Spring Season 2011-2012

 MDTC enjoyed a busy spring season for its arts-in-education assembly programs. Performances of From Cairo to Istanbul, which tours for Young Audiences of NJ and Eastern PA, took the company to schools throughout both states.  A February performance at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts included students from the Academy’s art school sketching the dancers in motion.  The photo at right shows one of the artists in action.  Afterwards, Mosaic dancers Samara Adell, Morgiana Celeste Varricchio, Nina Brewton, and Kendra Dushac all had the opportunity to view the sketches.

 

 The Company was delighted to return to Lincoln Center’s Meet-the-Artist program, in February, and then again in April, with Middle Eastern Dance Peace, which played in Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater.  Dancers, Samara, Morgiana Celeste, Nina,  Kendra, and Dianna Dwyer performed dances from Lebanon, Turkey, and Egypt.  The program included a solo “djinni” dance by Samara, a folktale from Oman performed by Morgiana, and an interactive dance lesson led by Samara for enthusiastic audience members who joined her on stage.

MDTC closed its 2011-12 season with two appearances in New York City.  On June 24, the Company took part in the Alvin Ailey Extension World Dance Celebration Performance at the Ailey Citigroup Theater.  Dancers Samara, Morgiana Celeste, Nina, Kendra, and Mary Susan Sinclair-Kuenning performed Samara’s choreography of Fantasie Orientale.  The following Friday, June 29, the dancers, all involved in six-hour days of class during Samara’s five-day Master Workshop in Middle Eastern Dance, participated in Samara’s gala evening, with Fantasie Orientale, El Moulid, and were joined by Syrena Nikole Hanna and Erin Pellecchia to present a special sneak preview excerpt from The Paradise of Children, which will premiere in September 2012 in its entirety. (Photos by Bob Greenwald.)