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DANCE MATTERS: Paving Possibilities
April 22-24, 2016
2016 OhioDance Festival and Conference
Co-sponsored by BalletMet Columbus
On April 22-24, 2016, OhioDance, the state-wide dance network organization, will co-sponsor its regional festival with BalletMet Columbus. Sessions will be held at the studios and performance space at BalletMet, 322 Mt. Vernon Ave, Columbus, OH. The Festival is inherently creative as the brightest talents in dance converge on Columbus to share new ideas and innovations in the field of dance. Over the three-day weekend there are over 30 master classes, with sessions for teachers and wellness sessions. There is a young artist concert and a professional performance with an award Ceremony.
Nationally recognized hip-hop artist, Teena Marie Custer, served as a guest artist, performed and taught throughout the weekend. Teena Marie Custer was Dance Magazine’s “Top 25 to Watch” in 2007, and was featured in Dance Teacher magazine in October 2012. She is on the faculty at Slippery Rock University, Pittsburgh and American Dance Festival at Duke University. She is a B-girl and hip-hop dance-theater artist, a member of street-dance crews Get Down Gang and the all-female Venus Fly Trap Crew, and performs throughout the US.
OhioDance Evening Performance featured Guest artist Teena Marie Custer performing an excerpt from her piece “My Good Side”. Professional choreographers and dancers from all over Ohio performed innovative and engaging works. BalletMet’s artistic director, Edwaard Liang, Bill Wade, Inlet Dance Theatre, and Holly Handman, Bobby Wesner , Griset Damas Roche performed flamenco. Contemporary pieces choreographed by students from OSU Department of Dance: Anna Brown Massey (MFA), Callie Lacinski and Calder White (BFA), Joshua Manculich (MFA), and Brandon Whited (MFA).
Each year OhioDance awards excellence in the field of dance. This year awards will be presented to Susan Van Pelt Petry, for outstanding contributions to the advancement of dance education; Rodney Veal, for outstanding contributions to the advancement of the dance art form; Cheri Mitchell will be honored with a posthumous award for outstanding contributions to the advancement of arts administration.