guest artist series: bill evans
GUEST ARTIST SERIES: BILL EVANS
75th Birthday Tour
FEB 20 + 21 / 7:30PM
Velocity Founders Theater 1621 12th Ave
– Walter Terry, Saturday Review
“Witty, economical, and precise.”
– Don McDonough, The New York Times
PHOTO JIM DUSEN
As part of our 20th anniversary season, Velocity is thrilled to bring Seattle Dance legend BILL EVANS, performing his 75th Birthday (year) Solo Concert, with guest artist Don Halquist, and special guests Christian Swenson (SAT+SUN) and Wade Madsen (SUN).
Guggenheim Fellow Bill Evans‘ is an internationally known performer and choreographer of modern dance and rhythm tap dance, as well as an artistic director, administrator, movement analyst, speaker and writer. His national 75th Birthday tour brings Evans back to Seattle where his influential Bill Evans Dance Company (1975-1983) put Seattle Dance on the national map. Having toured to all 50 states, Mexico and Canada, Evans also brought influential dance artists Wade Madsen, Shirley Jenkins, Kitty Daniels (recent Cornish Dance Chair) and On the Boards co-founder Peggy Hackney to Seattle.
Evans has created more than 275 works for more than 65 professional companies throughout the world, and is a recognized master of American Tap, voted one of the “three top world tap artists” by Dance Magazine. Evans founded the Bill Evans Summer Institute of Dance in 1977, training thousands of students including generations of educators who shaped Seattle dance. He received an honorary doctorate from Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts.
>> Learn more at billevansdance.org.
SPECIAL EVENTS
SPEAKEASY SERIES: THREE GENERATIONS – RECENT HISTORIES OF DANCE IN SEATTLE
SUN FEB 21 / 5-6PM
Velocity Founders Theater 1621 12th Ave
FREE + open to all
Seattle Dance legends Bill Evans and KT Niehoff are joined by Seattle dance historian and dance critic Sandi Kurtz, to share their eye-witness accounts of three generations of Seattle dance history. Hosted by Tonya Lockyer.
// SPECIAL OFF-SITE WORKSHOP! //
BILL EVANS SEATTLE DANCE TEACHER WORKSHOP
SAT FEB 20 / 1-3PM + 3:15-4:45PM
SUN FEB 21 / 10AM-12PM + 12:30-2PM
Creative Dance Center 12577 Densmore Ave N
REGISTER ONLINE OR CALL 206.363.7281
REGISTER BY JAN 31 FOR EARLY BIRD PRICING!
Early Bird One Day: $75 / Early Bird Two Day: $150
After JAN 31, One Day: $85 / After JAN 31, Two Day: $170
SAT FEB 20
1:00-3:00PM // Bartenieff Fundamentals & Laban-Based Dance Technique with Bill Evans
3:15-4:45PM // Developing a Personal Pedagogy of Dance Technique with Don Halquist
SUN FEB 21
10:00AM-12:00PM // Bartenieff Fundamentals & Laban-Based Dance Technique with Bill Evans
12:30-2:00PM // Developing a Personal Pedagogy of Dance Technique with Don Halquist
BARTENIEFF FUNDAMENTALS AND LABAN-BASED DANCE TECHNQIUE
William “Bill” Evans has been guiding dancers into more deeply embodied dancing through the application of Bartenieff Fundamentals to dance technique, for 40 years. He will share some of the patterns that he has found most useful at the beginning of these sessions. He has been coaching dancers on become more dynamic, expressive and spatially clear through the application of Laban’s Effort and Space theories to dance technique for just as long. He will share two model classes of his work, including extended dancing phrases as culminating experiences.
