#CBonTour - Regional Dance America Southwest - A WONDERFUL trip to Midland
Last week, members of the Senior and Junior Company attended the Regional Dance America Festival Southwest in Midland, TX. The festival started off with a full day of classes, where dancers had the privilege of learning from master teachers in several genres; including ballet, modern, pointe, contemporary, African, musical theater and a special pas class. On Thursday evening, the company members attended the Emerging Choreographers Concert. During this performance, we saw pieces choreographed from young artists of selected participating companies. One of our own Senior Company dancers, SarahAnn Posey had her piece, Delusive, adjudicated and selected for the Emerging Choreographers Concert. The piece was cast with Nia McKnight, Ellie Ikeda, Chloe Lam and McKayla Smith. The Thursday evening also consisted of performances by those dancers selected through the Outstanding Senior Classical Male Soloist program. Senior Company Dancer, Toby Mattingly, performed, Le Corsaire in the show.
On Friday morning, company dancers Ellie Ikeda, Toby Mattingly and Hanna LaVenture attended Outstanding Soloist Honors Class. The class consisted of both ballet and contemporary instruction. A total of 43 dancers were adjudicated for the Outstanding Soloist program throughout the Southwest Region and just four were selected; three in the senior age category and one in the junior age category. We are incredibly proud of Toby Mattingly for being selected as a Senior Outstanding Classical Male Soloist. The remainder of the day, the dancers continued to take classes by Master teachers. Friday evening was the Showcase Performance, and since Chamberlain Ballet did not have a work in the show all of the dancers and artistic staff were able to dress up and enjoy an evening of dance.
On Saturday, the Senior company dancers headed to the theater for tech rehearsal and a run through of Fifth, choreographed by Penny Askew. Junior Company dancers stayed back and took their scheduled classes, celebrated each other’s hard work and soaked in the knowledge they were being given from each instructor. Saturday evening was the Gala Performance, and Chamberlain Ballet had the honor of opening with the show with Fifth. The dancers performed beautifully, and once finished were able to enjoy the rest of the performance with their peers.
Choreographer Penny Askew, Costume Designer Charlie Martin, and lighting Designer Dawn Askew, Music by Ludwig von Beethoven’. Thank you to our chaperones: Melanie Braucht, Jorge Lanza, Rebecca LaVenture, Leslie Lennon
Special Thanks to Artistic staff: Billie Sumera and Luke Yee