⚠️ Cancelled - Spring Intensive 2020
Time and location:
- Mon 03/16/2020 noon - Fri 03/20/2020 noon
-
West University Dance Center
4007 Bellaire Blvd
Suite D
Houston, TX 77025
Faculty:
Randall Flinn
Founder / Artistic Director
Randall Flinn is the Founder/Artistic Director of Ad Deum Dance Company based in Houston, Texas. The company, now in their twenty-fifth performance season, maintains an active touring schedule nationally and globally. The mission of the company is to artistically serve humanity at its deepest need for beauty, hope and compassion. Mr. Flinn has also served as a modern/contemporary dance educator on the faculty and guest teaching staff of Houston Ballet, Cirque Du Soleil, Hong Kong Ballet, Guangzhou Modern Dance Company in China, City Contemporary Dance Company – Hong Kong, Houston’s Society For The Performing Arts, The American College Dance Festival, Adjunct Professor for Belhaven University, Friends University, University of Houston, Houston Metropolitan Dance Company, The Alvin Ailey Educational Outreach Program, The Project Dance Foundation, The University of The Nations, Creative Arts Europe, Palm Beach Atlantic University, and Houston’s High School For The Performing And Visual Arts.
Flinn’s choreographic credits span an extensive thirty-five-year array of creating work for professional dance companies and dance festivals worldwide. His choreography has been commissioned and performed for The International Dance Salad Festival, Dance Gallery Festival New York, Texas Weekend For Contemporary Dance, Bailando Dance Festival, Dance Houston, East Meets West, Artists For Hope, The C.S. Lewis Foundation Oxbridge Conference, Project Dance Foundation in Paris, London, Sydney and NYC, The Ministry of Culture in Guadalajara,Mexico, Laois Dance Platform in Ireland, The French Consulate Of Houston and by invitation of the Princess of Malaysia.
Mr. Flinn began his early dance studies in his hometown of Houston, training in ballet, modern, jazz and tap at Houston Ballet Academy, Dance Arts Unlimited, Discovery Dance Group and later in New York at Alvin Ailey, Martha Graham School and studies with The Jose Limon Company. His modern classes emphasize the principles of Graham, Limon and Horton techniques. He is also a master Pilates Rehab Conditioning Specialist and served for twenty years as Core Conditioning and Joint Mobility Specialist at FIT Athletic Club in Houston, Texas.
Mr. Flinn believes that dance can inspire and transform people, communities and nations. It is with this mission and belief that he has traveled for many years as a visionary, pioneer and ambassador of dance to many nations.
Julianna Rubio Slager
Ballet 5:8 Artistic Director
Ballet 5:8 Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer Julianna Rubio Slager is originally from Spring Arbor, Michigan. Slager began her dance training with Mrs. Lori Ladwig and went on to study under notable teachers from Ann Arbor Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, the Vaganova Academy and Puerto Rican National Ballet. Slager enjoyed dancing under Barbara Smith at Greater Lansing Ballet during her training, and also under Kathy Thibodeaux and Sol Maisonet at Ballet Magnificat. Upon moving to Chicago, Slager had the opportunity to work as freelance artist, teacher and choreographer in the Greater Chicago area. Slager was instrumental in the co-founding of Ballet 5:8 in 2012. Beginning in 2014, Ballet 5:8 began touring nationally, bringing Slager's critically acclaimed ballets such as The Space in Between, Scarlet, Compass, and The Stor(ies) of You and Me to audiences across the nation. Slager is also a groundbreaking figure within the field, as one of the few Mexican-American Artistic Directors and Resident Choreographers of professional ballet companies in the world. She hopes that her leadership and creative work at Ballet 5:8 will pave the way for other women and minorities in professional ballet.
Steve Rooks
Former Principal Dancer with Martha Graham, Chair of Dance/Choreographer for Vassar College
Steve Rooks began his dance training in Washington, D.C. He continued his training in New York City as a scholarship student at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. Mr. Rooks danced and toured with the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble, and the Martha Graham Dance Company, where he performed for over a decade and achieved the rank of Principal Dancer.
Mr. Rooks has created a number of dances including “Cool River” that premiered at Lincoln center in 1996, and later became a part of the Graham Company repertoire. He was a 2004 winner of the National Choreographic Competition at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and created two solos for the 2004 Youth American Grand Prix Ballet competition. Mr. Rooks is currently Professor of Dance and Resident Choreographer at Vassar College, and has been a guest teacher with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, The Martha Graham Dance Company, the American Academy of Ballet, Ballet Nacional de México, the North Carolina School of the Arts, and the International Summer School in Sydney, Australia. He has been awarded Vassar Research grants to travel to Riga, Latvia, Lusaka, Zambia, and in 2014 to Turku, Finland, where he choreographed “Plate Tectonics” on 24 dancers. As part of the Masterworks Festival, Mr. Rooks was commissioned to create ballets for a number of contemporary composers including Clarice Assad, Piet Swerts and David Skidmore – all to live orchestra.
Mr. Rooks has served as an adjudicator for the American College Dance Festival, and a solo “Vista” was created for Aran Bell (ABT) for the 2014 International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi. Four contemporary solos were submitted to the 2016 Youth American Grand Prix and in 2017, Mr. Rooks returned to Mumbai, India to create a new work for Sumeet Nagdev Dance Arts. 2018 included guest residencies at the Bolles School in Jacksonville Florida and the Palladino School of Dance at Dean College. 2019 residencies included workshops in Costa Rica as well as the Studio Centre de Dance in Paris, France. In 2020, Mr. Rooks was invited to join the Board of Trustees for the Martha Graham Dance Company. Mr. Rooks would like to thank Jesus Christ for all that has happened to him.
Shizu Yasuda
Former Principal Dancer with Ad Deum Dance Company
SHIZU YASUDA started her dance training at Sakiko Ichinomiya Ballet School in Japan. After she moved to New York, she performed with several choreographers and dance companies such as Slam and Sensedance Company. She joined Ad Deum Dance Company in 2004. She danced as a principal dancer with the company and performed at numerous dance events nationally and internationally. She got awarded as one of stunning performers by Dance Houston – City Wide Dance Festival 2008. In 2013, she was invited to Minsk in Belarus as a guest dancer and judge by Chelz Extreme Games. As a dance teacher, she has been teaching Modern and Ballet classes in the Houston dance community at such places as Ad Deum Dance Company, Houston Ballet Academy summer intensive (Modern only), Mitsi Dancing School, Payne Academy of Ballet, Studio of Dance, West University Dance Center and Houston Academy of Dance. Her choreographic works have been presented at “East Meets West” at Miller Outdoor Theater since 2008. In 2014, she became an artistic director of Ad Deum II.
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