FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joshua Russell, Communications Manager
(408) 998-2787 ext. 212; jrussell@artscouncil.org
www.artscouncil.org
Four Bay Area Choreographers Receive
Prestigious Fellowships Awards
Three Glass & Ceramic Artists Also
Recognized
San Jose, CA, March 1, 2006 – Dennis
Nahat, the Founding/Artistic Director
of Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley heads the
list of four influential, Bay
Area choreographers to receive Arts Council
Silicon ValleyÕs Artist
Fellowship Grants for contributions to the
field of Performing Arts
(Choreography). Three well-known glass and
ceramics artists were also
recognized in the field of Visual Arts
(Ceramics & Glass). Arts Council
Silicon Valley annually awards Artist
Fellowships in rotating categories to
recognize local professional working artists
and to enable them to continue
to pursue their creative work.
All seven artists were selected by a notable
panel of experienced judges
based upon artistic quality and originality of
work, community impact during
the past three years within Santa Clara County
and professional development
by demonstrating continued exploration of the
art form by the applicant.
Arts Council Silicon Valley is the only funding
agency south of San
Francisco that awards artists unrestricted
grants for career accomplishments. On March 16th, 2006 from 6-8PM the Arts Council, in
partnership with the Triton Museum of Art in
Santa Clara, will honor these
seven recipients at an exclusive evening
reception at the Triton Museum.
This date will mark the beginning of a two
month exhibit for all visual arts
recipients and will provide an opportunity for
the choreographers to present
some insight into their craft. A total of
$24,000 was awarded to the artists
below.
Artist Fellows:
Performing Artists (Choreography)
Dennis Nahat, San Jose
Maria De La Rosa, Santa Clara
Gary Masters, San Jose
Bih Tau Sung, Sunnyvale
Visual Artists (Ceramics & Glass)
Susan Longini, Fremont
Una Mjurka, San Jose
Stan Welsh, Santa Cruz
"I am honored to be a part of an
organization that recognizes individual
artists for career accomplishments," said
Joyce Iwasaki, President, Board of
Trustees, Arts Council Silicon Valley.
"These seven individuals are all
well-deserving of the Fellowship Awards and we
are privileged to be able to
assist them in their creative pursuit."
About Arts Council Silicon Valley
Now in its 24th year, Arts Council Silicon
Valley is an independent,
nonprofit arts agency dedicated to providing
funding and advocacy support,
and fundraising and marketing services to the
regionÕs arts organizations and artists. As the official state/local
partner with the California Arts
Council and the County of Santa Clara, Arts
Council Silicon Valley is now
the largest nonprofit arts council in the
state. Over the past 13 years, the
Arts Council has distributed nearly $8 million
to local arts and cultural
organizations, individual artists, schools, and
community groups.
###
Choreographer Artist Bios
Dennis Nahat, San Jose – Dennis Nahat is
the Founding/Artistic Director of
Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley (formerly San
Jose/Cleveland Ballet) for the
past 35 years. After majoring in Dance and
minoring in Music on full scholarship at Juliard, Dennis danced
professionally for the Joffrey Ballet
and later as principal dancer for the American
Ballet Theatre working with
choreographers such as Agnes de Mille and
George Ballanchine. His extensive
career as a choreographer includes major works
for American Ballet Theatre,
Atlanta Ballet, The Royal Swedish Ballet, and
the London Festival Ballet and
Ballet Nuevo Mundo de Caracas, as well as choreographing
several Broadway
shows including the Tony award-winning musical
version of Two Gentlemen of
Vernona and choreographing ballet sequences in
the motion picture The
Turning Point. In addition, Dennis has
choreographed for the NY Shakespeare
Festival, San Francisco Opera, NY City Opera,
Lenox Arts Center, and the
Seattle Opera.
Quote: "I am proud to receive such an
honor and acknowledgement of my work.
This confirmation inspires me to continue
making innovative and creative
ballets. This grant will be applied toward
future ballets that I am creating
for the next couple of seasons at Ballet San
Jose Silicon Valley. In
receiving funds to support my choreographic
work, I can incorporate the
elements I need to make a premium ballet.
