The Joyce Master Class Series: PHILADANCO!

PHILADANCO!

This Horton-based modern dance class with excerpts of PHILADANCO! repertory will be co-taught by PHILADANCO! company members Janine N. Beckles and Joe Gonzalez. Horton technique class features a series of codified exercises, isolations, movement patterns, and progressions across the floor to improve the dancer’s physical limitations.

Janine N. Beckles started dancing at the age of six years old at Dance Theatre of Harlem for 8 years. Under fellowship scholarship. She then continued her training at LaGuardia H.S. of the Performing Arts and The Ailey School (performing Memoria, Hymn, and Revelations) both on full scholarship. Ms. Beckles received a BFA in Dance Performance and a BA in Sociology from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, and was a National Foundation of the Arts award recipient in Modern Dance in 2000. A former member of Dallas Black Dance Theatre for five years. The Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority member is part of the Philadelphia School of Dance Arts where she teaches ballet and served as an assistant to choreographer Thang Dao.

Joe Gonzalez started dancing at age thirteen at the Roxbury Center for the Performing Arts and attended the Boston Arts Academy H.S. graduating as a dance major. Mr. Gonzalez earned his BFA from the Boston Conservatory and performed masterworks by Alvin Ailey, Anna Sokolow, Paul Taylor, and others. Joe has participated in several festivals, including American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, and Springboard Danse Montreal. He has performed with numerous projects and companies, both nationally and internationally, including ‘A” Major Dance Company, and Prometheus Dance, traveling USA, Canada, Scotland, the UK, Denmark, and India. He is also director/choreographer of Jo-Mé Dance.

The virtuosic and powerful PHILADANCO! is comprised of dancers who move “like arrows in flight” (The Washington Post). For its Joyce season, the company performs a program that includes the poetic Folded Prism, by Vietnamese choreographer Thang Dao, which infuses beautiful imagery with a hypnotic score by John Levis. Also on tap is A Movement for Five, an emotionally-charged work by Dawn Marie Bazemore inspired by the events surrounding New York City’s “Central Park Five” incident; and New Fruit, a poignant piece by resident choreographer Christopher Huggins that offers a glimpse into the unchanged social landscape.

See PHILADANCO! perform at The Joyce Theater June 12 – 17! →

Photo: Kimmel Center