DEVELOPING A PERSONAL PEDAGOGY OF DANCE TECHNIQUE
Don Halquist is a dance educator who has pioneered the application of Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences theory to the teaching of dance technique for the past two decades. He has also applied other teaching and learning theories to the teaching of dance. He will share some of his strategies and give participants a chance to apply them during these sessions.
about the artists
WILLIAM “BILL” EVANS was born on April 11, 1940. He is artistic director of the Bill Evans Dance Company (based in Seattle, then Albuquerque and then Rochester, New York), which celebrated its 40th anniversary in April, 2014. It has performed in all 50 states, throughout Mexico and Canada, and in 22 other countries. It was among the most-booked companies in the U.S. for several years under the Dance Touring and Artist-in-the-Schools Programs of the National Endowment for the Arts. William founded the Evans Rhythm Tap Ensemble in 1992. He was formerly one of three artistic coordinators, a choreographer and a dancer for Utah’s Repertory Dance Theatre, for which he has created 19 works, including a commissioned work to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary. He was formerly artistic director of Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers and has served as an annual guest artist with the School of Contemporary Dancers Professional Program for the past two decades.
The Evans School and Company were based at Dance Theatre Seattle on 19th Avenue East, Capitol Hill, from 1976 through 1983. During that time BEDCO was the fifth largest performing arts organization in Washington State. It performed frequently at Meany Hall and the Seattle Center Playhouse. The company was in also residence in the Dance Program at the University of Washington, where Evans was a visiting professor. Dancers came from all over the U.S. to study with Evans and his company, and many of them remained and became significant contributors to the modern dance scene in Seattle. Former BEDCO members still living in Seattle include Rachel Brumer, Larry Byrne, Kitty Daniels, Shirley Jenkins, Wade Madsen, Debbie Poulsen, John Vadino (lighting/production), Llory Wilson and Christian Swenson.
Evans has choreographed more than 275 works for more than 60 professional companies throughout the world and been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship, numerous grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and more than 75 other awards from public and private arts agencies in the U.S. and Canada. He received the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and two Awards for Excellence in Dance from the Albuquerque Arts Alliance. He was voted one of the three favorite world tap dance artists in the Dance Magazine Readers Poll. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Dance Guild in New York City and the Dance Educator of Year Award from the New York State Dance Education Association. He was awarded Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the National Dance Education Organization and Dance Teacher Magazine. He received the Outstanding Service Award from the National High School Dance Festival, was named National Dance Association Scholar/Artist and is one of the first three honorary members of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science. He received the distinguished dance alumnus award from the University of Utah and is the 2016 choreography fellow of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.
His most significant life’s work has been as a dance educator. He is currently a professor of dance and artist in residence at Dean College in Franklin, Massachusetts. He is professor of dance emeritus the State University of New York College at Brockport and distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Utah. He founded the Bill Evans Summer Institute of Dance in 1977 and has taught thousands of students and teachers in the past four decades. He created the Evans Method of Teaching Modern Dance Technique, which is disseminated through a four-summer certification program.
He earned BA and MFA degrees from the University of Utah and is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst. He received an Honorary Doctorate from Cornish College of the Arts.
His book, Reminiscences of a Dancing Man: A Photographic Journey of a Life in Dance, was published in 2005.
www.billevansdance.org
DON HALQUIST is the dean of the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development at Rhode Island College in Providence. He was formerly chair of the Department of Education and Human Development at The College at Brockport, State University of New York. He has been the life partner of William Evans for 30 years (and his legal husband since 2009) and has danced in the Evans Company since 1985. He has taught the Evans Dance Technique in summer intensive workshops for 28 years and also at the University of New Mexico, The College at Brockport and in master classes throughout the North America and Europe.
insights
WATCH Promo Video / Interview – “Bill Evans Tap Dance.” Shaw TV Winnipeg. May 22, 2015.
PRESS
READ Review – But…Can He Tap? RDT’s “Bill Evans, 75!” Anne Poore. 15 BYTES. April 2, 2015.
READ Feature – Why I Dance: Bill Evans. Dance Magazine. August 16, 2011.
READ Feature – Technique: Lifetime Achievement Honoree Bill Evans. Jenny Dalzell. Dance Teacher Magazine. July 1, 2010.
This presentation of Bill Evan’s 75th Birthday Tour is made possible through Velocity’s Guest Artist Series.
