Highlights of this year’s performance include a special appearance by Dance Alive National Ballet’s principal dancers Andre Valladon and Michelle Incollingo, who will perform a duet from the classic ballet Carmen and a contemporary piece, Fused Tutu.

Dance Alive, which is designated as the State of Florida Touring Company, has had a long partnership with Gulfcoast Dance. That collaboration brings to Fort Myers not only the powerful performances of Valladon and Incollingo but also a special presentation of two pieces from the Dance Alive repertoire. Under the direction of Dance Alive choreographer and director Judy Skinner, local dancers will perform two of the company’s classical jazz pieces: I Don’t Wanna Be Lost, featuring the music of the University of Florida gospel choir, and Psalm 150, danced to the sweet sounds of Doc Sevrenson’s horn and band. These gospel-inspired works promise to lift you form your seat.

The show celebrates multiple other forms of dance, from ballet to tap to modern, and features dancers ages 3 through adult. Enjoy Cuddly Ducks, Hippity Hoppity Frogs, by the festival’s youngest performers, sense the drama of the young Black Swan corps de ballet, feel the Flight of unrestrained modern dancers and smile at the flirtatious Java, a ballet piece set to Al Hirt’s trumpet.

General admission tickets are $12, available now or at the door on the day of the performance. For more information or to purchase tickets in advance, please call 239.334.3274.

Our dancers will present two new pieces of choreography in Ballet and Modern Dance. Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker excerpt “Snow”, choreography by Jennifer Reed, is dynamic with a sense of a swelling snow storm and the calm that falls after. Continuing an introspective perspective “Undercurrent”, choreography by Alyce Bochette, is an expression of forces pushing us apart and swirling us together.

Dancers will perform downstairs before and after the Opening Ceremonies for the Art Exhibition – Passion on Paper -which will be upstairs.

The Art of the Olympians building is at 1300 Hendry Street, in downtown Fort Myers.

Edison Festival of Light: Day of Discovery

Saturday, January 29, 2011 | Performance at 1:30pm (arrive by 1:00pm)

• Rockin’ Tap
• Broadway Jazz
• Dancing Elf Tap
• Coppelia Scene–Midnight Waltz

Art of the Olympians: Art Walk

Friday, February 4, 2011 | 5:00-8:00pm

• Prelude
• Snow
• Undercurrent

ArtFest Fort Myers

Saturday, February 5, 2011 | Performance Time 1:00pm

• Charleston Tap
• Rudolphs
• Eskimos
• Lollipops
• Jingle Jazz

Please remember that the studio is closed until Monday, January 3, 2011. We’ll see you next year!

The images are presented as a slideshow–click play and enjoy!

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Alyce Bochette is co-director of Dance Bochette. She spent 20 years touring internationally with dance companies including Mark Morris, May O’Donnell, and Rachel Lampert. For the May 21 event, Bochette will dance one solo piece, “Suspension,” choreographed by May O’Donnell in 1939, with music by Ray Green.

The Bochette Dancers include local dancers Mariquita Anderson, Jennifer Reed, Lynn Vosloo, Kelley Natella, and Gerri Reaves, and the performance features actors Katie Pankow and Jim Brock. Music for the reception and intermission will be performed by pianist Mary Seal.

With collaboration in staging and lighting design by Edison State College theater director, Stuart Brown, Alyce Bochette brings together original music and video by Rodney Woolsey and original poetry by Jim Brock, created specifically for the dance. The performance builds on the theme of salvaging, with modern dance that is accessible, lyrical, vibrant, and whimsical.

Bochette wants her audience to consider the dynamic of salvaging in their own lives, whether it is spiritual, familial, ecological, or nostalgic, in which we seek to reclaim, recover, remember, and even revise our own lives. The event brings together the audience as community. It also affords each of us a little space for personal reflection.

Images from the reception before the performance can be seen on the Fort Myers News Press website. To see images from the performance, click the play button on the slideshow below.

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(Thanks to Robin Cornett for performance images.) Congratulations to Alyce, Stuart, Rodney, Jim, and our dancers on a fine performance!

For tickets, call 239.337.1933.

The songs being performed are:

1. Soda Pop (Jr. Modern)
2. Reaching In (solo)
3. Mazurka (Ballet)
4. Chicken Pox (Beginning Ballet)
5. All That Jazz (Jazz)
6. Inside Out (Sr. Modern)
7. Choo Choo (Tap)
8. Jumpin’ (Tap)

The Stage is across the street from Harborside inline with the boat ramp. The Stage will physically be on Edwards Drive. Performers, please plan on meeting at the stage at 3pm.