A4D Member Events & News
Our members are so incredibly talented and motivated. They're out there hitting the pavement and carving out their own performance opportunities and finding ways to create opportunities for themselves and other dancers.
AS FEATURED IN THE APRIL 22, 2019 DANCEBLAST E-NEWSLETTER:
BROADWAY DANCE CENTER PRESENTS 3-HOUR BRIAN THOMAS WORKSHOP
Join Broadway Dance Center for a very special 3-hour workshop, brought to you by Brian Thomas Films on Saturday, April 27!
Participants will receive a duo master class with Joanna Numata and Carlos Neto that focuses on dancing on camera and for film and TV.
You’ll also meet Award-winning author and fellow Answers4Dancers member, speaker, coach, and choreographer Amy Jordan, as she reads portions of her new book Dance Because You Can. Run over by a New York City bus in 2009, the movie unfolds Amy's heartfelt return to the dance performance stage with her professional company The Victory Dance Project. This after the near loss of her leg and her life.
Also included is a chance to get a special preview of never-before-seen footage from Amy's Victory Dance, the first feature film by Emmy-nominated and Award-Winning director, Brian Thomas. Brian is a two-time Emmy Nominee and Award winning director. He’s best known for his work with Michael Jackson, Liza Minnelli, Pink, Usher, Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé, Chita Rivera, Paula Abdul, among other icons.
To register for this event please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with ‘April 27 Workshop’ in the subject line. You’ll be part of an invaluable workshop and support this amazing film project. We hope to see you there!
Can't be there for the workshop but would like to support this project, you can donate online here.
HOLLY'S LOOK HEAR ARTIST'S SHOWCASES IN NYC & VEGAS
We've got incredible news! A4D member Holly Dayton is holding two of her Look Hear Artist's Showcases; one in NYC on March 22nd and a second one in Las Vegas on March 25th. Holly created Look Hear with the intent to bring healing to the community by providing love, support, and encouragement for performers.
Holly explains it this way: ‘What we do as artists, is quite difficult, to be honest. The lives we choose and the path we're on is not easy. In New York, it means facing countless no’s, hours waiting on the street to be seen at an audition, and working long hours at a side job. In Las Vegas, it means being in a show for several years but being artistically unfulfilled. Or perhaps, fighting feeling stagnant and settled in your craft.
So why do we do it? Because choosing this path also means pursuing your passion, living life to the fullest, feeling the fire and the high from an audition or a performance on a stage. That’s something I would never trade.’
The next Look Hear events will mark the 6th one in Las Vegas and the 2nd in NYC. The bonus is a community is being built and encouraging friendships are being formed.
Here's your chance to join Holly on Friday, March 22nd at Renew Queens (47-20 11th Street, Long Island City, New York) or Monday, March 25 in Las Vegas at the Artifice (1025 South 1st Street Las Vegas, Nevada).
Each event will be a night of celebrating the beautiful talent and creativity of the community; a night to encourage and lift up one another. Holly's mission? Be Inspired. Get Creative. What is your story?
If you’re interested in performing or being a part of a Look Hear event, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The show runs from December 20 to 23, 2018. Tickets are available at GregoryOmarOsborne.com. GREGORY OMAR OSBORNES PRESENTS CHRISTMAS PRODUCTION
A4D member Gregory Omar Osborne has embarked on his second musical project. He invites everyone to come join in the fun. 'Hey Y’all! If your in the Metropolitan area come over to Maplewood, NJ for the world premiere of A PARK AVENUE CHRISTMAS written by Ed Dixon. This is my second full musical produced and choreographed. Yes I’m Crazy!'
KELLY VEGHENAS TEACHES AT SUMMER INTENSIVE IN KENYA
Kelly Vaghenas traveled to Ethiopia and Kenya this summer and has an amazing story to share. We featured Kelly in our September 17 DanceBlast, but here's the full story of her African adventure in her own words.
Every year I like to take an international trip, to experience a culture different from my own. For months, I’d been planning on visiting Ethiopia. (I am here now!) I Googled dance opportunities in Ethiopia and East Africa, searching for volunteer programs and dance studios.
An article on Dance Centre Kenya (DCK) caught my eye. It told of the journey of its founder, Cooper Rust, a woman from South Carolina who danced with Nevada Ballet, in creating the complex of three studios (and growing) in Nairobi.
Cooper first visited Kenya to teach school subjects in the Kibera slums and within a few years she had decided to move to the capital to create a school to provide formal dance training. She has fundraised tirelessly to sponsor several students from Kibera to take dance classes and to attend private school.
