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Summer Dance at the Center

The ARC Dance Company will open its 19th Season at the Leo Kreielsheimer Theatre with its annual Summer Dance at the Center performances beginning Thursday July 19 and running through Saturday July 28, 2018. Now in its 10th year, the Summer Dance at the Center series has firmly established its reputation as one of Seattles premiere dance events, with its blending of forms between modern dance and classical ballet choreographed and performed by local, national, and international artists. This years program offers a groundbreaking five world premiere pieces by a diverse roster of choreographers and dancers including Bruce McCormick (Seattle, WA - Bavarian State Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens), Wen Wei (Vancouver, B.C.), Jason Ohlberg (Saratoga Springs, NY Hubbard Street Dance Chicago), Marika Brussel (San Francisco, CA Moving Arts SF, SAFEhouse Arts) and Paul Destrooper (Victoria, B.C. Ballet Victoria).

Since 1999 ARC has presented mixed repertory work and specializes in producing a wide variety of dance programming by different choreographers. Marie Chong, Artistic Director, has offered accessible and evocative productions to Seattle audiences for the past 19 years. She has fostered collaborations with other artists, combined aerial dance with classical ballet, and merged various performing arts medias, making ARC Dance a prominent contributor to Seattles dance community.

ARC's annual Summer Dance at the Center has been a Seattle fixture since 2008. The dance performances are intriguing, entertaining, and engaging and take place in the beautiful and intimate Leo K. Theatre. The technical diversity of the dancers combined with the eclectic curating of each program showcases an art form full of surprises and beauty. Come see grace and athleticism in Summer Dance at the Center and be moved through the intimacy of live performance.

Summer Dance at The Center: July 19 - 28, 2018; (Thursday Saturday) at 8:00 p.m. except for one Sunday July 22 performance at 5:00pm
Leo Kreielsheimer Theatre 155 Mercer Street | Seattle, WA 98109
Tickets: $30 in advance; $40 door (Adult), $20 in advance; $30 door (Student/Senior 65+) all reserved seating.

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Marie Chong, Artistic Director and Choreographer (ARC Dance) Marie Chong is an accomplished dancer, director, teacher, and choreographer who has worked in Europe, Asia, Canada, and the US. After her work as a
professional dancer in both classical ballet and contemporary dance with companies such as Pacific Northwest Ballet, Eugene Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, and Spectrum Dance Theater, Chong founded ARC Dance Productions in Seattle in 1999 and opened ARC School of Ballet in 2004. She was the Director of Cirque du Soleils big top touring show KOOZA in Japan and the US and has integrated new artists into additional Cirque du Soleils shows at its headquarters in Montreal. She has also worked with Walt Disney Theatricals as a teaching artist.

Chong is an active and well respected movement choreographer, teacher, mentor, and coach. Her choreography has been critically acclaimed and she continues to produce and be part of creative teams in the entertainment industry globally.

Paul Destrooper, Choreographer, (Artistic and Executive Director Ballet Victoria), gave Victoria a new national cultural voice in dance by presenting and creating ballets with a unique artistic flair. Recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012 and the Paul Harris Award from the Oak Bay Rotary Club in October 2014, Paul brings to Ballet Victoria his extensive experience from a successful international dance career working with world renowned directors, dancers and choreographers. Paul holds a BA from the University of Victoria where he twice received the A. Deloume Scholarship Award. He joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 1993 upon graduating from the school's Professional Division receiving the prestigious Prince Edward Award and the Arnold Spohr Scholarship. He was a principal dancer with Alberta Ballet and Oregon Ballet Theatre.

Paul's choreography focuses on shaping seamless movements from the classical and contemporary vocabularies to reflect musicality and trigger emotion. His work is dramatic, inspiring, physical and often laced with a distinctive sense of humour. He has choreographed over 30 works and eight full-length ballets to glowing reviews from critics and audiences both in Canada and the USA. Paul has created works, taught and coached for professional companies and schools including the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Ballet BC, Ballet Kelowna, Edmonton Citie Ballet, Northwest Professional Dance Project and the Okanagan Summer Dance Intensive.

