Local Students Train with National Dance Professionals at the NORD/NOBA Center for Dance Summer Intensive

Local Students Train with National Dance Professionals at the

NORD/NOBA Center for Dance Summer Intensive

Program culminates with joint performance by students, local artists, and TU Dance

New Orleans, LA – The NORD/NOBA Center for Dance (CFD), a cultural community partnership of the New Orleans Recreation Department and the New Orleans Ballet Association, in collaboration with Friends of NORD began its annual Summer Intensive dance program on July 6 at Tulane University’s McWilliams Hall.This year’s program features residencies by former dancers from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem and Pilobolus. 

The Summer Intensive is an extension of the Center for Dance’s pre-professional program that allows 50 dance students ages 9-18 to train alongside local and guest artists for four weeks. To qualify for the program, students must have at least two years of ballet training and are selected by audition in the spring.  

“NOBA's ongoing dedication to the NORD/NOBA Center For Dance and their passion for enhancing the lives of our children have been critical to the tremendous success and national recognition of this program," said Vic Richard, Director of NORD.  "We're excited to continue this partnership with NOBA and to be a part of the creativity, discipline, and imagination of our youth as they are given the opportunity and access to truly explore the arts.” 

This year’s guest artist faculty includes Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri Sands, former dancers with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and co-founders of the TU Dance Company; Christina Johnson, former Principal Dancer from Dance Theatre of Harlem and currently rehearsal director forComplexions Contemporary Ballet and Armitage Gone! Dance; and Tamieca McCloud ofPilobolus. The diversity in style and training of the guest artists in this year’s Summer Intensive represents a unique opportunity for artists, students, and audiences in the New Orleans area to celebrate the excellence and outstanding repertoire of both classic and new works. 

“The camp provides an opportunity for dance students in New Orleans to receive technique and choreography training from a high caliber of guest and local artists,” said Chara Mock, NOBA Education Coordinator. “The CFD strives to offer students with a demonstrated talent an accessible opportunity to intensively train with some of the best teachers possible.”

For more than a decade, the summer intensive has trained students throughout the community, and for the second consecutive year, the program has increased to four levels to support the demand. “The artists are not only working with our Senior Level students, but our young dancers as well. It’s not often that students at a beginner level and as young as nine years old receive the opportunity to work with such high level of teaching artists,” said Mock. Past guest artists have included Urban Bush Women, Pascal Rioult, choreographers Thaddeus Davis and Tanya Wideman-Davis, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Luna Negra Dance Theatre, PerksDanceMusicTheatre, and Urban Ballet Theatre. All of the current and past guest and local artists have a deeply rooted commitment to working with youth that is core to their company’s and personal mission.

The Summer Intensive program is offering many distinct choreographic voices that will culminate in a performance by the students of the works that they have learned in addition to performances by guest artists Toni and Uri Sands from TU Dance, on Friday, July 30, 6:30 pm at Dillard University’s Cook Auditorium. Tickets for the performance are $6, and are available by calling NOBA at 504.522.0996.