Ballet Hispánico presents FREE In-Person Dance Concerts with Young Dancemakers Company, July 21- 31, 2021
Company:
Ballet Hispánico + Young Dancemakers Company
Ballet Hispánico
presents
FREE In-Person Dance Concerts with
Young Dancemakers Company
July 21- 31, 2021
New York, NY – Ballet Hispánico, the nation’s renowned Latinx dance organization recognized as one of America’s Cultural Treasures, presents a series of FREE in-person dance concerts with the Young Dancemakers Company, July 21, 23, 27, 28, 31, 2021, at various New York borough locations. Reservations are required for the livestream finale concert. To reserve tickets, email youngdancemakers@gmail.com. All performances are FREE and open to the public.
Each one-hour concert will be followed by lively dance-making with the audience, led by the company, plus post-concert Q&A.
Wednesday July 21 @ 4PM
The Plaza at 300 Ashland
300 Ashland Place at the corner of Lafayette Ave & Flatbush Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Co-Presented by Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.
Programming at The Plaza at 300 Ashland is made possible by support from Two Trees Management Co.
Friday, July 23 @ 6PM
Culture Lab LIC
5-25 46th Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101
Tuesday, July 27 @ 1PM
Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance
2474 Westchester Ave, Bronx, NY 10461
Wednesday July 28 @ 2:30PM DANCE THE ART
@ 3PM STAGE PERFORMANCE
Socrates Sculpture Park
32-01 Vernon Boulevard, Long Island City, NY 11106
Saturday July 31 @ 4PM
Livestream Finale Concert by CultureHub
Space Shares at La MaMa makes theatre spaces available to artists for non-curated productions
Young Dancemakers Company – a performing ensemble of NYC teens – will perform a free concert of their unique, original choreography based on meaningful personal and social themes. The group dances to both live and recorded music, made in collaboration with professional composers. They will perform their latest works and an excerpt of Ann Reinking's Ritmo y Ruido being set by Ballet Hispánico artists, including Natalia Alonzo, who was part of the Company when Reinking originally set the piece in 1997, continuing the tradition of dance being passed from one generation to the next.
Current company dancers Antonio Cangiano and Omar Rivera along with former company soloist Natalia Alonso comprise the team preparing the Young Dancemakers Company for the performances, setting the piece, and guiding them once on tour. The young company will also participate in the 2021 Guest Repertory Project, which provides coaching and performance advice from experts in the field, including Ballet Hispánico Artistic Director & CEO Eduardo Vilaro.
Antonio Cangiano (Dancer) was born in Naples, Italy. He began his dance training at age sixteen and was awarded scholarships from Ateneo Danza (Forli), Accademia Normanna (Naples), and the Martha Graham Dance School in New York City. Cangiano has danced for the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Dardo Galletto Dance, Acsi Ballet, and Graham 2. In 2014, he made his first appearance at the Italian International Dance Festival dancing in a homage to Luigi, the “master of jazz,” by Dianna Folio, and received the Festival’s Rising Star Award in 2017. In 2016, he was selected to dance at the Martha Graham Dance Company’s 90th Anniversary Season at New York City Center. This is Antonio’s third season with Ballet Hispánico.
Omar Rivéra (Dancer) is originally from Los Angeles, CA. After moving to Dallas, Texas, Rivéra trained at Prodigy Dance & Performing Arts Centre under the direction of Camille Billelo. He graduated from the prestigious Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing & Visual Arts, and was a part of HSPVA’s dance ensembles Repertoire Dance Company I & II, where he performed a variety of works by choreographers such as Robert Battle and Desmond Richardson. Rivéra was a scholarship student at the University of Arizona-School of Dance and graduated with a BFA in Dance in 2018. Rivéra was one of eight men selected to perform at The Joyce Theater for the José Limón International Dance Festival, and danced works by guest artists including Christopher Wheeldon’s The American, Darrell Grand Moultrie’s Boiling Point, and Bella Lewitzky’s Meta4, among others. This is Omar’s third season with Ballet Hispánico.
