Thank you to everyone who dared to come and watch the frightening, “Phantoms and Phobias” show this weekend! We had two sold-out performances and fantastic matinee crowds as well! We sincerely thank our choreographers, dancers, staff, and volunteers for their help and hard work! Great show everybody! Special thanks to Rebecca Stockert for the cover art and Larry Kenner for his amazing photos! Be sure to check those out! The DVD of this performance will be available in a few weeks for just $20. Call 424-6574 or stop by the FWDC to pre-order yours today!
FWDC will be having a Bring a Friend Week, October 19-26. During this week if you bring a friend to the FWDC they get to take a class with you for FREE! In return, IF THEY SIGN UP for classes, you receive 10% off your next session of classes! What a deal! Limit for the amount of friends you may bring to class is one per student. This includes ALL of our classes: teen/adult, parent/child, and child. So please, bring a friend to Yoga, Pilates, Ballet, Belly, Modern, Creative Movement, etc. Lets introduce as many people as we can to the Fort Wayne Dance Collective, and the wonderful things we do here!
Fort Wayne Dance Collective is looking for a high-energy, hard-working intern who isn’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and get down to business. We are seeking lovers of the arts, dance, wellness and the wonderful work we do here at the FWDC. Some of the responsibilities for this position will include: event planning and management, marketing and public relations in the non-profit sector. This person will work closely with Liz Monnier, Artistic Director, Alison Gerardot, Outreach Director and Jarin Hart, Managing Director in continuously growing and developing this unique organization.
Our mission at the FWDC is to provide people of all ages and abilities a respectful environment to learn, collaborate and perform using movement, rhythm and language. If you share our passion, please apply at http://www.indianaintern.net/ today! You must apply at Indiana INTERNnet for this position. Applicants must be currently enrolled in college.
The internship will last October-May and will require 10 hours per week. This position will require daytime, some evening and weekend commitment. Oh, by the way, did we mention this internship is PAID? You will receive $10 per hour, while working in a fun, friendly, artsy environment and you can have all the FREE buttery, popcorn you can digest! (Fort Wayne Cinema Center is located in the same building). So what are you waiting for? The Deadline for applications is Sunday, October 2.
Fort Wayne Taiko, a program of Fort Wayne Dance Collective is pleased to present the fifth annual Knock on Wood performance on Saturday, November 12, 2011 at 7 p.m. The performance will be held at the Allen County Public Library’s Auditorium, located at 900 Library Plaza in downtown Fort Wayne.
Knock on Wood will feature a thunderous performance performed by a passionate, diverse group of local talent. The collection of songs will include traditional and contemporary taiko drumming pieces as well as original compositions featuring chants, body percussion, language and dance. Don’t miss this teeth rattling, one-of-a-kind performance!
Call (260) 424-6574 or email info@fwdc.org for more information or to purchase tickets.
Music Together® is an internationally recognized early childhood music program for infants, toddlers,
preschoolers, kindergartners, and the adults who love them. First offered to the public in 1987,
it pioneered the concept of a research-based, developmentally appropriate early childhood music
curriculum that strongly emphasizes and facilitates adult involvement.
Music Together classes are based on the recognition that all children are musical. All children can learn
to sing in tune, keep a beat, and participate with confidence in the music of our culture, provided that
their early environment supports such learning. By emphasizing actual music experiences rather than
concepts about music, Music Together introduces children to the pleasures of making music instead of
passively receiving it from CDs or TV.
Central to the Music Together approach is that young children learn best from the powerful role models
of parents/caregivers who are actively making music. The program brings families together by providing
a rich musical environment in the classroom and by facilitating family participation in spontaneous
musical activity at home within the context of daily life.
Just a reminder to all that our 10- week fall session of Music Together starts September 7 and 8 and takes place Wednesdays from 6:15 – 7 p.m. and Thursdays from 11-11:45 a.m. with Allison Ballard. Classes are held at the Fort Wayne Dance Collective in the Tyler Studio.
Prices are $135 for 10 weeks for a parent with one child*
$90 for each additional child (Additional children who are younger than 8 months are free.) 
