cornish spring concert: opens friday, april 30

CORNISH DANCE THEATER

Cornish Dance Theater Spring 2010 Concert
Choreography by Corrie Befort, Steve Casteel, Nancy Cranbourne, Wade Madsen and Timothy Lynch
at the Broadway Performance Hall

PRESS RELEASE
(verbatim, sans formatting)

SEATTLE, WA – Cornish Dance Theater, the performing ensemble of the Dance Department at Cornish College of the Arts, is pleased to present their Spring 2010 Concert, with choreography by Corrie Befort, Steve Casteel, Nancy Cranbourne, Timothy Lynch and Wade Madsen.

Friday, April 30 at 8pm
Saturday, May 1 at 2pm & 8pm
Broadway Performance Hall, 1625 Broadway Avenue, Seattle
Tickets: $10 general, $5 students, seniors & alumni
For more information on how to purchase tickets please visit www.cornish.edu/events or call 206.726.5011.  For TeenTix ($5 Tickets for ages 13-19) visit www.seattlecenter.com/teentix

About the Performance

The Cornish Dance Theater Spring 2010 Concert features the work of guest choreographers Corrie Befort and Nancy Cranbourne and Cornish faculty members Steve Casteel, Timothy Lynch and Wade Madsen. Guest artist Corrie Befort’s work in progress is a section of her new piece, Some Things Must Be Sung, which will be presented in full at the Northwest New Works Festival at On the Boards in June.  Cornish Music Department students join the cast to create a live sound score developed in collaboration with singer/dancer and Cornish alum Trez McBean.  In this layered modern dance work, the dancers beat intricate physical patterns against a live rhythmic score of hands, feet and voices.

Faculty choreographer Wade Madsen explores themes of collision and contact in the brain, working with digital artist Christopher Overstreet to bring neurons and synapses to life on the Broadway Performance Hall stage through the medium of modern dance.  Individuality and our unique human footprints have inspired the balletic works of Steve Casteel and Timothy Lynch, as they work in collaboration with their dancers.  Casteel’s dancers find their strength in the courageous act of vulnerability, while Lynch’s make their mark with the relationships and pathways they choose.

Jazz choreographer Nancy Cranbourne’s dancers are at times fierce and powerful, then funky and sassy.  This piece has a sense of humor buoyed by the music of Erykah Badu.  Cranbourne and rehearsal director Christy McNeil drive the dancers to fully embody the rhythm while showing their range; from sensual to goofy.

Please note: the Saturday, May 1 matinee performance will be followed by an informal question and answer period.

Biographies

Corrie Befort (Guest Artist) has been performing and creating dance works for over ten years in the Northwest and in Japan since 2005. In 2008 she returned to Seattle after three years in Tokyo/Yokohama where her work was presented by STspot, BankArt UPLINK and in the Dance Ga Mitai Festival among other venues. Her choreography and film-work has been funded by Seattle OACA, Artist Trust, Mary Levine Foundation, Bossak/Heilbron and WSAC and commissioned by companies, institutions and schools in Minnesota, Belgium, Japan and London.  While in Japan she formed collaborative dance/sound company Salt Horse with dancer/biochemist Beth Graczyk and musician/composer Angelina Baldoz. Salt Horse has performed in Japan and Seattle, touring in ’09 to Philadelphia and San Francisco through the SCUBA Touring Program. They are currently resident artists in Seattle’s historic Washington Hall and are on 4Culture’s Touring Arts Roster for 2010. In March 2010 they presented an evening-length version of Man on the Beach which was first seen in the 2009 Northwest New Works Festival. Corrie’s dance films have been screened in festivals in the USA, Japan, Europe and South America. In 2007 her dance film Rota was awarded a Choreography Media Honor by Dance Camera West at the Directors Guild of America, Hollywood.  She released two new films in 2009, Two Kinds of Wind, shot in Japan, and Slip Cadence a dance film about Alzheimer’s Disease commissioned by Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter which screened recently at ADF (American Dance Festival) and is currently in competition in Lisbon, Portugal.  Corrie graduated in ‘96 from  the Perpich Center for Arts Education, Minneapolis, received a BFA in dance from Cornish College in ’99, held a choreographic residency at the Rosas/P.A.R.T.S. school in Brussels in 2000, and was awarded a danceWEB scholarship to Vienna’s ’03 ImPulsTanz Festival.  ’05-’07 she toured as a soloist throughout Japan and the US East Coast performing with distinctive musicians and ensembles. She has danced for Scott/Powell Performance (’98-’05), Sheri Cohen (’01-’04) and as a guest in Japan with Natsuko Tezuka (’05-’07). Corrie now also teaches dance to people with Parkinson’s Disease through a partnership with the Mark Morris Dance Company, Evergreen Hospital, Spectrum and Seattle Theater Group.

