While in the Big Apple, the troupe visited some of the key dance centers, such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and the Merce Cunningham Studios.
They saw performances by the contemporary dance company Rioult and a performance of the classic ballet “Coppelia,” as well as the Broadway hit “Mary Poppins,” where they got a chance to meet with the stars of the show, including Ashley Brown, a University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music grad who plays the title role, and happens to be the aunt of one of the MVDT dancers.
They took a class with renown dance instructor David Howard at the Broadway Dance Center.
“Dance is much more of a lifestyle than it is here,” said dancer Jake Frazier. “The whole city is rich with artists. Here you might have a few companies, but there are so many of them there.”
“The world of dance is so much bigger than I thought it was,” added Jake Elwell, “and I have so much more to learn.”
The highlight of the trip, however, came at the Baryshnikov Art Center, established in 2005 as a creative performing arts laboratory by the legendary dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Klein said he has known “Misha” for a long time, and in 2000, their respective dance companies performed in an outdoor concert in Hollywood, Fla., that drew more than 20,000 people.
“He’s always been a great supporter of my work,” Klein said. “There’s never been anyone to have that kind of celebrity in the dance world, but I’ve always found him to be a generous man. He is truly interested in dance and its grass-roots development, how people are training and where new artists and choreographers are coming from.”
“We didn’t know if he’d be there or not,” Davis said, “but he saw Demetrius and I on the elevator and said he’d talk to our kids for a while.”
So after an hourlong tour of the facility, the MVDT students were treated to another half-hour at the feet of the master.
“The kids were beside themselves,” she said. “He came in and had conversation with them about coming to New York and what they had seen. He told them that one day they could work in his arts center because he lets companies who don’t have their own performance space come in and use it.
“It was a good experience and made them realize that they could dance in the big city,” Barnes said.
“It makes me not want to give up, that I could do that,” said Beth Felerski.
“I thought it was cool to meet someone famous because that made it more real,” said Madeleine Elwell.
Baryshnikov offered them words of encouragement, and gave them a couple of catch phrases — “Keep it going” and “Make it happen” — to take away.
“They started thinking of themselves as connected to the entire dance community,” Klein said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.
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