Young Dancemakers Company Presents Their 2019 Touring Season, July 24-August 3

Young Dancemakers Company (Founding Director Alice Teirstein; Co-Director Jessica Gaynor; Music Director William Catanzaro), a unique dance ensemble of students drawn from NYC’s public high schools working under the guidance of acclaimed professionals, is proud to present its 24th annual touring season, which will be performed at various locations across four NYC boroughs, for audiences up to 2000. The series, in which young artists develop their own original choreography and present it in free public showings, will run from July 24th thru August 3rd and feature works developed under the tutelage of Alice Teirstein, Jessica Gaynor and William Catanzaro, as well as 2019 guest artist Dance Heginbotham, in workshops with members of the acclaimed Bridgman|Packer Dance, the Bessie-nominated choreographer and YDC alum Jonathan González, and musical theater guest teacher Peter Yuen.

For full ist of perfrmances with dates and locations, visit http://community.ecfs.org/youngdancemakers/season-calendar. All performances are free and open to the public but RSVP is required. To reserve tickets, email youngdancemakers@gmail.com for all presentations except July 28 (reservations: https://www.rioult.org/young-dancemakers-2019) and July 30 (reservations: info@Kumbletheater.org).

Since 1996, young 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. Selected through auditions, members of the 2019 ensemble have been training with a stellar cast of instructors and focusing on developing their own choreography. The six-week intensive program comes to a culmination with eight fully produced performances. Each program includes eleven 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 Co-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 2019 teaching artist. “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.

The 2019 faculty – which in past seasons have included such luminaries as dancers in the José Limón, Paul Taylor, and Alvin Ailey dance companies – includes the directors of YDC Alice Teirstein (2012 Bessie Award winner for Service to the Field of Dance) and choreographer Jessica Gaynor, YDC’s music director and acclaimed composer William Catanzaro; costume designer Wendy Phillips Kahn; 2019 Guest Repertory Artist Dance Heginbotham; 2019 Partnering Dance Workshop Leaders and 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship recipients Bridgman|Packer Dance; Jonathan González; 2019 Musical Theater Workshop Leader Peter Yuen; and composers Kathryn Carlsen; Matt Frey; Evan Joseph; Melody Loveless; Mitch Marcus; Sidney Marquez Boquiren; Adriana Norat; Marc Reddick; Bradley Schirmer; Victor See Yuen, and Jude Traxler, who will be teaching one-on-one classes as part of the special Choreographer/Composer Project. 

The young dancemakers of the 2019 season are Haitham Ahmed, Tiana Ayala, Shaxlo Bakhritdinova, Janee Bell, Arianna F. Black, Mya Howe, Tevani Jospeph, Juan Marin, Zarina Medwinter, Alaya Moore, Sebastien Paillant, Mireya Rojas, Hazel Ron, Aaniyah Scipio, and David Simmons, who will be performing in all presentations of the touring season. They are pupils from Success Academy High School of the Liberal Arts; Wadleigh Secondary High School for the Performing & Visual Arts; Humanities and the Arts High School; Repertory Company High School for Theatre Arts; Talent Unlimited High School; University Neighborhood High School; Brooklyn International High School, John Bowne High School and International High School at Prospect Heights.