In the late winter I reached out to her, on Facebook and via email, sending my resume and asking if I could visit DCK to help in any way needed. I was so pleasantly surprised when she asked if I’d like to teach at the summer intensive, the last week of August. Kenya borders Ethiopia, so I knew it’d be a short, not-too-pricy trip there when I finished teaching.
I immediately agreed and the wheels started turning for my first experience of teaching dance abroad. In the summer of 2012, after my sophomore year of college, I had interned with a Swedish NGO and assisted with dance, singing and songwriting workshops in Amman, Jordan; but this time, in Kenya, I’d have greater autonomy.
Cooper made the schedule for the summer intensive, and I was slated to teach jazz, contemporary, and modern classes, spread across three different ability levels. I created tailored playlists on Spotify and entered lesson plans into a notepad.
I arrived at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at nearly four in the morning, and Silas Ouma, DCK’s African dance teacher and one of its advanced students, picked me up. I stayed at Cooper’s apartment in Nairobi, and throughout my week-and-a-half there, DCK students, friends and supporters came over to enjoy dinners and movie nights together.
Monday started my week of teaching, and over the weekend Cooper had invited me to work with select DCK Company students to choreograph for the studio’s next show, in October. I gladly accepted. After teaching my classes every day, I held rehearsals for two different groups, a younger and an older cast of dancers. I chose modern to be the genre of dance for my choreography, as the students don’t yet have modern in their regular curriculum, and practicing and performing it would be a wonderful continuation of what they had learned from me in class. For the younger group, I created a piece from scratch, and I reworked a piece to set on the older dancers. The former uses principles of modern dance technique and has a lyrical touch; the latter is a representation of my quirky choreographic style.
The dancers and I got closer during these rehearsals, even with the time constraint. I was so proud to have finished two pieces for new students in under one week. They need polishing, of course, and I wish I could be there through the show in October. I plan to stay abreast of the progress via email and phone apps. However, I trust them to rehearse the pieces and bring them home, so to speak. They were my gift; they are theirs now.
Teaching in Nairobi was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. There is a fire within me that burns with the desire to travel with a purpose, especially to share dance, whether that be performing, collaborating or teaching. Developments at DCK added fuel to that fire. Soon it will be time to plan the next trip abroad... :)
One of my favorite quotes is from Erma Bombeck. "When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, I used everything you gave me." GREGORY OSBORNE'S ONE MAN SHOW
Save the date for Dancer To Watch Gregory Omar Osborne's one-man show coming March 24, 2018.
A4D is about more than ‘jobs and auditions.’
It’s a community where dancers are growing into faster, better, and more productive versions of themselves.
Our Meet-Up Leaders
These members have been making themselves valuable to each other and have generously participated on FORUM4DANCERS for as long as we can remember. Collectively, these members are in SAG-AFTRA, EQUITY, have appeared on Broadway, Regional Tours, National Tours, International Tours, TV shows, National Commercials, Cruise Ships, and Industrials. They've appeared in music videos, been back up dancers for big name stars, and have appeared in large production Las Vegas shows. They all started their careers not knowing where dance would take them, but what they've learned along the way, they freely share with other members to help them find their greatest potential. They represent nearly 100 combined years of membership on A4D!
Click on their photos to learn more about these dynamic members! We hope you'll join them as we sit around Grover's table and talk about the things that matter most to all of us! See you at the next Meet-Up!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Our July 2016 Meet-Up
Meet-Ups are a total win 4 dancers. Sharing works. Whether it happens In Grover’s kitchen, a dance studio, or a neighborhood Starbucks, the results consistently surprise the heck out of us. At the July 24 Meet-Up, A4D's Suzy Miller backed Grover into a corner and probed him for ‘insights’ about his first movie role in ‘The Unsinkable Molly Brown.’ She got the truth. So did a dozen other dancers in the room.
Grover gave himself permission to ‘risk everything’ in front of the cameras. He decided to go for it. That was only part of the pay-off. A year later, the same performance secured a co-starring role with Gene Kelly in ‘The Young Girls Of Rochefort.’ The benefits didn’t stop there.
A4Ders... in various states of hope and laughter... took it all in. Thankfully, Garrett Minniti's cameras were rolling and recorded all the personal treasures that surfaced. Take a look at all the fun that was captured.
These pages might interest you
Not a member yet? Subscribe to Answers4Dancers for full access to more information like this. JOIN HERE