It was a great night in Dallas when we watched DMA Alum, Takia Hopson, perform at the Winspear Opera House with the SMU (Southern Methodist University) Dance Ensemble. The dancers were great featuring choreography by Takehiro Ueyama and Dwight Rhoden. Nice to see that my Alma Mater is still providing excellent training and performance opportunities. Bravo Takia and all of the talented dancers. #dancemakersofatlanta
From SMU Meadows:
Takehiro Ueyama’s new work, “Heroes”, is set to John Adams’ The Chairman Dances. Featuring powerful athleticism, as well as delicate gestures drawn from his Japanese heritage, Ueyama’s repertoire has been inspired by the beauty in nature, the duality of darkness and light in the universal human condition and the humanity and compassion in day-to-day living.
Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Takehiro “Take” Ueyama moved to the United States in 1991 to study dance at the Juilliard School in New York City. Upon graduation, he was invited to join the Paul Taylor Dance Company, touring the world with them for 8 years.
In 2003 Ueyama debuted his first choreographic work, Tsubasa, performed with fellow Taylor dancers at the McKenna Theatre at SUNY New Paltz, NY, and in 2005 founded TAKE Dance.
Ueyama has created and re-staged works for The Ailey School, The New School, The Juilliard New Dances, Purchase College, Princeton University, Marymount Manhattan College, The Hartt School, Adelphi University, Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and many other companies and schools.
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Dwight Rhoden, co-founder and co-artistic director of the New York City-based Complexions Contemporary Ballet, will close out the program with a new work, “Stellar Matter”, choreographed to an orchestral suite from Gustav Holst’s The Planets. Rhoden has established a wide-ranging professional career, earning distinction from The New York Times as one of the most sought-out choreographers of the day.
Rhoden has performed with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Les Ballet Jazz De Montreal and as a principal dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. As a performer, he has appeared in numerous television specials, documentaries and commercials throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. In 1994, Rhoden and Desmond Richardson founded Complexions Contemporary Ballet, which is widely considered as “America’s Original Multicultural Dance Company”.
For over 18 years, Rhodens’ work has filled some of the most prestigious theaters across the globe including, The Joyce Theater,(NYC) The Bolshoi Theater, (Moscow) The Marinsky Theater,(St Petersburg), Cairo Opera House (Egypt) The Arts Center, (Melbourne, Australia) The Auditorium Theater, (Chicago)Telaviv Opera House (Israel) to name a few. CCB and Rhodens’ work has been presented on 5 continents and in over 20 countries. Since 1994, Rhoden has created over 80 ballets for Complexions, as well as numerous other companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, BalletMet, The Dance Theater of Harlem, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, The Joffrey Ballet, Miami City Ballet, New York City Ballet/Diamond Project, Philadanco, Marinsky Ballet (Kirov) amongst others. Mr. Rhoden has lectured, taught, created works for and served as Artist in Residence at universities around the United States including NYU, Juilliard, UC Irvine, Skidmore College and The University of Mississippi.
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