This is it. The ultimate group show, without allegiance to any school of dance or aesthetic. This is the day you get to see it all: young and old, experienced and up-and-coming, classical and modern. The Two Left Feet Dance Project gives dancers from all walks a chance to show their stuff. Choreographers rent their […]
Dance
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Defying and Defining Gravity
When the director of dance studies, Sharon Butcher, says the HSU Dance Department is “moving forward with great momentum and a powerhouse of new, extremely talented dancers,” she isn’t kidding. Gravity Defined, HSU’s Spring Dance Concert at the Van Duzer, boasts 46 dancers in 10 new works choreographed by students and faculty. All good. Major […]
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Dancing the Bard
“Seems like there’s a buzz about dance right now in Humboldt County,” says Heather Sorter, director of this weekend’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream Ballet. With local talent abounding, Sorter, who danced in both Pacific Northwest Ballet’s staging of Balanchine’s opus and Nadine Coles’ version for New World Ballet, felt it was time to helm her […]
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Moving Together
A dance festival in Humboldt County? That’s the stuff dancer dreams are of made of. It’s happening in Arcata the last weekend in March when New World Ballet presents the first annual Humboldt International Dance Festival at the Old Creamery. Performances, prominent teachers and dance artists, back-to-back classes and lots of dancers to meet and […]
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Finding a Reason
It’s a family affair. Therese Keslin-FitzMaurice, the poet, a high school English teacher at Six Rivers Charter High School, is married to drummer Tommy FitzMaurice, who teaches kindergarten at Jacoby Creek Charter School. Leif Johnson, the bass player who teaches history at McKinleyville High, is the boyfriend of Vanessa Pike-Vrtiak — who has jammed at […]
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Two for the Holidays
People in Humboldt County are dancing. Toddlers, school children, teenagers and adults have caught the bug. How potent the ritual of dance class and rehearsal! I spent decades following Terpsichore, the muse of dance. She is alive and thriving, entering dancers’ dreams right here, right now, where we live. The evidence: two fully staged holiday […]