Contact: Mitzi Lizárraga, Principal SCPA (619) 470.0555 x202
Richard Trujillo, Artistic Director SCPA (619) 470.0555 x212
INTERNATIONAL RENOWN CHOREOGRAPHERS AT THE SAN DIEGO SCHOOL OF CREATIVE AND
PERFORMING ARTS
Donald McKayle, Anna Sokolow, and Christopher Huggins 2011 residence at SCPA
culminates in a five day upcoming dance concert
SAN DIEGO (May 4, 2011)&lsqauo;Students at the San Diego School of Creative and
Performing Arts (SCPA) receive real-world experiences from professional
choreographers and will perform CONNECTIONS: Featuring Master Choreography
by Donald McKayle, Anna Sokolow, and Christopher Huggins in the Grand
Theatre at the San Diego SCPA, 2425 Dusk Drive, San Diego CA 92139 on May
19, 20, 26 and 27 at 7pm, and May 21 at 2pm.
A Tony Award nominee, Donald McKayle has performed in Broadway musicals and
in film and television. His choreography has been greatly influenced by
the struggles of African-Americans in the 1950s and 1960s as well as other
choreographers such as Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, Anna Sokolow and Merce
Cunningham. Mr. McKayle is a Professor of Dance at UC Irvine. SCPA
students will perform McKayle¹s Songs of the Disinherited which acknowledges
and honors the resiliency of the human spirit against adversity. Jim May, a
former dancer with the Anna Sokolow Company, has staged Sokolow¹s Steps of
Silence and Themes of Dreams on SCPA students who are learning about the
deep social issues of oppression during World War II. The effects of the
Holocaust influenced Sokolow¹s Steps of Silence. Sarah Halzack of the
Washington Post (May 10, 2009) wrote, ³Almost 50 years after its debut, Anna
Sokolow's Dreams looks as fresh as ever. Sokolow's choreography strikes
just the right note: she manages to capture the terror and the magnitude
without veering into the melodramatic.² Christopher Huggins, formerly with
the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre is returning to SCPA for the third
year. His choreography explores relationships in The Lists. In Huggins¹
Echoes of Ailey, students are learning how Alvin Ailey shaped American
modern dance leading the Ailey Company to be recognized by the U.S. Congress
as a vital American Cultural Ambassador to the world. Mitzi Lizarraga,
Principal of SCPA, believes that these opportunities for students to learn
through apprenticing with these master choreographers allows multiple entry
points-- visually, musically, spatially, kinesthetically, interpersonally,
intrapersonal, and linguistically and creates authentic, deeper, and
richer educational contexts for student learning and mastery. ³Our arts
curriculum is a successful venue for students to see the relationship,
relevance and connection to their learning in English, Social Studies,
Sciences and world events², said Principal Lizárraga. The Connections
dance concert is supported by the 21st Century ASSETs grant and the Friends
of SCPA.
SCPA is a San Diego Unified School District magnet arts school for
artistically talented students in grades 6 through 12. For more information
about SCPA or to purchase $4 tickets visit www.scpa.sandi.net or call the
box office at (619) 475.8556.
x x x
Mitzi Lizarraga, Principal
San Diego School of the Creative and Performing Arts
2425 Dusk Drive
San Diego, CA 92139
Office: 619.470.0555 x202
Fax: 619.479.8449
Email: mlizarraga1@sandi.net
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