IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Rosemary Johnson
April 16, 2009 205.602.3599
rmw@mindspring.com

SOUTHERN DANCEWORKS MAKES GUEST APPEARANCE AT BSC MAY DANCE CONCERT

May 2 at the Birmingham-Southern College Theatre

BIRMINGHAM Choreographer Teri Weksler, Artistic Director of Southern Danceworks, and composers Karen Bentley Pollick and John Scalici will present a work-in-progress, “pre-premiere” of their new collaborative work as guest artists at the Birmingham-Southern College Dance Departments May Dance Concert on Saturday, May 2 at 7:00 PM. The program will also feature 10 student choreography pieces presented by Birmingham-Southern College dance students. Admission is free and seating is on a first-come, first served basis. Patrons are encouraged to arrive early.

Dancers Mary Margaret Scalici, Jamorris Rivers, Gauen Alexander, and Roger Van Fleteren, Associate Artistic Director of the Alabama Ballet, will appear in the work.The composition team blended viola, violin, and a variety of percussion instruments along with the use of electronics to create a score that will be performed live onstage with the dancers. Teri Weksler, Karen Pollick, and John Scalici are 2008 Grants to Individual Artists Award Winners and acknowledge the support provided for this commissioning project by the Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham. This project has also been made possible by grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

My work with Southern Danceworks has always focused on doing collaborations with many local arts organizations and artists, comments Weksler. My goals as an artist have always been to increase awareness and interest in the field of modern dance, to raise the level of dance, and to work with live music in as many collaborative projects as possible.

Although Weksler has choreographed a duet with percussionist John Scalici and has choreographed to Pollicks delightful music from her CD Ariel View, this is the first time that they have worked in a three-way collaboration to create both music and choreography. All three have extensive backgrounds in their respective disciplines.

A graduate of the Juilliard School, Teri Weksler danced in the companies of 5 by 2, Hannah Kahn, Daniel Lewis, and Jim Self, in repertory including works by renowned choreographers Anna Sokolow, Paul Taylor, Doris Humphrey, Jose Limon, and Pilobolus. She received a New York Dance and Performance Award or “Bessie” for “..a career of virtuosic dancing.” in 1984. She has appeared with the Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Dallas Civic Opera, and was Prima Ballerina with the Rome Opera Ballet in a Phillip Glass-Robert Wilson production, “the civil wars.” Ms. Weksler was a founding and prominent member of the Mark Morris Dance Group, touring and teaching all over the world from 1980-1990, and then as guest performer with the company in later years in the Jacobs Pillow and Edinborough Festivals. As assistant to Mr. Morris, she worked on projects including the Sundance Institute with Ballet West, London Contemporary Dance, and Les Grandes Ballets Canadiens. After moving to Birmingham, Alabama, she was invited to dance with Baryshnikovs White Oak Dance Project, a company of “the worlds best modern dancers.”

This past year, Weksler was guest artist at Miami New World School of the Arts, Boston Ballet, and Concord Academy. The Mark Morris Dance Group asked Ms. Weksler to perform in the new Romeo and Juliet created by Mr. Morris, which premiered at Bard College in July 2008, and toured 10 cities worldwide. This past summer was her fifth year at Summer Stages, “one of the leading dance programs in the country,” under the direction of former Twyla Tharp dancers Amy Spencer and Richard Colton, which includes classes at the Boston Ballet. Weksler is on the faculty at Birmingham-Southern College and the Alabama Ballet, where she will choreograph her sixth work for the company in their 2009-2010 season.

Karen Bentley Pollick has performed as violinist with Paul Dreshers Electro-Acoustic Ensemble since 1999. She performs a wide range of solo repertoire and styles on violin, viola, piano, and Norwegian hardangerfele. A native of Palo Alto, California, she was concertmaster and conductor of the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra and studied with Camilla Wicks in San Francisco. While attending Indiana University she studied violin with Yuval Yaron, Josef Gingold and Rostislav Dubinsky and graduated with Bachelors and Masters of Music Degrees in Violin Performance.

Pollick was concertmaster of the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 1984 and has participated in the June in Buffalo and Wellesley Composers Conferences. She has performed in recital at the American Academy of Rome, throughout the Czech Republic in the 2007 and 2008 American Spring Festivals and in England at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. She has appeared as soloist with Redwood Symphony in the world premiere of Swedish composer Ole Saxes Dance Suite for Violin and Orchestra, the Alabama Symphony and orchestras in Panama, Russia, Alaska, New York and California. Recent collaborations have been with Louisiana State University cellist Dennis Parker, Russian pianist/composer Ivan Sokolov, Emory University pianist William Ransom, the Seattle Chamber Players, the Ensemble for the Romantic Century and appearances at the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival and Cutting Edge Concerts in New York City. With Australian pianist Lisa Moore, Pollick formed the duo Prophet Birds and toured during the spring 2009 in Birmingham, New York City and Los Angeles in a program of duos by John Adams, Sam Adams, Martin Bresnick, and Paul Dresher.

John Scalici is an internationally recognized drum circle facilitator, speaker, musician, clinician, and master teaching artist. He has brought his dynamic, uplifting programs to Asia as well as the United States. His powerful message of Unity Through Rhythm has been featured at college campuses, churches, corporate events, elementary and high school classrooms and throughout the health care industry.

John is a member of the Society for Arts in Healthcare and the Percussive Arts Society Recreational Music Making committee. He is a contributing writer to Percussive Notes and the Society for Arts in Healthcare Newsletter. John is an artist/endorser for Remo Drum Company and Vic Firth Drumstick Company.

John has been a founding member of two national touring bands, Gravy and junkyardmen. In 1999 junkyardmen were considered one of the best live blues bands in the U.S. by Blues Revue and Blues Access Magazine. John still performs and records with many local and national musicians and has released two independently produced CDs: RhythmMusic and Rhythms for Drumming and Movement.

In 2000, John founded Get Rhythm! , a company which combines his passion for drumming with his background in Communications. His company has presented dynamic rhythm-based programs for YWCA, NBC Bank, National Association of Music Merchants, Childrens Health Services, Knowledge Learning Corporation, University of Alabama, Lynn University, Birmingham Museum of Art, Allstate Insurance, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Big Brothers Big Sisters, American Cancer Society, United Way, and many others.