East Harlem's Leading Teenage Dance Ensemble Presents an Evening of Dance Featuring Commissioned Works by Leading Choreographers Jennifer Muller and Pedro Ruiz

Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts presents the GESTURES Dance Ensemble at the Miller Theater on Saturday, June 18th at 7:30 p.m. Come celebrate an evening of dance from New York's premier pre-professional teenage dance ensemble. The program includes commisioned works by modern dance innovator Jennifer Muller and dancer and choreographer Pedro Ruiz. Completing the evening are works by Blanca Alonso, Darrell Grand Moultrie, and Melinda Abbott of the Alpha Omega Dance Theater. The Miller Theater is located at 116th Street and Broadway. Tickets are $15. For further information, please call 212/427-2244 ext, 570/553.

New York, NY (PRWEB) May 22, 2005 -- Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts presents the GESTURES Dance Ensemble at the Miller Theater on Saturday, June 18th at 7:30 p.m. Come celebrate an evening of dance from New York's premier pre-professional teenage dance ensemble. The program includes commisioned works by modern dance innovator Jennifer Muller and dancer and choreographer Pedro Ruiz. Completing the evening are works by Blanca Alonso, Darrell Grand Moultrie, and Melinda Abbott of the Alpha Omega Dance Theater. The Miller Theater is located at 116th Street and Broadway. Tickets are $15. For further information, please call 212/427-2244 ext, 570/553.

Established in 1989, by Artistic Director Nina Klyvert-Lawson, Gestures is a performance workshop designed to introduce young dancers ages 13-19 to the experience of working within an ensemble. Comprised of the Harbor's most advanced dance students who are accepted into the ensemble via audition, ensemble members spend intensive three-hour sessions weekly rehearsing original works created for the company by professional choreographers--in addition to a minimum of six hours of weekly work in ballet, various modern techniques, jazz, pointe, and choreography. Participation in the ensemble enables students to experience the demands of a professional life in dance. Students study throughout the year with Master Guest Artists and work with a variety of professional choreographers to expose them to diverse styles, techniques and philosophies of dance and movement.

Over the years Gestures has commissioned such noted choreographers as Ronald K. Brown, Dyane Harvey, Steven Rooks, Jennifer Muller, and Enrique de Jesus, to name a few. The company's ballet mistress/master has included Sarita Allen, Blanca Alonso and Ron Alexander. Master guest artists have included Max Luna, Blondel Cummings, Micki Orihara, Francis Roach, Sarita Allen, Alan Good and others.

Jennifer Muller has been an influence in the dance world for over 35 years. With her visionary approach to dance/theater, innovative multi-discipline productions incorporating the spoken word, live and commissioned music, artist-inspired decor and unusual production elements, Muller has defied convention and created a distinct signature style, educational approach and philosophy. Artistic Director of Jennifer Muller/The Works since its inception in 1974, she has toured with the company to 37 countries/4 continents, 30 states in the USA and produced 19 NYC Seasons at The Joyce, City Center, The New Victory and Roundabout Theaters and the Kaye Playhouse. A playwright as well as a choreographer, Muller has created over 83 pieces - including 6 full-evening productions - and designed lights, decor and costumes under the design designation, Stageworks. Known for her history of notable collaborations, she has worked with such artists as Keith Jarrett, Keith Haring, Nana Vasconcelos, Sandro Chia and Yoko Ono.

Pedro Ruiz (Dancer/Choreographer) received the 1998 Bessie Award for sustained achievement as a dancer in his enduring career with Ballet Hispanico. During his sixteen years as a dancer with the company, he has created over 20 principal roles with 15 choreographers. Mr. Ruiz has also been a guest artist at the Nice Dance Festival in France, the Il Piccolo Teatro dell'Opera in New York, the Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico, and the Notte di Stelle in Italy. He trained in his native Cuba as well as Venezuela. Pedro Ruiz has choreographed three critically acclaimed ballets inspired by his native Cuba. Clive Barnes with The Post said of Guajira "an especially fine work of form and structure"; Jennifer Dunning with The New York Times gave kudos to Club Havana saying "its freshness is exhilarating"; and Gia Kouras with Time Out glowed, "Ruiz's Cecilia furthers the notion that his pieces exhibit timelessness."

From a Harbor Conservatory studio in East Harlem, Gestures has traveled to perform in such diverse venues as the Congressional Awards Foundation's Gala in Washington, D.C.; Kids Café; Dances at Wave Hill produced by Dancing in the Streets; the Little Theater at Yale University; the Red Hooks Arts Festival; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; Guild Hall of East Hampton; Central Park SummerStage and Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors. Over the years the ensemble has performed before such notable individuals as Madame Alexandra Danilova; Bessie Schonberg; General Colin Powell, superstar Mariah Carey; Prince Edward of England; and members of the United State Senate and Congress.

The Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts, now in its 35th year, was established by Boys & Girls Harbor and offers pre-professional training in the disciplines of dance, instrumental music, voice and drama to students ages 4-21 who are primarily from the East and Central Harlem communities. The Harbor is unique in its focus on pre-teen and teenage talent development through special ensembles, public performances, and career counseling and placement. Harbor students have been accepted into professional schools and have performed for commercials, sitcoms, public television, Broadway and radio. While the Conservatory prepares young people for careers in the arts, it also helps those who do not pursue this direction gain the skills and confidence that are needed to succeed in education, employment and positive family and community life. For more information on the Harbor Conservatory please call 212/427-2244 ext. 577 or visit www.harborconservatory.org

Boys & Girls Harbor founded in 1937 by Anthony Duke, is a sixty-seven-year-old multi-service youth agency positively affecting the lives of over 6,000 children and their families annually through education, cultural awareness and social services. Now under the leadership of Executive Director Hans E. Hageman, The Harbor maintains its view of the primacy of the performing arts in the quest for a holistic and satisfying life for children and teens.

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