SantaFe.com

Moving People Dance Santa Fe (MPD) is Santa Fe’s own cutting-edge dance company and school, creators of inspirational choreography and soul-stirring performances. Moving People Dance is respected for its excellence in training, and passion in performance. MPD presents the Santa Fe Dance Festival each June with local and national dance companies, to showcase the finest in Santa Fe and the world of dance. MPD offers classes for ages 8 through adult, beginner to advanced level, in ballet, jazz, modern, tap, hip hop, salsa, swing, and flamenco.

After years of suffering from rheumatic fever, Neil Ieremia began studying dance in his native country of New Zealand. It wasn’t the physical activity of choice for most boys of Samoan descent, but it ended up being the right one for him. Upon graduating from the Auckland Performing Arts School, Ieremia joined the New Zealand-based Douglas Wright Dance Company. He worked with a number of choreographers before founding his own company, Black Grace, in 1995.

“It’s very interesting that it’s an all-male company,” said Jean-Philippe Malaty, executive director of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, which...

Friday, March 28, 2008
by Emily Van Cleve • Journal Santa Fe

Five of the six dancers who performed with Nrityagram Dance Ensemble at the Lensic in 2006 are returning to town Saturday night to present new work by the troupe’s artistic director, Surupa Sen.

“With age comes experience,” Sen said about her dancers, who are no longer in their teens. “Age informs the work. We begin with technique, but it’s all about the experience and emotion inside and the stories we tell.”

Nrityagram Dance Ensemble’s members specialize in a particular style of Indian dance called Odissi, which originated more than 2,000 years ago in India’s eastern state of Orissa....

Friday, March 28, 2008
by Emily Van Cleve • Journal Santa Fe

Within the ancient art form known as flamenco, many who love it best believe, lies the heartbeat of the entire world. Julia Chacón sensed that inexorable truth early on, as a teenaged ballet student. Extensively trained at the Phoenix School of Ballet, she was also exposed to other forms of dance expression there, including Spanish dance, and took to it immediately. By the age of 16, she was professionally performing with the Artes Bellas company in Phoenix–and she’s never looked back.

When she talks about her passion, this performer, teacher, choreographer and model fairly sings the word...

Saturday, March 1, 2008
by Gail Snyder • localflavor magazine