Updates from Summer Intensive at CDT

As the Columbus Dance Theatre Summer Intensive comes to a close, Darion Smith looks at some of the challenges and accomplishments that marked the experience for the students, and for him.

“It was a fun challenge teaching a piece that I created for six dancers to twenty one dancers,” says Smith. He explains how working with a prop that the dancers helped to create contributed to making the experience even more engaging for them.

For Smith, he got to have a fresh look at a work he created almost exactly one year ago.

“I could see new possibilities to explore in the future,” he says. Of the dancers who attended the Summer Intensive, Smith says, “they were very dedicated, passionate, hardworking.”

Students will perform Ript Dash on Friday, June 14 at the CDT theater in a culminating performance of the 2019 Summer Intensive Program.

Reuniting with Old Friends to Promote Dance Education

Janusphere Artistic Director Darion Smith is in Columbus, Ohio, teaching in Columbus Dance Theatre's Summer Intensive program. Darion says “I am enthusiastic to work with the new leadership of CDT.”

The positive new direction at CDT includes working with new leadership, both of whom have connections to Janusphere Dance Company. The new Columbus Dance Theatre Artistic Director Seth Wilson is a former JDC dancer and the new Executive Director is Jaime Kotrba, a JDC co-founder and former JDC dancer.

Darion, Seth and Jaime met at Dance Theatre of Harlem's DTH Ensemble in 2002 and have shared a commitment to creating dance works and promoting dance education for the next generation of students and performers.

As an instructor at this year’s Summer Intensive, Darion is teaching a selection of technique and choreography , pas de deux, modern, variations, ballet technique, and repertory, each day. Over the course of their time in the program, students will grow in skill and creativity, and explore new concepts.

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