Dance X 2013
Since Monday, at the Bliss Center for the Performing Arts lovers of the creative arts, specifically dancing, have been getting a crash course on the techniques and skills in the art. It is part of the festival for the 2013 Dance X organized by the Institute of Creative Arts. Several international and local choreographers and dance instructors including Belizean, Jamie Thompson of the Dallas Black Dance Theatre, are currently in the jewel for the event that will see hundreds of persons trained in the various genres of dance. Tonight, a forum will be held inside the Bliss by Caribbean Dance Expert, Doctor L’Antoinette Stines on Nation Dance Languages. But starting Friday night at eight p.m., for two nights straight, the auditorium will come alive with performances from some ten local and three international dance groups. A whopping one hundred and twenty-five dancers will take the stage to put off synchronized movements in jazz, hip hop, folkloric ballet, contemporary and more. News Five found out about the hype surrounding this annual event.
Karen Vernon, Organizer, Dance X 2013
Karen Vernon
“Definitely, bigger and better; every year we try to improve and we’ve definitely done that this year. It is a festival and we started on Monday with workshops. We took Peter from the PGK Dance Company in Corozal. We had belly-dancing, modern dance, yoga for dancers—all different types of dance here at this Bliss—and that continues through Saturday. Saturday, we have a free show at six p.m. which is…the Mexican Embassy got two dancers from somewhere in Mexico and they will be performing for free show and then Saturday night it gets back on stage at eight p.m. for Dance X.”
Peter Kalivas
Peter Kalivas, Artistic Director, PGK Dance Project, California
“It’s a very specific form and style of American contemporary dance and I want to share that style with anyone in the world. And here at Dance X, I get to share that with the students, with the dancers, with the teachers especially in helping them to maybe become more efficient, appreciate that kind of structure. At the same time find out how that can translate to the kind of dance styles that they are dancing here.”
Jamie Thompson, Dancer, Dallas Black Dance Theatre
Jamie Thompson
“What you can expect this year, I am bringing the same piece that I did; the picture that they used for the flyer and I am doing that dance again. I feel like that was a favorite and so I am bringing that back again. This year, I made a new dance—well I collaborated with a friend of mine, Bridget Elmore; she is an international choreographer from Dallas, Texas. She choreographed the number for me and it is called sub umbra floreo, which is also the thing that is inscribed on our flag. I wanted to make a piece that I can have an emotional connection to and not just a connection to the concept. This dance is rooted in all that makes me who I am, which is Belizean. It is not your literal concept of Belizean; so I will be wining and doing the Punta or the shine or one of our folkloric steps, but it is a contemporary conceptualization of what it means to actually flourish under a tree. So that’s my gift to the Belizean community for allowing me to exercise my graft and my gifts for the years that I have been.”
Tickets for both nights of entertainment are on sale at the Bliss and at Tease Gift Shop at the Princess and Radisson Hotels for twenty dollars reserve and ten dollars for general admissions.
