Ottawa Dance Centre Schools: News

The Celebration Gala Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/Celebration.Gala

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Celebration Gala
Friday, February 24, 8 PM
Centrepointe Theatre, Ottawa

The Ballet Society of Ottawa-Gatineau and the Ottawa Dance Centre present “Celebration Gala” - an Evening of Dance - by senior dance students from twelve Ottawa area dance studios. Guest artists will include Ballet Jörgen Canada, and award-winning soloists from L'École supérieure de ballet du Québec.

The Gala will honour choreographer Lawrence Gradus' extensive contribution to dance in Canada featuring his signature ballet “Tribute” performed by dancers auditioned from across the region. Ottawa Dance Centre celebrates its 40th Anniversary as part of this collaborative concert recognizing excellence in Dance Education in Ottawa-Gatineau.

The event will take place at Centrepointe Theatre,
101 Centrepointe Drive, Ottawa

Tickets $25.00, $18.00 Seniors and children
Box Office: 613-580-2700 Toll-free: 1-866-752-5231
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As we commence 2012 ,our 40th year at ODCS, many exciting events are planned.
We kick off with a Gala Celebration of Dance Education. The performance, co-sponsored by the Ottawa Ballet Society and ODCS 40th Anniversary, will take place at Centrepointe Theatre Friday, Feb.24.

It will include a special tribute to Canadian and international dance artist and choreographer, Lawrence Gradus. His signature ballet Tribute will highlight this Showcase of young dancers from the Ottawa region, incl.other special guest artists TBA and participation of invited Ottawa area schools. It promises to be a major event for audiences of all ages!
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REMINDER
ALL classes at both Routhier and Greenboro commence January 4, as listed.
Second Semester commences the week of January 23.
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Congratulations to all our students on their performance at the Holiday Open House Mini-Performance. Both parents and students enjoyed the opportunity to observe class progress to date and Senior students performed excerpts from the "Nutcracker" along with new contemporary Choreographies.
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ODCS Students to Appear With Pennsylvania Ballet and Ballets Jörgen In This Winter's 'Nutcracker' Productions
Congratulations to the following students who will be appearing in the Nutcracker performances by Pennsylvania Ballet and Ballets Jörgen at the NAC,
Shenkman Theatre and Centrepoint Theatre, respectively:
Zoe Bevan, Yasmine Errami, Kallisté Grissa, Malaika Kamau, Nikki Lu, Silas Marcellus, Glenys Marshall, Maddison Schmidt, Sophie Willett, Sabrina Wong.
Many auditioned and few were chosen - our students join a tradition of over 25 years of ODCS student participation in the Holiday Classic.
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ODCS Graduate Now Performing With LR Productions
Former ODCS Intensive graduate and recent George Brown College graduate in Dance performance, Giada Salvi ,is now performing professionally
with Lindsey Ritter 's LR Productions. Giada also dropped in to teach two workshops during ODCS Summer School '11.
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Fall/Winter School Formal Registration:
ODCS Vocational and Intensive programs**
please register at the
ODCS / Routhier C.C. office at 172 Guiges St., 2^nd floor

Registration is ongoing...
See Courses for details.
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Takeisha Washington Accepted Into Alvin Ailey Dance Company (NYC)
Takeisha Washington is one of ODCS guest artist Karen Zissoff's students who both Francisca and Ms. Davies trained in Memphis during their residencies in the Intensive Summer Program, from the time she was 12 years old. She also was an exchange student at ODCS for two Summers, while preparing for her Intermediate and Adv.I examinations. After a year of university at MTSU, she has been accepted into the full-time professional program of New York's Alvin Ailey Dance Company, commencing this Fall.
Photo by B. Pittman