Bruce McCormick, Choreographer is an assistant professor at the University of Washingtons Dance Program. Before joining the program first in pursuit of his M.F.A., then as faculty, and now as graduate program coordinator his career as a dancer transported him across continents: performing in Europe, the Americas, and touring as widely as Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, and India including residencies with such eminent companies as Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich. I love creating work, McCormick says of a process that is equal parts innovation and instinct. I love the moments of having no idea where Im going, but trusting the process and coming out on the other side and having it make sense in the end.

Marika Brussel, Choreographer is a contemporary choreographer working in the ballet genre. Informed by her background as a fiction writer, she utilizes storytelling in her dance-making. Her work strives to show our inter-connectedness and equity as humans, from country to country, class to class, and generation to generation, while pushing the boundaries of Classical ballet. Her work has explored myths (Black Air-Medea and Cora, Under and Above-Persephone), plays (Mirandas Storm- The Tempest), and personal stories such as Unraveling, a ballet about dementia. From Shadows: A ballet about homelessness, premiered in October 2017, to sold out audiences in San Francisco.

Marika has held residencies at the Dresher Ensemble Residency, Moving Arts SF and SAFEhouse Arts. She has twice been part of ODC's Pilot Project. Her ballets have been commissioned by Bay Pointe Ballet, Emote Dance Theater, Berkeley Ballet Theater, and Ballet Theater of New Mexico. She has shown work at festivals around the country, including West Wave, Brooklyn Ballets First Look, PushFest, Spectordance and SJChoreoFest. Her other awards include a Fleishhacker Opportunity Grant and a grant from The Classical Girl.

Jason Ohlberg, Choreographer, originally from Fresno, California, Ohlberg has danced with numerous companies including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Dance Kaleidoscope, Jan Erkert and Dancers, Wade Madsen and Dancers, and the University of Washingtons Chamber Dance Company. A repertory dancer, Jason has performed an array of works by such diverse choreographers as Mark Morris, Martha Graham, David Hochoy, Twyla Tharp, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Doug Varone, Zvi Gothheiner, Shapiro and Smith, Susan Marshall, and Nacho Duato.

In 1997, Jason founded Same Planet Different World Dance Theatre in Chicago, Illinois where he acted as artistic director and head choreographer for four years. Since then, he has created works throughout the country for companies and festivals including Dance Kaleidoscope, Cornish Dance Theatre, Spectrum Dance Theatre, the Seattle International Dance Festival (SIDF), Against the Grain; Men in Dance, The Seattle Childrens Theatre, Arc Dance Productions, and the Ruth Page Dance Festival. In 2013 Seattle Dance Project named him resident choreographer for the companys sixth season.

Ohlberg has taught extensively at a multitude of professional schools and training programs including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Spectrum Dance Theatre, and the Pacific Northwest Ballet. He has served on the faculties of Barat College, the University of Washington, and Cornish College of the Arts. In 2016 he was appointed Assistant Professor at Skidmore College and currently teaches Ballet III, Modern IV, Pilates, and the Senior Capstone Seminar.

Wen Wei Wang, Choreographer began dancing at an early age in China, where he was born and raised. He trained and danced professionally with the Langzhou Song and Dance Company. In 1991, he came to Canada and joined the Judith Marcuse Dance Company after which he danced with Ballet British Columbia for seven years. Since 2003, he has served as Artistic Director of Wen Wei Dance. Wen Wei is the recipient of many awards such as the 2000 Clifford E. Lee Choreographic Award and the 2006 Isadora Award for Excellence in Choreography (Unbound). In addition to his works for Wen Wei Dance, he has choreographed for the Alberta Ballet, Ballet Jorgen, Dancers Dancing, North West Dance Projects in Portland and, most recently, Vancouver Operas production of Nixon in China.