Creating dances for RDA.

For the thirty-seventh year, Regional Dance America (RDA) offered a training program for emerging choreographers. It is one of the very few places where an upcoming choreographer, composer, or performer can go to gain practical information and hands-on experience in creating new works. The annual program, this year offered last summer at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, combined daily classes in ballet and modern dance with specialized training for four categories of participants. For choreographers, there was the opportunity to create studies on such themes as use of space, energy, and various movement ideas, along with seminars in music, lighting, production, and the business of dance. Dancers were offered seminars in music and career-related subjects and the opportunity to work with different choreographers in creating and performing new works. Composers worked individually with the music director, collaborated with choreographers, and created original music a was use at the conference. Observers could attend all activities, including classes, seminars, showings, and evaluation sessions.

Faculty for this conference were Armando Duarte, choreography director; Paul David Hodgins, music director; Luba Gulyaeva, ballet director; and Brent Schneider, modern dance director. The conference coordinator was Glenda Brown, president of RDA. Accompanists were Ala Rashkin and James Gallegos. Previous conference leaders have included such luminaries as Birgit Cullberg, Norbert Vesak, and Marjorie Mussman.

Conference scholarships are made available through the generosity of Dance Magazine, the Monticello Foundation, Jon Rodriguez, and each of the five RDA divisions (Mid-states, Northeastern, Pacific, Southeast, and Southwest).

Among the many illustrious alumni of the program are working choreographers such as Leslie Jane Pessemier, who has created ballets for companies such as Pacific Northwest Ballet, Indianapolis Ballet Theatre, and Joffrey II, and Jill Bahr, resident choreographer of Charleston Ballet Theatre. Both of these alumni speak of how inspirational the conference was. Says bahr, "I never felt such passion for the art form; the experience was an incredible gift to me as a creative artist." Pessemier says of growing up in regional ballet that she "was enamored... I lived from festival to festival; it was my only opportunity to see what others were doing. The conference was like opening a door."

Typical of the reactions to the conference was that of Julia Farr, a young dancer from Metro Dancers of Portland, Oregon: "I was given the opportunity to take a master ballet and modern dance class every morning and to work with several different choreographers each day. Every evening we had the chance to perform, the choreography we had learned that day. Attending the conference gave me a broader idea of what the dance world holds: new opportunities, new people, new ideas. Dance is going to continue to play a big part in my life."

For more information, contact Glenda Brown, Coordinator, Performance/ Choreography Conference, Regional Dance America, c/o Allegro Ballet of Houston, 1570 S. Dairy Ashford, Suite 200, Houston, TX 77077; telephone and fax [phone].