Steve Casteel (Faculty) was born in Tacoma, WA and received his early training from Jan Column School of Classic Ballet. At age sixteen Steve joined Boston Ballet II. In 1987, Steve became a member of Houston Ballet where he was promoted to soloist and performed many of the great classical works such as Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Coppélia, and Cinderella. With Houston Ballet, he performed works by such renowned choreographers as Christopher Bruce, Jirí Kylián, Sir Kenneth McMillan, Ben Stevenson, and Paul Taylor. In addition, he has performed with Diablo Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Next Stage Dance Theatre, and Spectrum Dance Theatre. Locally, Steve has danced in works by Kay Englert, Dominique Gabella, Amii LeGendre, Wade Madsen, Dale Merrill, Crispin Spaeth and Deborah Wolf. From 1997 to 1999 he worked for Washington Contemporary Ballet in Tacoma as Assistant to the Director. In 2001, Steve received his Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in dance from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle WA. In 2004, he received his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Arizona in Tucson AZ. From 2004 to 2006 Steve was the Public Relations Coordinator for Next Stage Dance Theatre. Steve has taught at Bainbridge Dance Center (Bainbridge Island), Berkeley Ballet Theater (Berkeley CA), Cornish Preparatory Dance Program (Seattle), Dance Fremont (Seattle), Spectrum Dance Theater (Seattle), and The University of Washington (Seattle).

Nancy Cranbourne (Guest Artist) lives in Boulder CO, and Seattle WA.  She teaches at the University of Colorado/Boulder and in the Boulder community.  Nancy is the Artistic Director of the dance company 40 Women Over 40, featured on the Hallmark Channel,  in Dance Teacher Magazine, and on the More Magazine website.  Nancy is also an award winning actress and playwright; she was voted “Best Actress” by Westword Magazine for her performance in 2 Women Avoiding Involuntary Hospitalization, and received the Denver Drama Critics Circle Award for “Best New Play” for the same production (with collaborators Patti Dobrowolski and Molly Thompson). Nancy began her dance career in Seattle where she performed extensively with her longtime dear friend, Wade Madsen.  She is delighted to be working with Cornish Dance Theater, and her wonderful collaborator, Christy McNeil. A big bonus is that Nancy gets to spend a lot of time with her beautiful husband, Mike, who lives full-time in Seattle.

Timothy Lynch (Faculty) received his training at the School of American Ballet .  He joined Pacific Northwest Ballet in 1993 and performed featured roles in George Balanchine’s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Agon and the Four Temperaments.  Works were created for him by choreographers such as Donald Byrd, Kevin O’Day, Val Caniparoli, and Lynn Taylor-Corbett. He also played character roles including Carabosse in Ronald Hynd’s Sleeping Beauty, Drosselmeier in Kent Stowell’s Nutcracker. Timothy’s career included works by Jerome Robbins, Paul Taylor, Nacho Duato.  In 2001, Tim became co-director of PNB Outreach Youth performing group . In 2003, Tim became a permanent faculty of the Pacific Northwest Ballet School. In 2005, Tim received his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts where is currently a guest faculty member.  Most recently Tim co-founded and continues to co-artistic direct the Seattle Dance Project.

Wade Madsen (Faculty) has been teaching at Cornish College of the Arts for over 24 years and has premiered nearly 23 dances for the college dance company. Wade has been teaching in Seattle since moving here and continues his classes at Velocity Dance Center. He finds new growth and stamina as a teacher with various workshops and performances throughout the country. Wade has been producing and performing his own work with his company Wade Madsen and Dancers in Seattle since 1977. A former member of the Bill Evans Dance Company and Tandy Beal & Company, Wade has received choreographic grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts; Washington State, King County, and Seattle Arts Commissions; Artist’s Trust; and Allied Arts. His work has been produced in Seattle by the Allegro! Dance Festival, Seattle Dance Project, On the Boards, Bumbershoot, Rockhopper Dance, d-9 dance collective, Spectrum and Composer/Choreographer. He has also performed with various dance groups in Seattle, including Spectrum Dance Theater, DanceWorks Northwest, Dayna Hanson, Amy O’Neal, Amy Legendre, and Co-Motion Dance. Wade has performed, choreographed, and taught for various companies and colleges throughout the country. Wade continues to choreograph for A Contemporary Theater (ACT), Seattle Repertory Theater, Seattle Opera and Seattle Shakespeare Ensemble. Last year, Madsen had the opportunity of choreographing for the Seattle Operas; production of The Marriage of Figaro.  This year Wade will be performing with some alumni-produced at On the Boards. His acting credits include The Notebooks of Leonardo, co-produced with the Seattle Repertory Theatre and Chicago’s Goodman Theater, as well as the films Threshold and Crocodile Tears. He earned his BA from the University of New Mexico.