THIS WEEK:  Welcome from Julia, first week of classes, fresh faces on faculty, new workshop and intensive postings, Evan’s interview, 10HL in Top 10, alumni represent downtown.

 

FROM JULIA

Happy Spring 2013 and welcome to all new and returning students and faculty!

In particular, we welcome new guest faculty Stefanie Batten Bland, Assaf Benchetrit and Stephen O’Connell this semester. Please read more about these exciting artists below. We also welcome guest artist in residence Idan Cohen, from Israel at the end of February, and I encourage you to visit Idan’s website listed in his bio.

We are proud that our BFA choreographers will be showing their works at the College Partnership and the American College Dance Festival this semester and look forward to seeing all works that will premiere on the Student Concert and the Senior Concert.

Please continue to keep yourself strong and healthy by using our Soma Center in conjunction with Kim Gibilisco. I wish everyone a wonderful semester full of creativity and success!

 

ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES

The Spring 2013 semester begins this week.

 

SPECIAL EVENTS

MORTENSEN HALL.  There will be a public update on the erection of Mortensen Hall, to be presented next Wednesday, January 30, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. (the x-hour) in 104 Rehearsal Hall, Nicholas Music Center, Douglass Campus. Contact

 

UPCOMING SHOWS

$5 Paul Taylor Tickets.  The Paul Taylor Dance Company is offering $5 tickets to the March 6 performance of Brandenburgs and Speaking in Tongues in four separate pop-up shops across Manhattan. New York Times article

 

TRAVEL & STUDY ABROAD

Please welcome junior BFA Shelby Dinslage as she returns to Mason Gross from her Fall 2012 semester abroad at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance!

 

MASTER CLASSES & RESIDENCIES

Stefanie Batten Bland (Technique D and Modern Dance Repertory) is a 2010/12 Baryshnikov Arts Center/Jerome Robbins Foundation “NEW” Fellow.  Stefanie attended SUNY Purchase for dance and New School for Social Research for post colonial literature studies. In 1998 she began to dance as a… (read more)

Assaf Benchetrit (Ballet VI) was born in Jerusalem, Israel, and holds a BS in Computer Science and a BFA in Dance from Montclair State University. He began his ballet and music studies at the Rubin Academy for Music and Dance in Jerusalem and graduated in 1998. Upon graduation he danced with the Panov… (read more)

Stephen O’Connell (Advanced Improvisation and Dance Appreciation) holds a BFA in Modern Dance from Rutgers University in New Jersey and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. From 1990 to 1997, he was co-artistic director of Radix Theatre in Vancouver, Canada, a site-specific… (read more)

Idan Cohen (Guest Artist-in-Residency February 26 through March 1) was born and raised in Israel, on Kibbutz Mizra. The kibbutz (a socialist community) life has had a wide effect on his artistic life and work. He received a scholarship to study theater and fine arts at the “Art Colony,” in Israel’s Negev Desert and was admitted to a video-dance project by Batsheva… (read more)

 

PROFESSIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

2-Day Workshop with Benoit-Swan Pouffer
Led by Artistic Director Benoit-Swan Pouffer and Ballet Master Alexandra Damiani, each 3-hour session will include a warm up that focuses on preparing the body for a variety of different contemporary languages. The goal is to give dancers the opportunity to learn company repertory and to work with the Artistic Staff and professional dancers in a rehearsal-like process.
Friday, January 25, 6:30pm to 9:30pm & Sunday, January 27 from 12:00pm to 3:00pm. 547 W. 26th Street, New York, NY. $80, single day $45. Email, sign up

 

INTENSIVES

DANCERS ON RUTGERS.EDU.  This photo that appeared in Rutgers Magazine last semester of last year’s EdM graduates will soon be displayed on the main Rutgers website with a link to the EdM website. Here is a preview:

WHY I CAME TO MASON GROSS.  Read BFA senior Evan Flood‘s interview with Mason Gross, as he explains his experience in choosing to attend Mason Gross, and more.

10 HAIRY LEGS MAKES THE DODGE FOUNDATION’S TOP 10.  Professor Randy James‘ new company, 10 Hairy Legs, has made the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation’s list of 2012’s top ten creative arts organizations in New Jersey’s non-profit arts community. Read the blog posting here.

DANCERS DOWNTOWN.  BFA alumni Morgan Preston and Scott Schneider are featured on a new poster at two bus stop locations in downtown New Brunswick. One is on the Starbucks side of the street just before Church St. and the other is on the opposite side of the street outside Subway. We love to see our beautiful dancers representing downtown!