Walltown Dance Instructor
Barbara Dickinson
Modern Dance
Professor Emerita of the Practice of Dance at Duke University, Barbara served as teacher for 34 years, and as Dance Program Director for eighteen years, overseeing faculty growth, guiding the focus of a greatly expanded curriculum, and establishing a major in dance. Barbara is a modern dance artist, trained extensively in the Cunningham and Limón techniques and in ballet, as well as training in African dance. She has created many large scale, full evening collaborative choreographic works including Walking Miracles, an original dance/theater production based on the stories of six survivors of child sexual abuse; and Contents Under Pressure, an exploration of the many faces of bias in society co-choreographed with Ava LaVonne Vinesett. In addition to over 100 individual works of choreography, she has choreographed a number of full evening works such as Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, performed with the combined choirs of the Duke University Chorale and the Durham Civic Choral Society directed and conducted by Rodney Wynkoop; and with vocal soloists, Metropolitan Opera's Louise Wohlafka and Frankfurt Opera's Nickolas Karousatos. Barbara was the Founder and Artistic Director of the Ways and Means Dance Company from 1986-2002, and of Three For All, a company of dancer, poet, and pianist from 1981-87. She was a member of Manbites Dog Theater, a professional experimental theater company based in Durham, NC, from its founding in 1987 to its closing some 35 years later, serving as actress, choreographer, and movement consultant. Since the 1970’s she has performed, taught and presented her choreography in numerous concerts, master classes and workshops in schools, colleges, private studios and dance festivals throughout the United States. Her current research interest is age and the dance artist which has produced a chapter in Staging Age, eds. Marshall and Lipscomb by Palgrave Macmillan, 2010; and “Margie Gillis: The Indelible Art of an Integrated Artist” in Dance Chronicle, 41:2, 2018. Currently, as well as teaching at Walltown Children’s Theatre, she is part of Michael Kliën’s Social Choreography Group, and is researching Ballet and logos for an upcoming article.
Modern
*no Modern classes this session)
Choreo / Performance
Technique & Performance Lab
|
Mondays
5:30-6:30 (Open Ages ~ Company) |
This new class will help raise the level of technique and performance in our aspiring artists.
Students will bring into class a phrase or dance that they are working on or have already performed. If they don’t have one, the instructor will teach them a phrase. The coaching will often be one on one, so there will be time to study how a student responds to comments and develops the movement from those comments. Some of the class time might be spent working on comments students have been given by other instructors. It is important that students understand that clarity of technique is critical for clarity of performance. Because of that, the instructor will be emphasizing technical corrections as necessary. |
Schedule coming soon . . .
