bradley Michaud’s heart stopping! jaw dropping! contemporary Method Dance in a world premiere titled Claudia
The enchanting red silk aerial contemporary ballet, Le Coeur Illuminé restaged for the Alex Theatre by award winning choreographer Marie de la Palme with her company Motion Tribe.
And just recently added to the program! The Los Angeles debut of BodyTraffic a new contemporary Los Angeles company Co-Directed by the gorgeous dancers/choreographers Lillian Barbeito & Tina Finkelman Berkett in a world-premiere with live music, Bach's Suite for Cello #1 in G Minor , played by Cellist Emily Corwin

WHERE: Alex Theatre 2116 North Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA. 91023

WHEN: Saturday, March 15th, 2008, 8:00pm

TICKETS: $17-$35 with discount rates available for children, students, seniors and DRC Members. Excellent 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
Show time approx 2 hours one 20 minute intermission

WHO: EIGHT DANCE COMPANIES
Ana María Alvarez the artistic director of Contra-Tiempo has been sharing her love for dance with audiences for over fifteen years. As a choreographer, performer and community arts activist from the east coast, Alvarez moved to LA from NYC in 2002. Since then she and Contra-Tiempo have presented work at Hollywood Bowl, REDCAT Disney Hall, the Alex Theatre at 16th Annual Lester Horton Dance Awards and Grand Performances among other local venues. In March 2005, Alvarez received her MFA at UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures. The same year, Contra-Tiempo completed their first east coast tour and has proceeded to tour nationally and internationally over the past three years.
Contra-Tiempo engages a diverse audience with their unique Salsa-based, Urban-Latin dance theater. This year the company has taken their work into the LA schools and is planning a two-week tour to the southeast in August and Puerto Rico in the Fall 2007
. Backhausdance celebrates modern themes through athletic yet lyrical contemporary movement. This company is a unique mix of physically powerful, socially diverse, beautifully trained dancers with an aggressive approach to motion. As a choreographer, Jennifer Backhaus works have been commissioned and produced by a number of dance organizations including Orange County Performing Arts Center, McCallum Theatre, Orange County Regional Ballet, Utah Regional Ballet, Chapman University, Mount San Antonio College, Santa Ana College, Impact Dance Theater, TDC of the Bay Area, Brigham Young University, and most recently Los Angeles Ballet. Many of Jennifer’s works have been honored by the Regional Dance America organization and her piece; Disintegration was selected for both regional and national performances with the American College Dance Festival, which included a performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In 2005 and 2007 she was awarded multiple Lester Horton Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography for her pieces in the Backhausdance repertory from the Dance Resource Center of Greater Los Angeles. This will be the 5th participation in an event produced by Jamie Nichols.
Choreographers Esther Baker-Tarpaga and Olivier Tarpaga founded Baker & Tarpaga Dance Project in 2004. From 2005-2007 this husband and wife team performed and taught in 12 countries throughout Africa, Asia, America, Europe, and Australia. Recipient of numerous grants and a cultural ambassador for the Department of State, Esther received her MA and MFA in Dance from UCLA. Co-founder of internationally acclaimed Burkinabe Companie TA, Olivier moved to the USA in 2002 and is a part-time dance faculty at UCLA, Los Angeles Music Center, and LAUSD.
Both are performers in David Rousseve/REALITY’s new project “Saudade.” In 2006 choreographer Wilfried Souly, who is co-founder of Compagnie TA and has collaborated with Robert Battle and Eric Mezzino, joined BT Dance Project. This will be the company’s 1st performance with Celebrate Dance.
BodyTraffic, co-directed by Lillian Barbeito and Tina Finkelman Berkett, is a Los Angeles based repertory dance company. It aims to help catapult Los Angeles to the forefront of contemporary dance by pairing professional, highly skilled dancers with the most innovative choreographers. BodyTraffic strives to become an acclaimed dance company with a repertoire including works by renowned choreographers from around the globe.
Lillian Barbeito is originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She trained with the Aspen/Santa Fe Ballet School and worked with Southwest Ballet and Santa Fe Opera. After Graduating from the Juilliard School, worked in New York with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Zvi Gotheiner, Terrain and The Agness DeMille Project. Since moving to Los Angeles, she has performed with American Repertory Dance Company, Collage Dance Theater, Helios Dance Theater, John Malashock, Onidance and Raiford Rogers. She toured with Strange & Elegant Productions for Aston Martin, Dom Perignon, Robert Mondavi, W Hotel New Orleans and the 2006 & 2007 Grammy Awards.
Tina Finkelman Berkett attended Barnard College, Columbia University where she performed the works of Martha Graham, Jose Limon, and Paul Taylor and was a featured soloist in the works of Lila York, Ted Thomas, and Aszure Barton. Upon graduation, she joined the ASzURe & Artists Dance Company as a soloist and has performed with the company throughout the United States, including at the renowned Jacob's Pillow and Spoleto Festivals. Tina became Aszure Barton's assistant and taught alongside Barton both in the US and abroad. She had the honor of being in the first company of Mikhail Baryshnikov's Hell's Kitchen Dance.
While on tour with the company, Tina taught company repertory to dance students abroad. In Los Angeles, she has danced with Winifred Harris' Between Lines Dance Company, Evolution Dance Company, Strange & Elegant, String Theory and Collage Dance Theatre.
