COMING FALL 2007:

Professional Ballerina Amy Brandt
September 29th - 30th

International Tap Diva Roxane Butterfly
November 10th-11th
Including an evening-length dance concert on Saturday, Nov. 10th, featuring:

Roxane Butterfly, Sarah Mason, Jade Dance Project,
Crunch! Productions & Lumière Studio Company

Ticket Order Form
(Print and drop at the studio or mail to: 200 Old Fort Road, Spring Mills, PA 16875)

Imagine taking a master class with the Emmy Award-winning, seasoned Broadway tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith, or an acting class with Ayodele Casel, co-star of television shows like Law & Order and Third Watch, or spending a weekend in intensive workshops with the veteran international performer and choreographer Heather Cornell...

Few dancers could ever hope to travel to New York or Los Angeles to have an opportunity to work with even one of these great artists. Students at PAA have only needed to travel to Potters Mills, Pennsylvania! PAA has been thrilled to host these wonderful performers for weekend workshops in our local studio as part of our Broadway Connection program.

Our goal is to bring PAA students together with the world’s greatest dance and theater artists. Since we opened our doors in 2003, our students have worked with dance greats in both New York and Chicago, and we are thrilled to see so many of these artists travel to PAA’s studios to continue to work with our students. At PAA, we strive to provide a performing arts education that  allows every student the opportunity to train with the very best, in order to fulfill their greatest potential as young artists. Students can achieve their dreams; we encourage them to believe in those dreams and let us show you the path to making those dreams come true!

"...awesome and so inspiring! It really opened my eyes to what exactly I am working towards. I don't think I have ever worked that hard and sweated that much and thought that much in my entire life all at one time!" - Madeline G., Broadway Connection 2006 student

 

Master Ballet Classes with Amy Brandt

PAA is proud to welcome Amy Brandt, one of the most exquisite ballerinas in the world of classical and contemporary ballet today!

Amy grew up in the Chicagoland area and began her early studies at Dancenter North. She has gone on to dance as a soloist with the Milwaukee Ballet, the acclaimed Suzanne Farrell Ballet, the New Chamber Ballet, and the new and intriguing ad hoc ballet. 

 

 

Ms. Brandt will offer the following master ballet classes:
Saturday, September 29th @ 3:00 p.m. - Beginning/Intermediate CLASS FULL
Sunday, September 30th @ 1:00 p.m. - Intermediate/Advanced ONE SPACE LEFT
 

Master Tap Classes with Roxane Butterfly

PAA is proud to welcome ROXANE BUTTERFLY, a seasoned veteran and cutting-edge woman on the international tap scene! Roxane will be teaching as well as PERFORMING right here in central Pennsylvania as a part of our Broadway Connection show on November 10th! What a privilege to have one of the world's most accomplished dancers on stage with our students!

 

Roxane Butterfly will offer the following master tap classes:
Saturday, November 10th @ 9:00 a.m. - Beginning/Intermediate
Sunday, November 11th @ 1:30 p.m. - Intermediate/Advanced  LIMITED SPACE
Sunday, November 11th @ 3:30 p.m. - Private Crunch Workshop

One of the most innovative tap-dancers of her generation, Roxane Butterfly has won recognition from both dance and music critics around the world. Selected as a Fellow choreographer by the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation in 2006, she is the only woman tap-dancer who ever received a Bessie Award (Outstanding Creative Achievement in 1999) as well as a NYFA Fellow Choreographer (2002), Arts International Recipient (2004), Manhattan Creative Arts Fund Grantee (2004 & 2005) and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council grantee (2005). She was featured as one of the "25 Best" featured in Dance Magazine in 2002. Roxane is more than a "dancer".

