Monthly Archives

September 2021

Sep 13
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OAPN Booking

By Uncategorized

Verb Ballets is a contemporary ballet company that presents bold works and builds community through dance

The professional company is comprised of 13 dancers from across the nation and globe. In addition to touring regionally, the company has toured internationally in Cuba and Taiwan and has built lasting partnerships that provide opportunities for cultural exchange.  Building community and offering opportunities to learn through dance are at the core of Verb’s mission.

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About the Company
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Visit us at the OAPN Conference at Booth #30 and watch our showcase at Playhouse Square on Wednesday at 2:25pm

About the Company

Verb Ballets is a contemporary ballet company that presents bold works and builds community through dance. The company honors the roots of pioneer ballet companies in the rustbelt region. Today, the company is under the leadership of Dr. Margaret Carlson, former principal dancer for Cleveland Ballet, and Richard Dickinson, MFA, former Ohio Ballet dancer. The company strives to commission choreographers that elevate marginalized voices and reflect our times. Building community and offering opportunities to learn through dance are at the core of Verb’s mission. Verb aims to bring programs out to the public, meeting people where they live, work, and learn. The company’s children’s programs explore topics such as arts appreciation, literacy, STEM, and cultural diversity. Verb also offers programs for seniors that emphasize movement to encourage socialization and wellness. The professional company is comprised of 13 dancers from across the nation and globe. In addition to touring regionally, the company has toured internationally in Cuba and Taiwan and has built lasting partnerships that provide opportunities for cultural exchange. Verb Ballets aims to support art that is reflective of our current societal landscape and relevant to our dancers, communities, and dance enthusiasts in Ohio and abroad.

Offering

  • Performances
  • Children’s Ballets
  • Community Outreach
  • Residencies
  • Master Classes
  • Senior Movement Workshops
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Industry Experience Field Trips

Enough Talk, Let's Work Together

Booking New Full Length Ballets

World premieres coming Spring 2022. Now available for booking.

Choreographed by Joshua L. Peugh

Romeo & Juliet

Verb Ballets has commissioned award-winning choreographer Joshua L. Peugh, of New Mexico, to create a contemporized version of Romeo and Juliet. Using the plot and structure of Shakespeare’s play along with the mythology of the story and characters themselves, this new ballet will take an adventurous approach to exploring the intersecting themes of freedom and mortality while reflecting poignant issues of our current political and social reality. Peugh moves audiences to understand movement as a universal language, accessible to all.

Work Features
  • Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
  • Number of dancers: 12-14
  • Running time: 80 minutes one act
  • Feature abstract modern set design

”His nuanced style, combines humor, nostalgia and ratified theater with his idiosyncratic movement vocabulary to make dances that anyone can enjoy.

Nancy WoznyARTS + CULTURE TEXAS

Joshua L. Peugh

Joshua L. Peugh is the Founder and Artistic Director of Dark Circles Contemporary Dance and Co-founder of Fair Assembly. A graduate of Southern Methodist University, he has created work for festivals in Asia, Europe, and North America, winning awards for his choreography in South Korea, Japan, Canada, and the USA. He was the recipient of the Grand Prize at the McCallum Theatre’s 18th Annual Choreography Festival and was chosen as one of Dance Magazine‘s “25 to Watch.” Joshua served as choreographer for legendary soprano Kathleen Battle’s concert Underground Railroad – A Spiritual Journey and was the 2018 recipient of the Natalie Skelton Award for Artistic Excellence.

Awards
  • Dance Magazine‘s “25 to Watch”
  • Grand Prize at the McCallum Theatre’s 18th Annual Choreography Festival
  • 2018 recipient of the Natalie Skelton Award for Artistic Excellence
  • International awards for choreography in South Korea, Japan, Canada

Joshua L. Peugh has created over 40 new works nationally and internationally

Choreographed by Tommie-Waheed Evans

Antigone

Verb Ballets and Philadelphia-based choreographer Tommie-Waheed Evans will join forces again to create a powerful new work based on the Ancient Greek tragedy Antigone. Using his driving urban contemporary ballet movement aesthetic Evans will synthesize the current political climate with the classical world of Antigone. By placing these ancient archetypes into the contemporary world, the tension between action and fate will be met with a dynamic, classically driven score.

