| |
Jeffry
Steele & Friends Performance Offerings School
Assembly Programs & Workshops | 10/26/98
Essex Elementary School 6/4/99
12:00 & 1:00 PM Rockport Middle
School 6/11/99 11 AM
St. Mel's School, East Gloucester
10/26/99 Ipswich
Elementary Schools 11/17/99
Beeman School, Gloucester 9:30
& 10:30 AM 12/20/99
Triton Regional, Byfield 10
& 11 AM |
For
fees & booking information contact Jeffry Steele at 978-282-3106 or e-mail
More
photos of Carl & Anna at: Clear Away in Photos
& Music
Assembly
presentation:
1] Opening:
Fight, Fisherman's Vow, Childhood I and Pas de Deux from "Clear Away".Music
by Jeffry Steele, choreographed by Carl & danced with Anna 2]
Moving to a Song (I): "I see with my Hands" (K-4) or "If I had a Hammer" (5-12)
Carl teaches literal gestures to audience while Jeffry teaches lyrics and melody.
Moving to a Song (II): Carl dances
to same song, in a more interpretive style, while audience sings it with Jeffry.
3] Student movement group: A class
of students that has met with Carl and Jeffry in a workshop prior to this presentation
-- or a class that has simply been recruited ahead of time -- comes up on stage
and models movements depicting the different phases of the Water Cycle (raindrops,
puddles, stream, river, ocean, evaporation, thunderstorm). Evoking distinct textures
for each movement, Jeffry accompanies them on guitar. This may also involve (particularly
if a workshop is held with them beforehand) some students underscoring the music
with hand percussion instruments.
4]
Movement Machine: Teachers are then invited up to the stage to become
part of a repetitive movement "assembly line", which begins with one person, then
adds another every few measures -- each participant feeding off the preceding
one until there is a large accumulation spanning the stage. Jeffry provides musical
accompaniment with his synthesizer-guitar piece, "Jacob's Dream" -- which employs
a mechanical-sounding ostinato and a one-second echo. Carl then dances through
the audience -- leading students in a medley of movements seen earlier in the
program -- until the music concludes.
5]
Reprise of Pas de Deux or Question/Answer Period
Carl
Thomsen, co-director of Dancers Courageous Studio, has been a professional
dancer and teacher for 28 years. In New York City, he performed and taught with
Gus Solomons Co/Dance, Richard Bull and the Improvisational Dance Ensemble, Colloquium
Dance Company and Marjorie Mussman. Carl operated his own studio in New York before
moving to Gloucester in 1992. He currently teaches modern dance and ballet to
adults. His children's dance program, Power Movesª, combines his love of storytelling
with his knowledge of dance. He is Director of Gloucester Legends and teaches
in the School Program in most of the area's public schools. |
Anna
Shoub is from Toronto, Canada. She began her dance training at the School
the the Toronto Dance Theater. She then moved to New York City where she studied
and demonstrated for classes, as a scholarship student, at the Martha Graham School
of Contemporary Dance. While in New York, Anna performed with the Perl Lang Dance
Co. In 1992 she moved to the Boston area and performed and taught for the Peanut
Butter and Jelly Dance Co. and performed with the North Shore Civic Ballet. In
addition to dancing with Carl Thomsen, Anna presently works with Jennifer Uhl
along with choreographing and performing her own work. She teaches in and around
Boston and has appeared as Guest Teacher in New York and at Salem State College.
She has also coordinated and taught ÒArtists in the SchoolsÓ programs in Toronto. |
Jeffry
Steele received his first paid commission (composing film music) while a college
sophomore. Since then, he has written for theater, public TV and concert settings.
His principal teachers of guitar were David Starobin and Phillip de Fremery and
of composition, Lewis Spratlan. As a guitarist, he has performed around New England
in schools, colleges, festivals and churches. He also both weathered and enjoyed
a period of teaching music in the K-8 classroom. One of his CDs is on Centaur
Records and six others are available (and two more shortly on the way) on his
own Prism label (http://jeffrysteele.com). He returned to live in Gloucester --
the city of his birth -- in 1995, and teaches guitar in his own studio as well
as at Endicott College. |
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