Elements Contemporary Ballet performs at Looptopia this Friday
Friday, May 2, 2008 7:00pm
Elements Contemporary Ballet will preview the upcoming Spring Concert 2008 this Friday at the Looptopia Festival, Chicago's all-night downtown cultural celebration. The company will showcase new cutting edge works that combine the beauty of classical technique with the boldness of contemporary ideas. The event is free and open to the public.
Presenter
Organization Description:
About Elements Contemporary Ballet: Since its inception in May 2005, the company has staged three full-length concerts in downtown Chicago, as well as given lunch-time lecture demonstrations at the Harold Washington Library Center. ECB performs in numerous festivals, including Evanston Arts Week, The Atlas Agenda, Whole Foods Street Festival, and Looptopia 2008, in which the company was a featured performer at the Chicago Cultural Center. A recipient of a “Best of New Moves” award at Dance Chicago 2007, ECB now tours with "The Stars of Dance Chicago" throughout the midwest, as well as participates in the month-long festival here in Chicago. ECB has also performed for many benefits and galas, including Howard Brown's "La Grande Masquerade" and Heartland's "Art Against AIDS". Most recently, the company joined Chicago's "Urban Gateways" program. Through Urban Gateways, ECB travels to schools within the Chicagoland area presenting it's original educational performance and lecture, "The Evolution of Ballet".
The dancers of Elements Contemporary Ballet hail from prestigious and eclectic backgrounds such as, The Joffrey Ballet, BalletMet, Louisville Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet, ABT II, Aspen-Santa Fe Ballet, The School of American Ballet, River North Chicago Dance Company, Luna Negra Dance Theatre, Thodos Dance Chicago, Joel Hall Dancers, Colorado Ballet, Hartford Ballet, Illinois Ballet Theatre, Ballet Tucson, and The Radio City Rockettes. ECB dancers have received such prestigious awards as The Princess Grace Award, Harid Conservatory’s Dance Study Award, and the Overture Fine Arts Award, and have been finalists in ballet competitions such as the National Youth America Grand Prix Competition in New York City and The Denver Ballet Guild Competition.
About Artistic Director Mike Gosney: Mike began Elements Contemporary Ballet as a way of showcasing the many professional dancers he was training and coaching, as well as a means of forming his innovative movement concepts into exciting choreographic works. Gosney has since developed a unique style and sense of line, and particularly, a phenomenal method of coaching that dancers from all around the world attest to. Extremely dedicated to his students, he continues to make education, good health and athleticism, experimentation, and an open mind his tools for training dancers. Currently on teaching staff at Joel Hall Dance Center and The Dance Center of Evanston, he also serves as a guest faculty member at Lou Conte Dance Studio and Gus Giordano Dance Center. As a choreographer, his work has appeared in Dance Chicago, Around the Coyote Arts Festival, Looptopia, Joel Hall’s “Dances from the Halls”, Evanston Arts Week, productions with the Evanston Dance Ensemble and Evanston Symphony, and in many Chicago area dance school performances. His biggest choreographic feat to date was the ECB inaugural concert at The Harold Washington Library Center in 2006, in which he choreographed five world premiere works for the company.
Event Location Venue:
Chicago Cultural center, Claudia Cassidy Theatre
Address:
78 E. Washington Street
Chicago, IL 60602
Google Map