Work Features
  • Number of dancers: 12
  • Running time: 60 minute vignette
  • Can be adapted to non traditional stage venues
  • Music: commissioned score by industrial electronica composer Greg Smith

”the work is a nonstop tour-de-force - great athleticism and complexity in what could be described as a radical urban style.

Mark SatolaTHE PLAIN DEALER

Tommie-Waheed Evans

2021 Guggenheim Fellow Tommie-Waheed Evans is a queer black dance maker, born and raised in Los Angeles, California, amidst racial divide, gang warfare, and earthquakes. His work explores blackness, spirituality, queerness and liberation. He began his formal training with Karen McDonald before receiving a fellowship at the Ailey School, and a Master of Fine Arts in Choreography from Jacksonville University. He has toured and performed nationally and internationally as a company member of Lula Washington Dance Theater, Complexions Contemporary Ballet and Philadanco. Since 2004, he has created more than 50 original dance works that range widely in scope, length, tone and subject matter. waheedworks, his Philadelphia based dance company, is the primary vehicle for his creative research. The company’s mission is to create a radically collaborative body of work that speaks to the human condition. His work brings together urban street dance styles and contemporary dance vocabulary through bold and raw movements propelled by gospel music and polyrhythmic sounds.

Awards
  • 2019 Princess Grace Honoraria Award in Choreography
  • 2019 Joffrey Ballet Winning Works
  • 2021 Guggenheim Fellow in choreography
  • 2021 Jerome Robbins Dance Research Fellow

Tommie-Waheed Evans has created over 50 original dance works nationally

Full Repertory Samples

Touring programs can be custom built to fit time and format. Included below, you will find a selection of past repertory. Verb Ballets will help you select pieces for your program and venue to created a memorable performance.

Triptych (1988)
Choreography: Heinz Poll
Music: Felix Mendelssohn, Piano Concerto #2
Company Premiere: June 26, 2021
Number of dancers: 11
Running time: 27:40 minutes

World of Another (2021)
Choreography: Stephanie Martinez
Music: Vivaldi, All Skate, Sheep Balls
Company Premiere: May 14, 2021
Number of dancers: 14
Running time: 18:00 minutes

Dances for Isadora (Five Evocations of Isadora Duncan) (1971)
Choreography: José Limón
Music: Frédéric Chopin
Company Premiere:
Premiere: December 10, 1971 by the José Limón Dance Company
Number of dancers: 5
Running time: 24:42 minutes

Love is… (2010)
Choreography: Christopher Huggins
Music: Michael Galasso, ITMFL I,II, Angkor Wat Theme, Shigeru Umebayashi, Yumej’s Theme
Company Premiere: May 14, 2021
Number of dancers: 14
Running time: 15:00 minutes

KL3668 (2020)
Choreography: Richard Dickinson
Music: Ravel, Sonata for Violin and Cello
Premiere: October 9, 2020
Number of dancers: 12
Running time: 21:20 minutes

Dark Matter (2013)
Choreography: Tommie-Waheed Evans
Music: Greg Smith, composer, and Johann Sebastian Bach, Toccota and Fugue in D Minor
Company Premiere: June 2013
Number of dancers: 11
Running time: 17:40 minutes

To inquire about booking Verb Ballets please submit the form below or contact Dr. Margaret Carlson directly at mcarlson@verbballets.org or 216-577-0494.

Contact 

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Sep 09
Love2

Dance for Youth Free Trial Week

By News, Dance Classes

Verb Ballets welcomes students back in studio this fall to find a love of movement with quality instruction by professional dancers. Try any youth class the week of September 13-16, 2021 for free. The school is now enrolling for Fall Session running September 14, 2021 – December 9, 2021. The studio is conveniently located in Shaker Heights, one block south of the intersection of Lee Rd and Chagrin, and is home to Verb’s professional ballet company. This fall we want to dance together while maintaining a safe environment. Masks are required for all who enter the studio regardless of vaccination status and classes will be limited to 12 in-person students. All instructors have been vaccinated.

Register for Free Trial Class
PreBallet (ages 4-6) Tues 4:15pm
Ballet I (ages 6-8) Thurs 4:15pm
Ballet II/III (ages 8-14) Tues and Thurs 4:15pm
Youth Jazz (ages 8+) Thurs 5:30pm
PreProfessional Ballet (ages 14+) Mon 4:15pm

For questions about class placement please email Christina Lindhout, School Coordinator of our Dance For Everyone & Dance For Youth Programs, at school@verbballets.org.

