My trip to the East Coast was fantastic! Here’s a rundown of what went down:

The students at Lincoln Park Performing Arts in Midland, Pennsylvania were wonderful! I enjoyed teaching all 45 of them in a master class and they did a terrific job with the Monster Montage of A Chorus Line in rehearsal. I was very impressed! I’m only sorry I did not get to see their Bond ballet.

I met with Dr. Kenneth Laws, my Physics and the Art of Dance co-author, for a brief visit. He helped my student Jonathan Bostick analyze two martial arts type of jumps and at the end of a ten-minute trial period, had Jonathan doing both quite successfully!

Next stop, Manhattan, NY. The master class was small but intense. The dancers that attended were focused and so much fun to work with! Hopefully, I’ll be able to do that again in the future.

Now I’m back in Arkansas, not only working on a new piece of choreography set to Strauss but gearing up for Ballet Arkansas’s fundraiser, Come Dancin’, and my first season with the company.

There’s lots of ballet in store:

• The Lake Cities Ballet Theatre is doing Giselle on April 10th in Corinth, TX;
• TITAS’ Command Performance of International Ballet featuring dancers from: American Ballet Theater, San Francisco Ballet, Morphoses Dance Company the National Ballet of Holland and The New York City Ballet in Dallas on April 11th
• Ballet Memphis doing Cinderella in Memphis on April 18th

I can’t wait to be inspired!

Valentine's weekend I had the opportunity to see Ballet Memphis in a performance entitled AbunDANCE. In a word: WOW! The company, which was the brainchild of artistic director Dorothy Gunther Pugh, was wonderful. Her dancers are highly technically trained but also move with amazing fluidity and full body expression. What a jewel of a company in the middle of the country. If you are close enough in proximity, don't miss seeing them; you will not be disappointed!

I have a big announcement to make! I just became the Artistic Director of Ballet Arkansas, a professional dance company in Little Rock!

Click here to see a story about the company (and interview with me) on KATV 7!

The whole process started the second week of January and in a month’s time, the Board of Directors voted and I signed the contract the morning of February 9, 2009. What a whirlwind of events! Auditions for dancers will be held in the following locations:

Dallas, TX
• Sunday, March 8th at 2pm
• Dallas Ballet Center, 8530 Abrams, Suite 608, 75243

Little Rock, AR
• Sunday, March 15th at 2 pm
• Shuffles & Ballet II Dance Studio, Market and Merrill Shopping Center

I am looking for enthusiastic dancers (2 men, 2 women) interested in getting in on the ground floor of a start-up dance company. 40 week contract, $700/month. The season will include three performance concerts as well as participation in community performances and instruction. Dancers need to be 18 years of age or older and possess strong, advanced ballet technique and performing experience. Having other skills and dance proficiency in jazz, modern, partnering, hip-hop and tumbling are a plus. Dancers should bring a headshot, dance photo, and a resumé that includes training, special skills and references. By the way, the cost of living in Little Rock is low.

More news

I will be traveling to the East Coast in the 4th week of March and will be teaching two master classes.

Pennsylvania
• Monday, March 23rd
• Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center, Midland, (near Pittsburgh)
• Call the center for details

New York City
• Friday, March 27th, 10:30am-12:30pm
• Battery Dance Studio, 380 Broadway, 5th Floor, (NE corner of Broadway & White, 2 blocks south of Canal)
• Cost: $20
• Level is intermediate advanced

Site Update

The Tips on Technique page is almost ready to go. Look for it next month, when I hope to discuss tips on arabesque.

Happy Spring if I don’t update this page before then!

The days have gone by quickly and it's hard to believe that it's already November. Because of the volatile economy, my plans to coach in New York have been put on hold. However, I have tentative plans to travel to New York (and Pittsburgh) the end of March to teach a mini-workshop. Anyone interested in participating, please drop me a line on the Contact page. I’m also open to any ideas you think would be helpful in generating interest.

The online sales for Physics and the Art of Dance: Second Edition, (as I'm told by Oxford University Press) has been doing well. Thank you everyone for buying the book. I'm currently working on another text that describes my approach to classical ballet technique and methodology for alignment. It will also include the latest information about determining weaknesses, causes of injuries, and exercises for strengthening and stabilizing. On that project I'm collaborating with Alison DeLeo, PT, DPT, with whom I presented this summer at the Dance Educators Training Institute in Washington, D.C.

And last, but not least, I've been busy choreographing for three shows since September. The first one is my own version of Nutcracker's Grand Pas for the North Arkansas Dance Theatre. The second is four pieces for Christmas Celebration IV with the Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra in Texas. The last production is the Yuletide Spectacular V with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra where my choreography will be presented in three pieces. Much of my work will feature Jonathan Bostick, Grace Tilley, and Morgan Grady, three wonderful dancers/performers with whom I have worked extensively.

I hope to have the interactive part of this site up soon. Please come back and check it out. I'll be discussing my technique with videos from class. Thanks for your support!

Physics and the Art of Dance is now available for purchase!
Synopsis (courtesy of Oxford University Press):
Physics and the Art of Dance gives all who enjoy dance - whether as dancers, students, teachers, or fans - an opportunity to understand what happens when human bodies move in the remarkable ways we call dance. How, for instance, do dancers create the illusion of defying gravity? Or of starting to spin when in the air with no source of force to act on their bodies? You may observe some dancers using their arms in a way that allows some to jump higher than others. What is that technique, and why does it work?

In this second edition, author Ken Laws - a physicist with years of professional dance training - teams with veteran dance instructor Arleen Sugano to provide new step-by-step experiments for dancers. "What you see" sections describe the way physical principles form the framework within which some movements exist. The complementary "What you do" sections allow dancers to experience how those physical analyses can provide them a more efficient means of learning how to carry out those movements. Throughout, the book shows how movements are first artistic expressions, and secondly movements of the body within the framework of easy-to-understand physical principles.

To read the entire synopsis and purchase the book, visit the OUP site or Amazon.com.