Fall is here and so is the new season!

This week brought the first day of school at Boise State and most of the valley schools - and the first day of IDT rehearsal. We are back in the saddle already preparing for our first performance - which is tomorrow! Wow! We are performing at the City Harvest Festival at 1:40pm on Saturday, August 30 - Boise Center on the Grove! You won't want to miss it! It will be fun - the weather will be good - get a glimpse of the company doing repertory from last year to showcase the company in the community. What a great way to showcase our talented dancers to the community!

In other news - we have almost our entire company returning from last year - and we welcome back Kaelen O'Shea and Laurie Evans as well. We have invited all of the alumni back to celebrate our season with us - You will see them at the shows, helping us to celebrate our 20th anniversary. Hear their successes and their memories of IDT. Our gala event is March 14 - Dancing thru the Decades! We have a great band lined up to play music from a variety of eras. Costuming is suggested in your favorite decades attire...Larry Gebert will join us as auctioneer - we are planning a live and silent auction this year! It will be the largest, most fun event IDT hAS ever thrown. Tickets will be available in the near future...watch the website for all the info.

Season tickets are on sale now. It's the last chance to buy tickets for the entire season at a small savings. Our tickets are still priced quite reasonably despite the economy, so don't miss out on the best value you can have for Boise entertainment. There are still tickets available for each evening, so buy your tickets soon to insure you get the nights you want. Season ticket brochures will be mailed to the mailing list again in September. And don't forget to renew your memberships and be a supporter of IDT.

Hope you all had a great summer. Email me and let me know what we can do to enlist your help and advice...and get you more involved in IDT!

Becky

New York Trip

Hey Everyone! New York is fabulous! I love the energy of this city. We saw Mary Poppins on Broadway and loved the story. It's not quite like the movie...but so uplifting and fun - I highly recommend it especially if you are bringing younger ones with you. There was some great tap dancing you don't want to miss by the chimney sweeps...and Burt.

Brandi is dancing here in New York this summer - she will be a fourth year company member this year - she's studying a variety of modern styles this summer. Cassee studied for a week in New York earlier this summer - Alia is spending much of the summer here (New York) - and Jean is in Austin, Texas studying at a ballet intensive. Yurek headed up to Seattle so I'll be anxious to hear what he found up there. Sarah is retiring to be a housewife. Caelen, Gonzalo and Jem are hanging out - working for the summer and taking advantage of every opportunity to dance that they can find in the summer. All of them took classes at BSU Dancefest in June.

So as you can see, the dancers continue to train in the off season, expanding their abilities all the time. It's the driving force behind a quality company....always working on technique, learning new things and working hard. The proof will be seen on stage for our greatest season ever - so buy your season tickets now and see the company perform.

Hope you are all having a wonderful summer!

Summer News

We had a fantastic summer kickoff event. Hopefully you will all purchase your memberships for the new year (see our website for all the information). It's our 20th Anniversary season and we are busy planning events and raising money to make them successful. If you would like to help in some way please let us know. We have many returning dancers and some alumni performances planned for you as well. It will be the best performance season ever! Don't miss a single show...and don't forget to save March 14, 2009 for our 20th Anniversary Gala - Dancing Through the Decades - music, dinner, wine, drinks, dancing, - wear a costume from your favorite decade...Silent and live auctions...it's an event to celebrate 20 years and look ahead for at least another 20! Join us - tickets and information will be available soon.

The first show is in November...off to plan some more!!!!

Check this out...

http://www.worldwidedanceuk.com/content.asp?CategoryID=1397

Here's a link to another great article on Contemporary Dance

1. What is contemporary dance?

Contemporary dance is a term* that is usually applied to a diversity of practices and forms of ‘concert’ dance that emerged around the 1960’s breaking away from the traditional composition modes and more formal and expressive modern dance styles.

The term contemporary refers to the present time, it reflects a wide range of individual expression, and so it keeps evolving and transforming, inspired by everyday movements, modern dance techniques, studies of the human body, street and urban influences, experimental and improvisation processes... Works created in contemporary dance often involve interdisciplinary approaches (theatre, music, visual and media arts, literature...). It is often throwing open the definitions of dance, dancer and performance values.

Training in contemporary dance is usually not confined to one style, as was modern dance (Graham, Limon, Hawkins techniques, for example). Rather, it encompasses aspects of different styles, from classical, to modern to urban, and will often include alternative techniques in body/mind, postural integration and imagery. This reflects the need to expose dancers to a wide spectrum of movement experience they will encounter with individual choreographers and companies that have developed their own style of movement research and choreography.

Contemporary dance is staged or presented in all types of settings, from the more formal concert dance to site specific events, to technology-driven media.

* other terms are used such in different countries (New Dance, Tanz Aktuell, danse actuelle)

Useful links about contemporary dance :
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Contemporary-dance
http://www.cam.ac.uk/societies/dance/explain.htm

Summer Solstice entertainment

Summer Solstice is June 21, 2008 - see www.idahodancetheatre.org for all the information!

Here's some of the lastest news!

There will be live music by The Tracy Underwood Connection. Formally with Score The Floor, Tracy is now touring with Americana On Tour , along with drummer Troy Nickell. We are joined by most of the members of Pilot Error. She promises that everyone will have a blast - they play everything across the map! Here's some links to check out the band and Tracy Underwood!

http://tunnellinternational.com/Artists.html (look for Tracy Underwood and click on the video link)
www.americanaontour.com
www.piloterror.net
www.myspace.com/tracyunderwoodmusic



At 10:00 pm t here will be an exciting performance by stilters and fire dancers (even some IDT company members) - The show begins around dusk! Don't miss this exciting event!

20th Anniversary Season for Idaho Dance Theatre kicks off on June 21, 2008

Idaho Dance Theatre will kick off its 20th Anniversary Season with a fund raiser on June 21, 2008. Our membership drive kicks off with Summer Solstice - hosted by Becky Breshears. Entertainment will be live - the MoJo Works Fire Dancers and Stilters will provide some great entertainment at dark. Bring your favorite bottle of wine (or enjoy some of ours) - and spend an evening of fun and relaxation with Idaho Dance Theatre's Artistic Directors, staff and Board Members. See our website for all the information including prices and directions. Please RSVP if you are planning to attend. Happy Summer!