"A maverick on the contemporary dance scene" (Robert Johnson, The Star-Ledger), she is an accomplished percussionist with her feet. Light and fluid, she allies lyricism to dexterity with an "unabashed and unruffled showmanship" (The New Yorker). At home in the jazz and world-music scenes, she was baptized Butterfly by her legendary tap-mentor Jimmy Slyde who took her under his wing in 1991. Butterfly is a world-class citizen who mixes in her performances both her Mediterranean background and her New York reality. A member of UNESCO's International Dance Council, her collaborations with handicapped children, her involvement against domestic violence and against the practice of female genital mutilation, are only a few of the many layers who give to Butterfly's world a unique consistency. Quoted as the 'Impresario of Tap' by The Village Voice she has toured solo throughout the US and Canada as well as in West Africa, Sri-Lanka, Korea, Israel, Russia, Slovania, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, England, Holland, Austria, Spain, Germany, Israel and The Reunion Island.

Her dance credits include featured solo guest-appearances at the American Dance Festival (July '04), City Center ('Oct 04, NYC), Aaron Davis Hall (Nov 04, NYC), Jacob's Pillow, Town Hall, the Joyce Theater (with 'Jazz Tap Ensemble), Saint-Marks Church, the New Victory Theater (with 'Urban Tap'), the the Duke on 42nd Street, the NY NY Hotel in Las Vegas (with the spectacular Hip Hop Musical 'MADhattan'), the Ford Theater (Los Angeles), Le Theatre National de la Danse et de l'Image (Chateauvallon/France), the Tanzhaus of Dusseldorf (Germany) and much more... with a highlight in 1996 when she invited Savion Glover ('Bring In Da Noise') and Tamango ('Urban Tap') to perform in her own production at Le Theatre de Suresnes in France. She recently ended a 4 months engagement at the famous Teatro Zinzani in Seattle.

Her former dance-music ensemble "BeauteeZ 'n The Beat" has been invited for three consecutive years at Symphony Space, and has appeared at the Houston Wortham Center (TX), Saint Peter's Church , Joe's Pub, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Saint Clement Theater, Miller Theater, NYACK Performing Arts Center, Jamaica Center For Arts and Learnings, Brooklyn Children's Museum, Makor and many more...

Her music credits include performances for the National Performing Arts Convention with vocalist Bobby MacFerrin at the Byham Theater (Pittsburgh) Montreal Jazz Festival, the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival (Delaware), a guest appearance at La Cigale (Paris) with vocalist Elizabeth Kontomanou, the Wheatland Festival (Michigan), Festival de Jazz de Terrassa (Spain), The Berks County Jazz Festival (PA), the Nice and Toulon Jazz Festivals (France), the Duke Ellington Sacred Concert (with both the New York Virtuosi and the Stamford Symphony Orchestras), the Cab Calloway Orchestra and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (to name only a few). She has been invited to sit in with many bands led by renowned musicians such as saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, guitarists Stanley Jordan and Les Paul, pianists Barry Harris and Cheik Tidiane Seck (from Mali), moroccan oudist Tarik Banzi and more... She has also shared the bill with bassist Ron Carter, Aldo Romano trio, experimental bassist Barre Philipps and vibraphonist Stefon Harris along with dancers such as Gregory Hines, the Nicholas Brothers and the Original Hoofers.

Her film credits: Roxane is currently featured in the documentary "Touch The Sound" by Thomas Riedlsheimer. Butterfly is featured in the motion picture "An Interrupted Conversation" on the life of drummer Denis Charles (by Veronique Doumbe), as well as in the B.B.C Special "Fascinating Rhythm" (by Iann Leese) and was broadcasted on WBGO (radio Jazz 88 ). She also coached the great Pablo Veron in the tap-sequences of Sally Potter's "Tango Lesson" (Winner of the Hollywood-Best-Choreography-in-Motion Picture Award/1998).

Her teaching credits include on going classes at Sarah Lawrence College, Steps on Broadway, the 92nd Street Y, a new tap-program starting in the Falls of 2004 at Dance Space, and the numerous jam-sessions she originated in Europe and NYC, allowing many younger dancers to grow in the irreplacable context of live-jazz performances. She presented tap-seminars at the New York Library, the universities of Virginia, Houston, Stephens College and was a guest-speaker on gender-inequalities at the last Dance/USA national roundtable. Gaining attention as a writer, she was recently published by Jazz Hot, the International Tap Association and in the readers section of The Nation.

 

Click here to view last year's Broadway Connection artist.

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