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Summer School Intensive Camps
67 students participated in the I Love to Dance Junior Intensive camp at Greenboro, and the ODCS Routhier Dance in the City.
Among our great teachers were Tye Padget (Toronto), Karen Zissoff (Memphis, Tenn, USA),
and Mariah-Jane Theis (RAD tutor, Vancouver), as well as the ODCS faculty!
Enrichment courses and personal attention were the focus for our students.
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New and Returning Faces
Ottawa Dance Centre Schools welcomes new Resident Teachers Michelle Bushen and Shannon Burgess, and Faculty members Sofia Tsolis and Caroline Parent this Fall. Get to know them better on the Faculty page.
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Congratulations to our Graduates of 2011!
Belle Cao - going on to study Health Sciences at McMaster University
Nyasha Gluch - will be attending Queen's Universtiy in the Life Sciences program
Joannie Landriault - accepted into the apprentice program of Ballet Jorgens Canada, as well as at George Brown College Dance Faculty
Alison Murdock - entering Carleton University on an entrance scholarship, will major in History

Congratulations are also in order to our RAD examination candidates of Spring 2011
Sixty-three candidates were entered by Ottawa Dance Centre Schools into the RAD exams, all of whom were successful with no mark below merit!

Grade 8 Awards recipients:
Belle Cao, Olivia Chiasson (Distinction), Eleanor Mackie, Alison Murdock and Valorie Sevigny
We wish good luck and success to all our graduates.
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2011 Year End Performances

NEW for 2011!
Greenboro Mini-Performance for Pre-School to Primary I Students
(see below for details)
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Invitation to the Dance 2011
Annual year end presentations with students of Ottawa Dance Centre Schools and Greeenboro CCA Dance Program

Junior Performance featuring 'The Ugly Duckling' Tuesday May 24th at 6:30pm	Senior Performance Saturday May 28th at 7:00pm

Both shows will be at Kailish Mital Theatre, Carleton University campus (map)

All seats reserved for Junior and Senior shows.
Passes for both shows available from:
Greenboro C.C.:
April 9, 16 & 30th from 9:30am - 3:30pm
and
ODCS/Routhier C.C. commencing April 9:
Mon, Wed, Fri. 5:00-7:00pm, Sat.9:30am - 4:00pm

NEW for 2011!
Greenboro Mini-Performance
Pre-School to Primary I Students
An in-house demonstration of classwork to date plus a short children's Ballet "Circus"
Sat. May 28 at 1:00pm
Greenboro Gym
(Greenboro Community Centre)

For further info please email: odcs@ottawadancecentre.ca

Calendar Updates
2011 Summer Schools
Course outline brochure now posted!
Download full brochure (PDF)
or
front page (JPG or PDF)
course outline & application (DOC or PDF)

Congratulations to all Fall Vocational RAD examination candidates!
ALL were successful, with no marks below Merit.
Intermediate Foundation: Nina Bowers, Bridget Jaworski, Gabrielle McPolin
Intermediate: Olivia Chiasson (Distinction), Nyasha Gluch, Quintessa Raynor, Keira Sweeney

Holiday Performance and Bake / Craft Sale
Thank you all and to all the volunteers who contributed to the success of our students' performance and fund-raising Bake/Craft sale.
Our students performed excerpts from their classwork to date, with excerpts from The Nutcracker, along with variations from both classical ballets as well as selections choreographed by Guest Artist Mariah-Jane Theis from 'A Chorus Line'.

REMINDER
RAD-graded examination Winter/Spring session
Applications MUST be received no later than January 12, 2011
NO LATE APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED

Older News

ODCS Guest Artist Mariah-Jane Theis Returns for Fall Workshops

Ottawa Dance Centre Schools Guest Artist Mariah-Jane Theis will be resident at ODCS from November 7 – 27th, 2010, where she will be conducting Workshops for students as well as teachers, Master Classes and a special seminar for parents. She will also be setting a piece from A Chorus Line with select senior students to perform at the year-end demonstration.

Sessions are now complete for 2010.

Ms. Theis is a registered teacher, mentor and Supervisor with the Royal Academy of Dance and was featured in the August 2010 issue of the International Dance Gazette.

