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Show 'A :' 'out ! i-; : v. . : ,; : ' ' Workshop 72: Six weeks of intensive dance Text by JILL NUTTING Photos by JOHN GEORGE Chronicle Staff Two separate student performances, per-formances, "Summerdance 4," will culminate six weeks of intensive in-tensive study in technique, production, composition and improvisation by the 175 students stu-dents taking part in the Repertory Reper-tory Dance Theater (RDT) Workshop 72. Forty states are represented by workshop participants. Most of the out-of-state students heard about the workshop from RDT concerts given in their areas. Participants range in age from 15 and 16 to post-college age, the average being about 22. As in most dance workshops, girls outnumber men. The RDT workshop, now in its second year, was created for a number of reasons. For one thing, it affords members of the company an opportunity to teach and be of help to serious students of dance. It is the only dance workshop of its kind in the Intermountain area. Only 13 students this summer were enrolled in the workshop last summer, when there were only 150 participants. A majority, however, have probably been in other other workshops before. This summer they have chosen the RDT workshop, each for his own reason. Workshop 72 is unique among workshops in several ways. Emphasis in the classes is placed on performing, and students are given an opportunity at the end of the workshop to perform RDT-choreographed RDT-choreographed works in front of an audience. The workshop also provides a well-rounded curriculum for aspiring dancers. Most dance workshops admit students only by audition, but RDT will take anyone. The reason for this is that some RDT members enjoy teaching beginning dance, while others prefer teaching accomplished dancers. So there is a wide range of experience and ability levels among workshop participants. Students are thus admitted to the workshop on a first come, first serve basis. Available places were filled in the early spring, and there was a waiting list of some 75 people who were turned down because of space limitations. A day in Workshop 72 begins with an optional production class at 8:30 a.m. This may be a class in lighting design taught by RDT's lighting designer, Kay Barrell, or costuming, taught by Ron Hodge, RDT's costumer. Two music classes are also offered of-fered at this time, a music history class taught by Stanley Sussman, head of the music 1 il 1 i ii. student performances, take up the evenings. Thursday nights are the exceptions; ex-ceptions; classes are held in partnering. Many dance departments depart-ments offer very little instruction in working with other dancers due to the shortage of men in dance. Films, seminars and summer dance concerts presented by RDT are offered over the weekends as learning experiences for the participants. Summerdance 4 consists of two separate student performances, which will be presented Thursday and Saturday nights at 8:30 p.m. in the Pioneer Memorial Theater. Thirteen works will be presented in the two concerts. Of these, three were choreographed by students in the workshop. One is in the company's repertory of dances, and the rest are new works created by nine RDT members specifically for the performances. Two of the pieces were choreographed by Katherine Sanderson, a June graduate majoring in dance. Miss Sanderson San-derson was awarded a summer choreographic scholarship by the company. Another work on Thursday's program was created by Boston University graduate Gail Simon in her workshop composition class. Pieces in the concerts use anywhere from five to 25 dancers, with 158 of the 175 students taking part. The cast for each dance was chosen by the choreographer. Also taught in conjunction with the main workshop were two mini-workshops, one of two weeks duration, which consisted . of instruction for dance accompanists, ac-companists, and the other, lasting three weeks, for dance teachers. Km ;' i' - r-i );.!? 5 ( . ! i. . luuuay, anu a uieory class taugnt by Sondra Fraleigh. Another option is RDT manager Don Michaelis' class in arts management. From 10 a.m. to noon daily a modern dance technique class is held for all students. Auditions before the company at the start of the workshop placed students in levels of technique, one being the lowest and five the highest. Lunch break lasts until 1:30. Students attend classes of then-choice then-choice in jazz, improvisation, tap and musical comedy and composition com-position until about 5:30. Tap and jazz classes are divide into .beginning and advanced levels and composition is taught on three levels of experience. A student may sign up for composition com-position either as a choreographer or as a dancer to be used in student creations. Once he has paid the initial tuition fee of $230, a student may take as few or as many classes as he desires, but most took advantage ad-vantage of the program and put in a full, exhausting day. Repertory classes, during which the students rehearse the pieces to be presented Thursday and Saturday nights in the i ' '''' ' '' v V """V X ' SI l" i ; : T ... f L ' I J lj ! llli! |