Nazareth College Arts Center Presents Parsons Dance, May 5

Renowned Contemporary Dance Company Will Feature David Parson's signature tour-de-force "Caught"

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ROCHESTER, NY (03/21/2012)(readMedia)-- Nazareth College Arts Center is pleased to present the internationally renowned contemporary dance company Parsons Dance on Saturday, May 5, at 8 p.m. A pre-performance lecture will be held at 7 p.m. Parsons Dance is committed to building new audiences for contemporary dance by creating and performing American works of extraordinary artistry that engage and motivate diverse audiences. The company's performance at Nazareth College Arts Center will feature Caught, David Parsons's unforgettable signature stroboscopic tour-de-force. Tickets to Parsons Dance are $30-$60. For tickets, call – or visit – the Box Office: 585-389-2170 OR visit us online: artscenter.naz.edu.

Parsons Dance tours nationally and internationally, including an annual season in its home community of New York City. Since 1985, Parsons Dance has toured an average of 32 weeks per year, to a total of more than 250 cities, 35 countries, six continents and millions of audience members. Many more have seen Parsons Dance on PBS, Bravo, A&E Network and the Discovery Channel.

Parsons Dance includes ten full-time dancers and maintains a repertory of more than 80 works choreographed by David Parsons.

Artistic Director/Founder David Parsons

Dancer/choreographer David Parsons, who has been described as "one of the great movers of modern dance," (Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times), founded Parsons Dance in 1987 with lighting designer Howell Binkley.

Since then, he has created more than 80 works for the company, through commissions from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, the American Dance Festival, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, New York City Ballet, Paul Taylor Dance Company, the Spoleto Festival and Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam, among others. His works have also been performed by renowned companies such as Batsheva Dance Company of Israel, English National Ballet, Feld Ballets/NY, Hubbard Street Dance Company, Nederlands Dans Theatre and Paris Opera Ballet. He choreographed and directed the dance elements for Times Square 2000, the 24-hour festivities in Times Square celebrating the turn of the Millennium, viewed live on television by billions of people worldwide.

Parsons is a recipient of the 2000 Dance Magazine Award, as well as the 2001 American Choreography Award, for his work with AEROS, a production featuring the Romanian Gymnastic Federation broadcast on the Bravo Channel. Mr. Parsons also received the Dance Masters of America Award in July 2011. He received an honorary Doctorate from the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and is a recipient of the Howard Gilman fellowship at the Jacksonville University MFA program.

Mr. Parsons has cultivated an educational partnership with Marymount Manhattan College, which hosts the annual Parsons Dance Summer Intensive.

From 1978-1987, Mr. Parsons was a leading dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, where Mr. Taylor created many roles for him in works such as Arden Court, Last Look and Roses. He has appeared as a guest artist with the Berlin Opera, MOMIX, the original White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov and the New York City Ballet. Nureyev performed Mr. Parsons' piece, Brothers, for six years.

As a director and choreographer, he has collaborated with such artists as John Corrigliano; Earth, Wind and Fire; East Village Opera Company; Morton Gould; Donna Karan; Alex Katz; William Ivy Long; Santo Loquasto; Dave Matthews; Milton Nascimento; Robert Rauschenberg; Steely Dan; and Billy Taylor. Film work includes Fool's Fire, directed by Julie Taymor for American Playhouse and Rita Blitt's documentary Caught in Paint.

Tickets

Tickets to Parsons Dance are $30-$60. For tickets, call – or visit – the Box Office: 585-389-2170 OR visit us online: artscenter.naz.edu.

The Nazareth College Arts Center Box Office is located on campus, at 4245 East Avenue, Rochester, New York, 14618. Regular box office hours are Monday- Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and 11 a.m. until curtain time on performance days.

Sponsor Information

The Nazareth College Arts Center's 2011-2012 Subscription Series is Sponsored by M&T Bank, Electronic Field Productions and the New York State Council on the Arts. The Family shows are Sponsored by Wendy's Restaurants of Rochester.

Parsons Dance is Sponsored by Alan Cameros, Susan S. Collier, Ph.D., Helga and Paul Morgan, Mr. George Scharr and Dr. Linda Rice, David and Marjorie Perlman.