" – Dennis Nahat
Maria de la Rosa, Santa Clara – Maria de
la Rosa earned both her BA and MA
from Stanford University. For 20 years she has
devoted her talents to the
performance and production of dance in the
Folklorico traditions of Mexico.
Her works have been performed at the San
Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival in
1999 and 2002. Featured in 2002 in the San Jose
Mercury News as "Champion of the Arts", Maria has taught Folklorico
dance extensively in San Jose
regional schools, has served as dance
consultant for San Jose Ballet, is
Programs Director for Mexican Heritage Plaza,
and, as Assistant Director of
Los Lupenos, continues to expand folk
traditions with contemporary dance
forms.
Quote: "I was completely overwhelmed when
the discussion was finished.
This award is a tremendous validation for me,
my art form and my fellow
dancers—especially considering the
incredible artists with whom I shared
this process of application and review of our
portfolios. I was proud to be
in the same pool with these artists. After 15
years of struggling for
resources for my art form, itÕs hard not to
feel second-class and under
appreciated as an artist. I feel the award is a stamp of
"first class art"
for our dance genre and a positive statement
about the work that Arts
Council Silicon Valley does and the depth of
knowledge of the panelists who
see artistic quality and community impact in an
art form that is not based
in western traditions of ballet and modern
dance."
"I definitely plan on more field research
opportunities as well as continued learning and collaboration with other artists
(both in my art form and in
others) to inform and round out my current work
in my dance form. This will
allow me to expand the horizons of my artwork—test
its limits of creativity
and challenge it (and me) to retain its
integrity as a traditional art while
creating new works." – Maria De La
Rosa
Gary Masters, San Jose – Gary Masters
received his BFA from Julliard. He has
received two Choreography Fellowships from
National Endowment for the Arts.
In 1994, Gary came to San Jose as Artistic and Administrative
Director of
the Limon West Dance Project and has since become
an associate professor and Artistic Director of the Dance Theater at San Jose
State University. His
extensive career includes choreography of works
with professional companies
and universities throughout the country,
including North Carolina School for
the Arts, Harvard Summer Dance Center, Dance
Kaleidoscope (Indiana), and
Path Dance Company (Baltimore). In addition to
his work at San Jose State,
Gary has contributed to the South Bay community
as choreographer and dance
coach for Opera San Jose, choreographed
extensively for Limon West as is a
founder and co-artistic director of sjDANCEco.
Quote: "I was honored to be one of the
recipients of this year's grant and
especially delighted to be in the company with
three incredible artists who
have contributed so much to the cultural fabric
of our region. They have
made this community a more vibrant and
wonderful place to live and work for
us all. This award will allow me time to work
on ideas for a new creation to
be premiered on sjDANCEco's October 2006 program."
– Gary Masters
Bih Tau Sung, Sunnyvale – Bih Tau Sung is
originally from Taiwan where she
received her degree in Dance and Music from the
University of Chinese
Culture and founded the Cloud Gate Dance
Theater, TaiwanÕs first
professional modern dance company. She earned
her MA in Theatre/Arts, Dance
Emphasis, from San Jose State University. As
founder and artistic director
of Dancing Sun Foundation, San Jose, since
1999, Bih Tau has taught over 500
children and adults. Her breadth of
choreography includes reconstructions of
classical ballets, original works based on
Chinese and Taiwanese folk
traditions and innovative contemporary works of
modern dance and ballet
coupled with traditional Asian sensibilities.
She continues to contribute
her talents to Cloud Gate Dance Theater,
presenting extensively throughout
Asia and Europe as well as the United States
and Canada.
Quote: "ItÕs an honor to be selected among
with the other great
choreographers. ItÕs a great gift to know this
will encourage me to continue
my dance creations. In this community and in
these times, this grant of
support is invaluable and will allow Dancing
Sun Foundation to continue to
pursue greater excellence our annual
productions. It will help our tight
budget for fiscal year 2005-06 cycle and our
upcoming production: "Solace:
My Dear, Fear Not For You Are Home Now,"
on April 22nd." – Bih Tau Sung
--
Lee Kopp
Director, Marketing & Publicity
Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley
40 North First Street
San Jose, CA 95113
(408) 288-2820 x210 office
lkopp@balletsanjose.org
(408) 839-2379 cell