She is a graduate in dance education from Grant MacEwan College, Edmonton, and is certified in Bill Evans (contemporary) Technique, based on Bartenieff Movement, Fundamentals and Laban Movement Analysis.

She has also done specialized training in Theory of Multiple Intelligence in which she conducts workshops as a teaching tool for students of all ages.

She has performed in and choreographed for numerous productions such as Hairspray and A Chorus Line on the West Coast. Her teaching specializes in diagnosing root causes leading to dance injuries and has developed unique methods of corrective work. Mariah-Jane continues to be recognized throughout the Dance education community in North America.

Ms. Theis was also resident at ODCS in August 2010, where she taught in the Intensive Summer School, conducted master classes at the Intermediate/Advanced ballet levels at Vanessa Plettell Studio and a Teachers' Workshop.

ODCS Students Selected to Perform in Multiple Nutcracker Productions

The following students have been selected to perform in this season's Nutcracker productions in Ottawa:

Ballets Jorgen
Group of Seven Nutcracker @ Centrepoint Theatre -
Katie Dolgikh and Yasmine Errami will both perform dual roles.

Alberta Ballet
The Nutcracker @ National Arts Centre
Amelie Landriault, Gabrielle McPolin, Malaika Kamau and Zoe Bevan will perform in children's roles.

Congratulations to all!! Many children from across the region auditioned for these coveted roles. Once again, the tradition of ODCS students performing annually in Nutcracker performances continues on.

Excerpts from a letter from our International Exchange Summer School Student (ODCS 2010)

Rianna Jackson of Memphis was chosen to go to study dance in Canada with Ms. Karen Zissoff in August.

From the Dance Works (Memphis, TN) newsletter (excerpt)
"The experience I had in Canada was good and challenging. My first challenge was living with a family I had never met before. I thought they were not going to like me or the other way around. As days went by we finally talked to each other and built a small friendship that I was hoping to keep growing. I thank Mrs. Eaton, Amelia and Mr. Britton for taking care of me, as their child. There was no other family I would have liked to be with.

My second challenge was going to a studio full of talented girls that I didn’t know. My first day there was hard work. I was trying to show my love for dance and prove that I could be the best. At first I envied the girls that were in the pointe shoes. I felt as if I was good enough. As the pointe class went on I was glad I did not have pointe shoes. I loved the dance teachers there. They helped me accomplish a lot of old and new things. I actually stuck the releve fifth, frappe, the glisse and tendus and grands battements in several positions. I was also in the front row for the adagio, the character dance, and I had a small solo in the broad way class. - Rianna Jackson"

ODCS and Dance Works, Memphis, Tennessee have participated in this International student exchange program at each respective Intensive Summer School Programs since 1991. Many students who have participated are now performing professionally or in Dance-related careers.

Fall 2010-2011 Brochure including application form now available! PDF download (5Mb)
Fall School 2010 Calendar PDF download

Fall/Winter School 2010 Registration now ongoing:
ODCS Vocational and Intensive programs: please register at the ODCS / Routhier C.C. office at 172 Guiges St., 2nd floor.
REMINDER: Ballet students Grade 2 and up who wish to be eligible for RAD examinations MUST register for at least two classes per week.

Fall Newsletter now downloadable (PDF) (RTF - readable with WordPad)
We hope that everyone has had an enjoyable summer. We now look forward to our new Fall Season! Highlights:

Congratulations to our graduates!
Valerie Giguere has been accepted into the professional training program, Ecole Superieure , Ballets Contemporains in Montreal. Valerie achieved her Adv.I RAD in March 2010.

Ellen Murdock (Gr.8 Award 2009) has been awarded an entrance scholarship to Carleton U. in Honours Math.-she will continue to take classes at ODCS.
Meghan Potts (Gr.8 Award 2010) has been accepted to Carleton U. in Civil Engineering. She will also continue to be be at ODCS this season.
Claire Rudnicki achieved her Adv.I exam in March 2010 and has been accepted at McMaster U. in Kinesiology. She will also pursue Advanced studies in Dance.
Emily Desmarais (Gr.8 Award 2009) has achieved her Associate BATD (teachers) in Jazz, and is studying physiotherapy at Algonquin. She returns to ODCS as resident teacher in Jazz and Hip Hop.
Leya Vandewaetere was awarded the Adv.I RAD in Nov.2009. She also received her Assoc. BATD in Acro and has been accepted at L'Ecole Cirque de Soleil , Montreal.

