Monday, May 28th to Friday, June 1st.
Monday only- special guest from Cuba- Arsenio Andrade
Tuesday-Friday- special regular teacher from Toronto- Darryl Tracy
Where – CCDT- 509 Parliament Time – 10:00- 11:30 Class fee – $8 – $10Arsenio Andrade
Born in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba in 1970, Arsenio started Classical Ballet at age 7, and while studying, decided to become a Modern Dancer. He attended the Conservatorio, (National School of Dance in Havana) for 4 years and graduated with his Bachelor Degree in Modern Dance Performance and Teaching. While at the Conservatorio, he received awards for t…he Most Technical Modern dancer of his year and the Most Valuable Dancer. In his final year, he performed with the world-renowned Folklorica Nacional de Cuba, the premier modern/folk company in Cuba.
Arsenio then joined Danza Teatro del Caribe under the artistic direction of Eduardo Rivero Walker (who has received Cuban National honours for his impact on Cuban Modern Dance), where he gained Principal Dancer status and qualification. His dedication to technical development promoted him to Principal Teacher under Eduardo Rivero. He toured with the company to Mexico and Belize.
In 1995 he was invited to Jamaica to join the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica (NDTC) as Principal Dancer, under the then artistic direction of Professor Rex Nettleford. Arsenio has toured with the NDTC to the United States, England, Canada and the Caribbean. He has also choreographed major works for the Company – “Congo Laye” and “Dimensions”, performed on international tours, “Fusion”, “Footprints”, “My Prayer”, “Out of Many”, “Asi Somos” and “Intervalos”. “My Prayer” was mounted for Cuba’s Danza Teatro del Caribe, , and remains in their active repertoire.
Since 1996 until August 2010, Arsenio was a Lecturer in Dance at the Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts – Jamaica School of Dance, a tertiary institution, where he taught Modern Dance, Ballet and Repertory. He choreographed for and was the Artistic Director of the annual Faculty Dance Concerts as well as the performing arm of the School of Dance,DanceWorks.
Arsenio has also taught and choreographed for all the major Jamaican dance companies and groups, in addition to choreographing for Gala Events, such as The Prime Minister’s Awards Ceremony 2000. He was invited to choreograph for the Opening Ceremony of the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2007. He is a natural exponent of the dances of his Cuban heritage and teaches and performs the social dance forms – salsa and meringue.
With his recent move to Canada, Arsenio currently teaches at Ryerson University, COBA, Ballet Creole. In addition, he has taught at and choreographed for Cawthra Park Secondary School and Rosedale Secondary School in Toronto, with a Summer 2011 artistic residency in Suriname, South America. In 2011, Arsenio was invited to choreograph at Ryerson University, producing a major work “Encounters”.
Arsenio is constantly seeking to broaden his horizons in the world of dance, developing his own style of teaching Dance, influenced by every environment in which he has worked and influenced by his international exposure. He has attended international dance festivals, not only to acquire knowledge, but to pass on his experience of strong Modern, Ballet, Afro-Cuban and Caribbean techniques and dance forms. He has attended the Holland Dance Festival in Netherlands as an observer for the past 3 years. Throughout his professional career, he has participated in various Dance conferences and festivals in Cuba, Suriname, Holland, Jamaica, Belize, Mexico, Antigua, United States, where he has also taught master classes and been a guest teacher in some of these countries.
Arsenio’s passion as a teacher and choreographer is to enrich and enhance the experience of his students and the audience respectively at all levels, as well as his own, in his words “Any question? Any answer?”
Darryl C Tracy
Darryl is co-artistic director of Four Chambers dance projects. He has choreographed over 25 works for performing arts programs at universities and schools, and for companies in Toronto, Montreal, New Brunswick, and the US. He is on faculty of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre and Dance-Teq. Darry has taught master classes across Canada, the US and Europe. He has danced with Montreal based Sylvain Émard Danse and has appeared in the work of more than a dozen choreographers including Michael Trent, Holly Small and Heidi Strauss.
I began dancing in my heart at a very young age but more seriously as a professional dancer in my 20′s. Being a dance artist and a neurological physiotherapist, I like to create a class that demands the dancer access to the whole body and mind. For me, class is a time to explore movement necessary for choreographic explorations and for performance work. My center class includes a series of exhilarating movement combinations that develop strength, articulation, balance, control and focus, and that explore the senses and the imagination.