Registration fee is $10 per family new to FWDC.
*Includes materials: a book, 2 CD set, Music Together guide and newsletter
Call the Fort Wayne Dance Collective at 260.424.6574 for more information and to register, or email info@fwdc.org. Check out the web at www.musictogether.com to learn more about this internationally recognized program.
What a blast! We had so much fun performing last Saturday! Fort Wayne Taiko delivered another stellar performance, and the Fort Wayne Dance Collective danced beautifully to live local musicians. Special thanks to choreographers: Liz Monnier, Alison Gerardot, Erlinda Wall, and Britney Tun as well as dancers: Kelly Holt, Kara Wilson, Erlinda Wall, Liz Monnier, Jordyn Rigler, and Miranda Bearman. We would also like to thank our musicians Mike Conley, Sunny Taylor Berry, Erik Möllberg and Bray Coughlin, and live artists Diane Gaby and Patricia Crawford for contributing their talents. FWDC loves doing collaborations and is so thrilled to have the opportunity to work with such amazing and talented people. We also want to thank the Downtown Improvement District for asking us to collaborate with them in doing a flash mob for Busker Square and thanks to End Times Spasm Band for providing such fun dance music! Thanks to everyone for your support and we hope to see you all September 7th as we kick off our Fall 2011 semester! Below are some photos of the Fort Wayne Taiko and FWDC performances as well as the flash mob during End Times Spasm Band’s energetic performance.
Just show up in front of the Arts United Center at 4:45 p.m. and we’ll fill you in on the experiment. It will be an improvisation at the end of FWDC’s scheduled performance at 5:00 p.m. on the Arts United Stage, “Circle of Art.”
Directions will be given to (for example) run and freeze, fast and slow, sharp and smooth, be invisible etc.
Wear something comfortable and colorful (no words on clothes please). Wear shoes as we are dancing on bricks.
We also need people to play simple percussion instruments, hand drums, egg shakers,bells etc.
We’ll perform at approximately 5:30. p.m.
Questions? call Liz 424-6574 or email liz@fwdc.org
Here is the flash mob routine demonstrated step by step by Alison Gerardot. You may access the routine through the link posted below, or just click on the Youtube symbol located on the upper right corner of the page (to the left of the Facebook symbol) to access our FWDC Youtube channel. Please reference this video and learn the steps for the flash mob. We can’t wait to see you all perform at our surprise location!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SPAcDzyCZg
Wow! What a whirl-wind this summer has been. We’re already into the second week of August, which is hard to believe. Summer classes are coming to an end next week, the Dances of Universal Peace weekend retreat with special guest leader, Allaudin Ottinger has come and gone leaving our spirits tuned. The Summer Intensive week is over, but has left us inspired and ready begin a new semester. Though we were sad to see Allaudin Ottinger and Selene Carter go, the inspiration, motivation and knowledge they shared with us will surely help us all grow as dancers and as people. Take a look at some of the photos from the Summer Intensive week and our informal showing.
It may not feel like fall outside, but believe me it is rapidly approaching! We have added several new classes this Fall such as: Orff-Music Making for Children, Viyasa Flow Yoga, Zumba and Adult Continuing Jazz Technique! We have also expanded our Creative Movement, Dance Sampler, and Beginning Adult Ballet classes to better accommodate these growing class sizes. We are THRILLED to introduce new teachers this Fall: Lauren Hoyt will be teaching Zumba, Lindsey Helmer will be teaching Pilates Mat & Toning, Mary Newell will be teaching Vinyasa Flow Yoga, FWDC Touring Company performer, Brittney Coughlin, will be teaching Adult Continuing Jazz Technique, FWDC Outreach Director, Alison Gerardot, will be teaching Advanced Dance Sampler IV, FWDC Fort Wayne Taiko member will be teaching Youth Taiko and our new Beginning Adult Ballet and Dance Sampler I teacher Joellen Wojtowicz! Welcome to FWDC! Stay tuned to our fwdc.org website as we are preparing to update our Teachers section in the very near future. Exciting things to come at the FWDC this Fall. See you September 7th!
The Fort Wayne Dance Collective is funded in part by