Register in Advance

Meet the Faculty

Andrea McCormick

Andrea McCormick is a Performing and Teaching Artist from Cleveland with a Bachelor of Arts in Theater Studies, emphasizing in Dance and Applied Voice, from Wright State University. Andrea teaches various dance, theater acting, and musical theater to all ages and abilities with theaters and companies around Northeast Ohio, including but not limited to Playhouse Square, Dancing Wheels, Cleveland Play House, and DANCECleveland. Under the stage name Andrea Belser, she also continuously works on and off stage as an actor, dancer, singer, choreographer, stage manager, and dresser.

Ashley Forché

Originally from Pickerington, Ohio, Ashley received her dance training from BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio. She has trained with several other companies including Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Oklahoma City Ballet, Festival Ballet Providence, Orlando Ballet, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and BalletMet. In December 2019, Ashley graduated Summa Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree in business from Belmont University. Professional experience includes traineeships with Nashville Ballet and Oklahoma City Ballet. Works she has performed include The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake. Ashley joined Verb Ballets as a trainee in 2019 and was promoted to intern in 2021.

Kenya Woods

Kenya Woods holds more than 20 years of experience in dance performance, choreography, teaching, and leadership.  She holds a degree in Dance from Tennessee State University. Some of her dance education credits include Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, Dance New Amsterdam, and North Coast Ballet Theater. She has worked nationally and internationally at regional dance companies, universities and school systems as an educator, performer, and choreographer.

Kia Jimmy

Kia Jimmy is of the Canadian Thunderchild First Nation which is of the Plains Cree Tribe and is equally proud of her Japanese heritage. She began her dance training at the age of seven and has done many summer intensives including Royal Winnipeg Ballet. At age 16 she was accepted to Alberta Ballet School’s Professional Division and continued her training in their Post-Graduate Program under the direction of Murray Kilgour, Janet Tait and Edmund Stripe. Following graduation in 2019, Kia joined US International Ballet as a trainee for two seasons where she had the opportunity to perform Giselle and Alice in Wonderland. Kia is excited to join Verb Ballets 2021-2022 season as an apprentice.

Frequently asked questions

Verb Ballets has developed a Health and Safety Policy is to keep students, guests, dancers and staff of the Verb Ballets Center for Dance safe, healthy and to encourage confidence to return to our programs. All individuals including guests and teachers who enter will be required to wear masks at all times. Every student is also required to complete a contact tracing form prior to entering the studio. Click <a href=”https://ocballet.org/health-and-saftey-policy/”>here</a> to read all the safety measure in place at the studio.

Classes will be offered in-studio for small socially spaced groups of twelve students. All students must wear a mask. Classes also will be offered via Zoom. Students will need an internet connection, camera enabled device and access to zoom.com.

Yes, we ask that all students enroll for the fall session.

Fall Session: September 14, 2021 – December 9, 2021

Verb Ballets does offer a payment plan of three equal installments over the course of the semester. A valid credit card saved on file is required to set up a payment plan. Scheduled automatic payments (charged to the credit card on file) will be made on the day you sign up, then on October 4th, and on November 1st, 2021. Receipts for each payment will be sent to the email you provide upon registration. To set up a payment plan, please call our front desk at 216-397-3757, option 1, or email school@verbballets.org and we will be happy to help!

Yes, for all level Ballet I and up we ask the girls wear a black leotard with tights and ballet slippers. Hair must be secured off the face and in a bun. Boys are asked to wear gym shorts and a white shirt and ballet slippers.

In The Dealership at 3558 Lee Road in Shaker Heights.

In order to allow for social distancing we ask that parents drop students at the door and the teacher will walk them to class. The teacher will walk them to the door for pick up.

Tuition will not be prorated to accommodate for missed classes for any reason, and no make-up classes will be issued in the event your student misses a class. Verb Ballets will allow each class ONE snow day/cancellation per semester. If class is cancelled by Verb Ballets or the instructor for any reason (beyond the one allowed snow day/cancellation mentioned above), a make-up class will be scheduled.

YES! Having water on hand is encouraged during every class you take with us. Feel free to keep your water bottle next to you in the studio for a quick sip whenever you need it!

Still have a question? Shoot us an email and we’ll get back to you!