Viktor Kabaniaev graduated from the famed Vaganova Ballet Academy in Saint Petersburg, Russia and currently resides, teaches and creates dance in San Francisco and the greater bay area. He worked as a principal dancer with several companies in the former Soviet Union, Germany, and the United States including: Eifman Ballet, The Russian Ballet, Komiche Opera Berlin, The Dortmund Ballet, The Hanover Ballet and Diablo Ballet. He has performed principal roles in many classical, neo-classical and modern ballets and has toured extensively in France, Iraq, Poland, Singapore, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Liechtenstein, Sweden and Austria. He was awarded a “Special Prize” for his choreography Adagietto at the 29th Annual Ballet Festival of International Serge Diahgilev Competition for Choreographers in Gdynia, Poland in 2004.
In 2005 Mr. Kabaniaev received: “The sjD Performance Award” for his work Three Songs at sjDANCEco’s 1st Annual Choreoproject Awards and was awarded “Grand Prize” for his show stopping, Duet at the 8th Annual Dance Under The Stars festival in Palm Desert, California. This will be Mr. Kabaniaev’s 3rd appearance in the Celebrate Dance festival.
Jacob "Kujo" Lyons is one of the b-boy/break-dance community's most recognizable and respected figures. Dancing since 1992, he has been featured in music videos for Run DMC and Eminem, worked on a creation project for Cirque du Soleil's The Beatles: Love show, and traveled to 26 countries to compete, perform, teach, and judge international competitions. He's been on faculty as a teacher at the Edge PAC for 6 years, and has taught master classes and workshops worldwide, to novices and veteran artists alike, including Red Bull's Beat Riders dance camp for professional b-boys/b-girls and Cirque du Soleil's Quidam. He now directs and choreographs the Lux Aeterna Dance Company, seamlessly fusing the raw aggression of break-dancing and the powerful grace of gymnastics/capoeira with the refined beauty of ballet, lyrical, and modern dance.
Kujo has presented his work for Spectrum at the El Portal, Carnival at the Key Club, San Francisco Hip Hop Dance Fest at the Palace of Fine Arts, and The Lester Horton Dance Awards at the Alex Theatre, The 8th Annual Los Angeles Dance Invitational at the Nate Holden PAC, and the critically acclaimed Breaking the Cypher, an evening-length show, at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. This will be Lux Aeterna’s 1st participation in Celebrate Dance.
Bradley Michaud is artistic director of Method Contemporary Dance a Los Angeles based company that relishes the off-center state, lives in a high-speed world, and disregards the moment of recovery, preferring instead the moment of sheer abandon. A native of Los Angeles, he graduated in 2001 from UCLA where he studied with William Forsythe of The Forsythe Company, Nina Martin of Lower Left, Matthew Nash, Kim Epifano, David Rousseve, Rebecca Lazier, Dan Froot and Michelle Bloom. Bradley is trained in modern, ballet, and Irish dance, and after graduation from UCLA joined the Los Angeles based dance company Tongue in 2001 under the artistic direction of Stephanie Gilliland, and was a dancer and staff member for three seasons. In 2004 he won a Lester Horton award along with the Tongue company members for Outstanding Performance.
Bradley is a sought after dance educator in the Los Angeles area and has taught his own unique technique, blending ashtanga yoga and contemporary dance, at UCLA, Loyola Marymount University, Idyllwild Arts Academy, Scottsdale College, FocusFish Hollywood, and the SummerLAB and BackhausDance summer intensives, and just completed his first commission entitled Scab for Scottsdale College's dance company, Instinct. He and his company were nominated in 2005 for a Lester Horton award for their performance of the critically acclaimed After The Fracture. This will be Method’s 1st participation in Celebrate Dance.
In NYC, Marie de la Palme was principal dancer for Alvin Ailey III, Trisler Danscompany, Keith Lee Ballets, Omega Dance, and numerous videos and commercials. She choreographed for Jacques d’Amboise’s National Dance Institute, industrials and musicals before focusing on concert choreography. Her solo Le Coeur Illuminé won the Grand Prize at the 2002 Mc Callum Choreography Festival while Immortal Beloved won the Virginia Waring Award for Best Duet. Again a finalist at the 2004 Choreography Festival with The Door, she later was a featured choreographer for McCallum Institute's 2005 and 2007 Focus Work programs. Marie presented the Cage at The 7th Annual Los Angeles Dance Invitational in June 06, which earned her a second Horton Award nomination, and an engagement award at the 2006 Choreography Festival in Palm Desert. She took dancers to Japan for the opening ceremony of the International Festival of Joy for the Shinnyo-en Buddhist order. She is the artistic director of MOTION TRIBE her company based in Orange County where she teaches at Orange Coast College, Focus Dance Center, and the Orange County High School for the Art and directs the newly formed Performing Ensemble at Irvine Valley College. This will be Marie de la Palme’s 1st participation in Celebrate Dance.
Executive Producer Jamie Nichols was the Artistic Director and founder of the Pasadena based contemporary dance company FAST FEET for 23 years. Until retiring her dance company in 2003 she self-produced her work in festivals and venues throughout California. Critically acclaimed for the emotional intensity and eloquence of her dancing and choreography, she has been nominated in past years for several Lester Horton Dance Awards and was the recipient of four Lester Horton Dance Awards most recently the recipient of a 2007 Lester Horton Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Producing a Festival or Series for CELEBRATE DANCE 2006. Ms. Nichols is the marketing director, fundraiser, press contact and sole producer of CELEBRATE DANCE. She has also produced modern dance icon Marion Scott’s SPIRIT DANCES 10 at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica in April 2007, the fabulously successful 16th Annual Lester Horton Dance Awards (the “Academy Awards” of California Concert Dance) on May 2007 at the Alex Theatre, Co-Produced The Los Angeles Dance Invitational-A Tribute T0 Stanley Holden 2007 and Co-Produced with Theater Bethune, Ray Bradbury’s Frost & Fire at the Alex Theatre November 2007.
More information & photos contact Jamie Nichols visit : http://www.celebratedance.org