About the Young Dancemakers Company
Young Dancemakers Company auditions young artists from NY Public High Schools to participate in their program throughout the summer. The students have the opportunity to create their own choreography, collaborate with musicians, set it up their own work on the group and eventually tour it/ perform it in different outdoor venues around the City. The Company presents free concerts of their unique, original choreography based on meaningful personal and social themes. The group dances to both live and recorded music, made in collaboration with professional composers. Since 1996, teen dancers from NYC's public high schools are given an opportunity to join Young Dancemakers Company for a tuition-free dance and choreography training program, designed to nurture their passions and unique voices, develop their skills through workshops with the city's leading choreographers and teachers, and provide them with an opportunity to present their own work to audiences across NYC. The five-week intensive program comes to a culmination with five fully produced outdoor performances plus a livestream finale concert by CultureHub. Each program includes ten short original works choreographed by the young artists and performed by the company, as well as the chosen repertory piece. The emerging choreographers propose a dance with a theme that is meaningful to them and create an original work based on that theme. Each choreographer collaborates with the YDC costume designer and a professional composer to develop a piece that is completely original.
"We believe that teenagers have a lot to say and can say it through dance," says Founding Director Alice Teirstein. "Young Dancemakers Company is an outlet for teens to speak their minds through dance." YDC Artistic Director Jessica Gaynor adds, "What makes our program distinct is its inclusivity. We welcome advanced dance students as well as bold newcomers who have the desire to create original work based on topics that resonate with them."
"YDC was a formative point in my visioning what the creative field and performance could be as a young performer and maker," says the Bessie-nominated choreographer Jonathan González, a YDC alum and member of the YDC Advisory Council. "Completely new to formal training at that time, I am now grateful to have been immersed in this open setting which initiated many of my seminal questions in choreographic research," he further explains.
Over the years, YDC's performances have been presented in NYC at such prestigious venues as Ailey Citigroup Theater, the 92nd Street Y, Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, the Joyce SoHo, Brooklyn Museum, Abrons Arts Center, Symphony Space and many others. The company has been presented twice by the Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, and had the honor to perform in Washington, DC as part of the 2000 International Conference "Dancing in the Millenium," held by the National Dance Educators Organization at the Kennedy Center. YDC performances have been featured on NY1 and PBS' Channel 13, as well as covered by The New York Times, The Daily News, and Dance Teacher Magazine.
he 2021 faculty includes the Artistic Director of YDC Jessica Gaynor (choreographer); YDC Founding Director Alice Teirstein (2012 Bessie Award winner for Service to the Field of Dance); YDC Music Director and acclaimed composer William Catanzaro; YDC Associate Program Manager and alum Jenée Ivi Whitehead; Costume Designer Wendy Phillips Kahn; 2021 Guest Repertory Artist Ballet Hispánico (BH teaching artists include Natalia Alonso, Antonia Cangiano, Omar Rivera, with coaching by Eduardo Vilaro); 2021 Contactless Partnering Dance Workshop Leaders Bridgman|Packer Dance; Choreography Workshop with NYC-based dance choreographer Jamal Jackson; a workshop on multi-camera dance video production with CultureHub; finale concert Lighting Designer Andy Dickerson; Photographer and YDC alum Alice Chacon; Creative Arts Consultant Eva Young; and composers Sidney Marquez Boquiren; Kathryn Carlsen; Matt Evans; Kevin Farrell; David Finkelstein; Evan Joseph; Joe Kye; Adriana Norat and Victor See Yuen who will be collaborating one-on-one with the choreographers as part of the special YDC Choreographer/Composer Project.
The 2021 season company members are Mishayla Carcana, Pharana Cineas, Ava Davis, Nevaeh Davis, Gianette Dominguez, Krystal Henry, Afsana Jim, Shania Jones, Rachael Kelly, Harlyn Lopera , Zarina Medwinter and Annia Nelson. They are students from Wadleigh Secondary High School for the Performing & Visual Arts; Repertory Company High School for Theatre Arts, John Adams High School, Talented Unlimited High School, Brooklyn School for Music and Theatre, Humanities and the Arts High School, University Neighborhood High School and Brooklyn International High School.
Photo: Headshots of Omar Rivéra and Antonio Cangiano by Rachel Neville
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