www.sarasotacontemporarydance.org
Sarasota Contemporary Dance Welcomes Gerri Houlihan, Former Dancer with Antony Tudor & Director of American Dance Festival
Sarasota Contemporary Dance is weeks away from the final production of its 10th season, Evolving/Evolving, June 2-5, at the Jane B. Cook Theater. The company is hard at work in rehearsal and excited to welcome back beloved teacher and nationally celebrated choreographer Gerri Houlihan, who will be resetting a company favorite, Every Little Movement, which was originally set on the company in its second season.
Houlihan along with her assistant Kristin O’ Neal, adored dancer and teacher in the state of Florida, will be in residence with SCD from May 9 -13 to reset Every Little Movement. “This is a contemporary piece that I first witnessed over 15 years ago performed by Gerri Houlihan & Dancers in Miami, while I was her student at the New World School of the Arts,” Artistic Director Leymis Bolaños Wilmott recalls.
Houlihan was actually inspired to create Every Little Movement when she was on faculty at New World School of the Arts in Miami.
“I taught in both the high school and the college,” said Houlihan. “The students were inspiring and talented, but I began to realize that they had very little connection to classical music…a form that I am very passionate about. I decided to create a work that would be playful, as well as poignant, humorous as well as lyrical, and that would challenge the dancers to relate to the music in a very specific and detailed way. In addition to that impetus……my dad used to sing to me all the time when I was a little girl. One of those songs was Every Little Movement Has a Meaning All Its Own. And so the piece evolved!”
Houlihan says she is thrilled to be working once again with Leymis and Sarasota Contemporary Dance. “Leymis was my student at New World, and then, again, as she completed her MFA at Florida State University. Her dedication and genuine love of dance have always been apparent, so I am delighted to continue to be a part of her journey as she expands her work and shares her talent and inspiration with the Sarasota community” said Houlihan.
Contemporary Dance Master Class w/Gerri Houlihan
Monday, May 9 & Wednesday, May 11
10am, New College of Florida Fitness Center (east side)
$15, RSVP at [email protected]
To learn more about the Choreographers:
Gerri Houlihan began her professional career at the Juilliard School, studying with Antony Tudor, Alfredo Corvino and members of the Martha Graham and Jose Limon dance companies. She performed with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company and the Paul Sanasardo Dance Company, and spent five years as a soloist with the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, touring extensively throughout the United States and Europe.
Ms. Houlihan has taught or choreographed for such institutions as N.Y.’s High School of Performing Arts, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the Bates Dance Festival, the Boston Ballet, Meredith College, the University of South Florida, the North Carolina School of the Arts, the University of North Carolina –Greensboro and Virginia Commonwealth University.
From 1984-1987, Houlihan directed her own school and company, The Boston Dance Project. She was one of five finalists in the Boston Ballet’s International Choreography Competition. From 1988-1999, Ms. Houlihan was on the faculty of the New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida. During that time, she was also the artistic director of Houlihan and Dancers. The recipient of two Florida Individual Artist Fellowships in Dance/Choreography in 1991-92, and 1996-97, Houlihan and Dancers was on the touring roster for the state of Florida.
Ms. Houlihan is on the Advisory Board for the American College Dance Association and the American Dance Festival. She has been on the faculty of the American Dance Festival from 1981-1983, and from 1987 to the present. As an international representative for ADF she has participated in seventeen international linkages, teaching in Korea, China, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Estonia, Poland, the Philippines, Moscow and Mongolia. She is the 2005 recipient of the ADF’s Balasaraswati, Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching. She was Co-Dean and then Dean of the ADF School from 2010-2015. Completing her undergraduate work at Virginia Commonwealth University, she went on to get her MFA from the Hollins/ADF MFA program. She joined the dance faculty at Florida State University in 2007, and received the Pearl S. Tyner Distinguished Professor in Teaching award from FSU in 2012.
To purchase tickets to see Every Little Movement:
Evolving/Revolving:
Thursday – Sunday June 2 – 5, 2016
Performances: 7:30 pm, except Sun 2:00 pm
Jane B. Cook Theater at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts, selection seating
Single Tickets: 941.359.0099 or www.sarasotacontemporarydance.org
About Sarasota Contemporary Dance
Sarasota Contemporary Dance was formed in 2002 as Fuzión Dance Artists, Sarasota’s first contemporary dance company, by Co-Founders Leymis Bolaños-Wilmott and Rachael Inman. Now in its 10th season, the company was renamed on September 18, 2015, and continues to bring dance to the community through eclectic performances and educational programming, while collaborating with artists and community groups to enrich the human experience.