Congratulations also to ODCS Intensive students Olivia Chiasson and Keira Sweeney who were accepted in pre-professional Summer programs at Quinte Dance Centre and L'Academie de Danse de L'Outouais. Also to Katie Dolgikh and Maddison Schmidt who attended classes at Ballets Jorgen, Toronto this summer. All four students also attended the Intensive Summer Dance Program at ODCS.

Our Summer Programs were highlighted by residencies with guest artists Karen J. Zissoff from Dance Works in Memphis Tennessee and Mariah-Jane Thies, Mentor and Supervisor with the Royal Academy of Dance. Joining them were faculty members, Ping Feng and Maki Kabayama, as well as ODCS resident teachers.

Guest Mime Workshops Marc Bertrand, others This Fall
Guest workshops this fall will include Mime artist Marc Bertrand, a former student of acclaimed Master, Marcel Marceau and a return visit from Ms. Thies are highlights, along with other surprises, TBA.

ODCS Guest teacher featured in International Dance Gazette
Summer School Guest Artist Mariah-Jane Theis (see above) has just been featured in the August issue of the International Dance Gazette.

Summer School Intensive Dance Program will take place at Routhier C.C. Studios
Aug.9-20, Monday through Friday-9:15 am. to 3:45 pm.
This full-day program offers students from Gr.3 RAD level upwards, daily ballet classes, along with enrichment classes in other Dance idioms. This is a wonderful way to explore new ideas and techniques, refine your skills and actually gain the equivilent of up to half a Semester!

It is strongly recommended that students wishing to be cosidered for RAD certification/examinationsfrom Gr.4 upwards, register for our program. No student, Inter. Foundation/ Grade 6 to Gr.8/Adv.wil be considered for a RAD examination without Summer School (or an acceptable equivilant such as Ballet Jorgen,or RAD International Summer School-Toronto) as technical levels will not have been maintained. Our brochure with detailed information is on our website www.ottawadancecentre.ca or you may call 613-293-2240 for more information. Have a wonderful Summer and KEEP DANCING!

Judith Davies spoke about Dance in Ottawa in the mid-70s at the Society for Canadian Dance Studies Conference at the National Arts Centre and University of Ottawa on June 11, 2010.
We'll post some video soon...

Summer 2010 Course Brochures are now available!
Page 1 - Page 2 (JPG)

Invitation to the Dance 2010
From Classical to Contemporary Dance
Saturday, May 29 7:00 pm
With Intermediate and Senior students of Ottawa Dance Centre Schools and Greenboro CCA - Dance program
Kailish Mital Theatre, Carleton University
all seats reserved

Passes available April 10, 17, 24 - 9:30 am - 3:30 pm at Greenboro C, C.
and
ODCS (172 Guiges St.) commencing April 10.
Office hours: Mon. Wed. Fri. 5 - 7 pm. Saturdays 9:30 am to 4 pm.
Info: 613-293-2240
odcs@ottawadancecentre.ca

Invitation to the Dance 2010
featuring
Hansel & Gretel
Tuesday, May 25 6:30 pm
With Junior school students of Ottawa Dance Centre Schools and Greenboro CCA - Dance programme
Kailish Mital Theatre, Carleton University
all seats reserved

Passes available April 10, 17, 24 - 9:30 am - 3:30 pm at Greenboro C, C.
and
ODCS (172 Guiges St.) commencing April 10.
Office hours: Mon. Wed. Fri. 5 - 7 pm. Saturdays 9:30 am to 4 pm.
Info: 613-293-2240
odcs@ottawadancecentre.ca