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Ad ran in The Daily Oklahoma—03.16.2008 |
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PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release
Prairie Dance Theatre Celebrates 30th Anniversary with F.D. Moon and Thelma Parks Students
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma -March 26, 2008 - On April 5, 2008, Prairie Dance Theatre (PDT), a local nonprofit that provides free dance instruction to children from F.D. Moon Academy and Thelma Parks Elementary, will celebrate its 30th Anniversary with a revival performance of Night Hawk’s Dream - an original dance piece choreographed by PDT founder and board member Beth Shumway. PDT was incorporated in 1978 as Oklahoma’s first professional modern dance company. The organization consisted of professionally trained dancers and toured throughout Oklahoma and a ten-state region performing Native American and Southwestern style dances for sophisticated arts patrons. In the early 1990s, PDT created an original series of concerts and workshops that catered specifically to children. The tremendous success of the children’s program led to PDT’s gradual transformation from a professional dance company to a dance education organization for children. In 2003, Artistic Director Tonya Kilburn was hired to develop a dance-based performing arts curriculum for children 7 - 12 years of age and in the fall of that year, PDT began teaching dance to Oklahoma City schoolchildren who did not have access to private dance lessons.
Based in northeast Oklahoma City, PDT offers beginning and advanced dance lessons. PDT’s flagship program is called Prairie Dance Experience or "Experience". "Experience" classes are currently offered twice-a-week to beginning dancers on an after-school basis at Thelma Parks Elementary School and F.D. Moon Academy. Standouts of "Experience" are then invited to join the Youth Company, where students interested in advanced level instruction are taught increasingly technical aspects of modern dance and ballet. Youth Company classes are taught on weekends at Science Museum Oklahoma, where PDT’s office and dance studio are located. Performances by PDT students are offered through a variety of public venues throughout the year.
PDT was awarded a $5000 grant from the Oklahoma Arts Council to fund its 30th Anniversary program, preparation for which has entailed an entire semester of dance instruction devoted specifically to this performance. The main feature of the anniversary program - Night Hawk’s Dream - is a modern-day allegory loosely based on the Lakota tradition of the vision quest. The dancers tell the story of a melancholy girl named Night Hawk, who embarks upon a quest to learn the meaning of her dreams and her place in society. Since the piece was originally created for a professional dance company by PDT founder Beth Shumway, Kilburn was challenged to modify the complex choreography so that it could be performed by children without compromising the integrity of the original work. According to Kilburn, Shumway generously donated her time and energy to the anniversary project, locating film of the original performance and lending her expertise as needed.
Although dance is its mainstay, PDT has developed innovative ways to integrate a variety of arts disciplines and self-improvement programs into its curriculum. Students are required to keep journals to encourage creative thinking and expression. In conjunction with preparing for past shows,PDT students have received acting lessons and instruction on how to play traditional African instruments. They have also had the opportunity to design their own costumes and stage sets for performances. PDT recently received a $4300 grant from the Oklahoma City Community Foundation’s “Get Moving OKC” initiative to help fund an original dance-inspired fitness curriculum developed by Kilburn for second graders at Thelma Parks Elementary School. She is assisted by the Physical Education instructor from Thelma Parks as well as University of Central Oklahoma Physical Education student interns.
PDT has plans to expand its dance and fitness curriculum to schools throughout the OKC metro area and eventually statewide. In preparation, Kilburn recently attended a training workshop at the National Dance Institute in New York City. The institute was founded by Jacques d’Amboise, protégé of the world-renowned Russian choreographer George Ballanchine. National Dance Institute has a mission and curriculum strikingly similar to that of PDT but functions on a much larger scale - serving approximately 3500 children. PDT plans to become a formal affiliate of NDI with the hope that it will enable PDT to increase its capacity to effectively serve more children in the near future.
PDT’s 30th Anniversary gala will be held at 2 p.m. on April 5, 2008 at the Eleanor Maurer Auditorium located in the Science Museum of Oklahoma (formerly known as the Omniplex). A Reception will be held immediately following the performance. The performance and reception are free and open to the public. For further information, please call the PDT office at (405) 424-2249 or visit www.prairiedanceokc.org. # # # Contact: Kari Y. Hawkins, Esq. Vice-President, Board of Trustees Prairie Dance Theatre, Inc. (405) 210-0891
NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release - March 11, 2008
Prairie Dance Theatre receives $4300 grant from Oklahoma City Community Foundation
Oklahoma City, OK - Prairie Dance Theatre (PDT) is pleased to announce that it has received a $4300 grant from the Oklahoma City Community Foundation and its Get Moving OKC! initiative.
This grant will be used to assist in funding a healthy lifestyles curriculum designed by the Artistic Director of PDT which will allow the organization to enhance its level of commitment to its target community in a very unique way.
“The implications of this grant are significant for the population we proudly serve, which is primarily African-American. Health concerns that plague our community include diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and obesity,” notes PDT Board Vice-President Kari Hawkins. “I’ve witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of these conditions, all of which are manageable with diet and exercise. Unfortunately, children are succumbing to these health crises at an alarming rate. Thanks to the support of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, we are on the road to breaking the cycle of preventable chronic illness with health education and fitness training.”
In conjunction with the Get Moving OKC! grant, Tonya Kilburn, PDT’s extremely talented and versatile Artistic Director, has designed an original dance-inspired fitness curriculum for second graders at Thelma Parks Elementary School. Tonya is assisted by students from the Department of Kinesiology and Health Studies at the University of Central Oklahoma as well as the Physical Education instructor from Thelma Parks. Each class begins with warm ups designed to build strength, endurance and coordination. The remainder of the class is spent teaching various forms of cardiovascular-intense dance technique including Russian folk, jazz, ballet and modern dance.
The curriculum is cumulative, so it is designed to become progressively difficult as the children’s coordination and stamina improve. The instructor uses software specially designed for fitness programs to measure the physiological progress of each child. The students participating in this program will have the opportunity to showcase their newly acquired skills during a year-end assembly at Thelma Parks Elementary School in May of 2008.
PDT was founded in 1978 as a professional modern dance company. Beginning in the 1990s, a growing emphasis was placed on children’s shows and workshops. In 2003, PDT formally shifted from being a professional dance company to a dance education institution for underserved children.
PDT dance courses are currently taught at F.D. Moon Academy and Thelma Parks Elementary School on an after-school basis. Get Moving OKC! classes are taught to second graders at Thelma Parks Elementary School three times a week during the school day. However, this program has been so successful that PDT hopes to have the capacity to expand the curriculum to include more schools in the future.
Founded in 1969, the Oklahoma City Community Foundation manages more than $540 million in assets and is ranked as one of the largest community foundations in the country. The Oklahoma City Community Foundation works with donors and organizations to create endowments that address needs and opportunities within the community. Grants are awarded through the Community Grants Program three times a year to metropolitan area charitable organizations. For more information about the Oklahoma City Community Foundation and its Community Grants Program, visit www.occf.org.
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Contact: Kari Y. Hawkins, Esq. 405-210-0891 kariyhawkins@aol.com |
