Uncoupled and Solivagant
I commissioned this piece to two of my mentors and dance teachers from my career thus far to choreograph solos on me: Rose Flachs (Uncoupled, Music: Pushkin Waltz #2) and Joseph Jefferies (Solivagant, Music: Pushkin Waltz #1).
I want to extend the utmost gratitude to my amazing mentors and choreographers Rose Flachs and Joseph Jefferies. I would also like to thank Charles Flachs for his insight as well as Barbie Diewald, Izzy Kalodner, Peter Jones, and Clare Schweitzer for their help throughout this process. I would finally like to thank my family as well as my at home ballet mentors such as Melissa Reed, Jessica Kreyer, and Pavel Gurevich.
Rose Flachs Biography
Rose Marie Flachs is a professor of dance at Mount Holyoke College and the owner and director of the Massachusetts Academy of Ballet. She danced professionally with Nashville Ballet, Ballet West, Louisville Ballet, and the Cincinnati Ballet. She has performed in works by George Balanchine, Choo San Goh, Victoria Simon, Joe Duell, Lester Horton, Peter Anastos,
Paul Taylor, Jose Limón, John Butler, Michael Smuin, and Val Caniparoli as well as principal roles in many classical ballets. She trained extensively with Barbara Fallis, Richard Thomas, and Daniel Levins at the New York School of Ballet and with Margarita DeSaá and John White at the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet. Her students have won medals and scholarships at the
Youth American Grand Prix and the Connecticut Classic Ballet Competitions. Rose is a founding member of the Council of Organized Researchers of Pedagogical Studies (CORPS) de Ballet International Inc.
Joseph Jefferies Biography
Joseph Jefferies is currently on the faculty of Walnut Hill Community Dance Academy and Northeast School of Ballet. He has served as director of Portland Ballet Summer Dance Program and has taught master classes and workshops at ballet schools across the country. Mr. Jefferies is an award-winning choreographer creating over 30 works for companies including Ballet Memphis, Miami City Ballet, Peoria Ballet, Ballet Trockadero, Harid Conservatory, Ballet Yuma, and Walnut Hill School for the Arts. He has won the RDA Emerging Choreographer scholarship twice and had his work selected and performed for New York City’s Ballet Builders Showcase and for the RDA National Convention in Montreal, Canada. As a professional dancer, Joseph was a member of Ballet Memphis dancing the lead roles in Swan Lake, Giselle, Coppelia, and Cinderella. As a member of Les Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carlo, he toured the world performing in over 25 different countries.
Introducing Hannah
Hannah Nagy is from Wenham, Massachusetts where she trained at Boston Ballet School’s North Shore location. While at Mount Holyoke, Hannah has understudied for Margaret Wiss and worked with student choreographers such as Helena Valvur and Sara Demby. She has also spent much of her time supplementing her ballet studies at Massachusetts Academy of Ballet with Rose and Charles Flachs. She will be graduating this year with a BA in Dance and Neuroscience.
Artist statement
My work as a dancer is centered around ballet. In my research, I investigate ballet’s centrality to the dance world and how I see ballet as a universal language. Wherever I go in the world, where ballet is practiced, I can go into a ballet class and feel comforted by its familiarity and structure, and I want to continue to discover the threads of connection that can be found within this dance style’s community. Ballet, as a style of dance, is foundational: it gives me a knowledge of how my body works and relates to the established language which can be used in a variety of ways in both technique classes and choreographic processes. I find the rigor and intensity of ballet technique to be inspiring and motivating for me to continually develop as a dancer.I return to ballet because it is stabilizing, it allows me to channel my emotions into my body and express myself in a way that words have never been able to for me. Technique and musicality are key to my work as a dancer. They conjoin in purposefully motivated movement with the connection between my dancing and the music as one that is continually inspired and felt deeply within my movement as I dance (or interpret choreography). Along with my research about the universality of ballet, I examine the influence of the music on the work and dancers as well as examining the perspective of the musicians or composers.
