OU’S School of Dance Presents Dance Partners Event

Norman, Oklahoma, February 11, 2013 -- The University of Oklahoma School of Dance (SOD) will host a meeting and presentations for Dance Partners, SOD’s support organization, on Thursday, February 21, 2013, at 7:00 p.m. in Room 3002 of the Donald W. Reynolds Performing Arts Center. Dance Partners was established by patrons of the School of Dance in 2003 to provide support for SOD endeavors, especially scholarships.  Charles Oppenheim is the current president.

The program will present highlights from Contemporary Dance Oklahoma’s (CDO) upcoming concert in April.  CDO will be showing pieces from Trio Syncopated, choreographed by Austin Hartel, as well as a new work by Derrick Minter.  The excerpts will be performed by students in the cast.

Dance Partners will also learn about “Pantomime and Acting in Ballet” during a lecture and presentation given collaboratively by dance faculty members Clara Cravey and Steve Brule.  Cravey and Brule will give a brief synopsis on the topic.  Subsequently, students who have previously participated in pantomime classes at OU, will present a variety of mimed scenarios. An array of performances will depict excerpts from classical ballet, along with comedic scenarios.  Cravey’s students will perform sequences from such ballets as Coppelia and Swan Lake.  In addition, audience members who raved at the comedy in Oklahoma Festival Ballet’s Cinderella during the 2012 holiday season will have the opportunity to learn insider tips. The Step Sisters were fan favorites who piqued the interest of many, so there will be a behind-the-scenes look at the details that went into making those roles so hilarious and successful.  Brule, who played one of the sisters in travesty, stated: “There are many factors that go into making comedy in ballet a success.  I'll talk a bit about slapstick and more subtle comedy in ballet pantomime and acting.  Timing is everything.  When you consider music, movement, expression and props -- all while you are reacting to other performers – timing has to be split second and right on."

The Dance Partners event will close with refreshments and conversation with dancers and faculty and a special toast to the organization’s tenth anniversary.

The University of Oklahoma’s program in dance was founded in 1963 by Yvonne Chouteau and Miguel Terekhov, former principal dancers with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. What had been a department became the School of Dance in 1998 with Mary Margaret Holt as Director. Undergraduate and graduate dance majors, along with general education students, total approximately 1000 enrollees in dance classes per semester. The School of Dance’s state-of-the-art facility in the Donald W. Reynolds Performing Art Center was completed in 2005.