Dance

Steffi Nossen/Burke Rehab Offer “Dance Party for Parkinson’s”

July 1, 2016 by The Inside Press

You are Invited to Dance Party for Parkinson’s, a Partnership of Steffi Nossen School of Dance and Burke Rehabilitation Hospital

Join the summer series of Dance Party for Parkinson’s, a collaboration of the Steffi Nossen School of Dance and Burke Rehabilitation Hospital Fitness Center. Classes will take place at the fitness center, located at 785 Mamaroneck Ave in White Plains, NY on Fridays from 5:00 – 6:00 PM. Eight weeks of classes will begin July 8^th.

Classes are taught by dance professionals who have trained in the internationally-acclaimed Mark Morris Dance for PD program, a collaboration between the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Brooklyn Parkinson’s Group. Each week the class will present movement sequences drawing from musical theater, ballet, jazz, modern, folk dance tap, social dancing and more to create a dynamic and enjoyable hour of dance and artistic exploration in a group setting. Through dance, classes will address PD-specific concerns such as balance, coordination, flexibility, gait, and physical confidence while simultaneously developing artistry, grace, and creativity. Whether seated or standing, participants will experience the joy of body connection through the interaction of movement and music along with their partners, families and caregivers.

Join in to share an aesthetic experience that will keep your spirit dancing all week! No dance experience. Drop-ins are welcome. Join solo or with a partner. Class fee: $96 Individual; $160 per couple; $15 single class per person. Register at the Fitness Center or call 914-597-2805 for further information or to obtain a registration form.

Sharing Dance: A Tribute to Kathleen Fitzgerald’s Extraordinary Career

April 21, 2016 by The Inside Press

By Matt Smith

“Since my first class, I have loved dance, and I want to share that with everyone.”

While she presumably meant those words to be a wish for the future, by the looks of it, Kathleen Fitzgerald, speaker of the above, seems to already have the “sharing” covered. So much so that the Mount Kisco resident was named Gala Honoree during the Steffi Nossen School of Dance’s 79th Annual Benefit Week, held earlier this year, from March 31-April 2.

As is tradition, the yearly Gala serves to benefit the Steffi Nossen Dance Foundation, a not-for-profit dance advocacy and community outreach organization within the school, while at the same time honoring one of their own for his or her Outstanding Contributions to SNDF. As a special treat unique to Fitzgerald, this year’s event included a performance of a new work, danced by nine graduating seniors of SNDC and choreographed by Steffi Nossen Dance Foundation Artistic Director–and Annual Benefit producer–Jessica DiMauro, which served as a tribute to Fitzgerald’s life and career. “I’m flabbergasted,” she says of receiving the honor. “I’ve worked behind-the-scenes for so long now that I was just not expecting it. I’m uncharacteristically speechless.”

While she may not have been expecting it, the honor is certainly deserved–dancing’s clearly in her blood.

Fitzgerald began dance training at age eight, as a way to augment the “complete lack of coordination” that resulted from poor vision. Nonetheless, regardless of the reason, it was clear she was hooked from that very first day. “I got in the car after [the class] and said, ‘Mommy, I’m gonna be a dancer,’” she recalls. “That was really all I ever wanted to be.”

Her first foray into the professional dance world came at age fifteen, when she auditioned for “new state-supported performing arts school” North Carolina School of the Arts… as #13, no less, which Nossen herself always considered a–a telling sign of what was soon to come.

Kathleen Fitzgerald in Jiří Kylián’s “Ariadne”

Subsequent to graduation, and prior to joining the Steffi Nossen family, Fitzgerald was a principal dancer and Company Ballet Mistress with Ballet Frankfurt, where she worked under choreographer William Forsythe. Preceding that, she was a soloist with Netherlands Dance Theater I, before Jiří Kylián took her on as Assistant Director of Netherlands Dance Theater II. “I can’t say enough about how great it was,” she says of those experiences. “We toured all over the world. We toured with live orchestra, with live singers and choirs and incredible lighting designers and costume makers…It was everything you could possibly want to experience.”

After following Ballet Frankfurt with work for Johann Kresnik’s radical dance theater group, Bremer Tanztheater, Fitzgerald moved to Mt. Kisco–for the sake of her daughter, Jessica Rose, who has special needs and requires intensive therapies. Thanks to some guidance from an local librarian, she found herself an all-too-perfect position at Steffi Nossen School of Dance, and she’s been with them for 16 years. Fitzgerald began first as a core curriculum teacher in 2000, then as School Director, a position which she held from 2004-2015. Today, she continues to lead the Ballet Program at SNSD, and serves as Production Manager for the Copland House concerts at Merestead. She has also been extensively involved with the outreach programs, one being the 13-year-old Wheels and Heels intensive dance program for disabled performers, one of the programs this very benefit helps to fund.

In accepting her honor, she acknowledges the work of the “fantastic” students at SNSD and takes note of “the incredible camaraderie of the Steffi Nossen faculty.” (“You don’t find that everywhere,” she adds, with a smile). “I feel that I’ve found a home at Steffi Nossen, an organization that stresses the importance of family, community, and mentoring. And I feel very lucky to have had this incredible performing career, and to have [done] such meaningful work within the arts.”

Steffi Nossen School of Dance is located at 216 Central Avenue in White Plains. Fitzgerald notes the company has several satellite locations throughout Westchester, including one in Chappaqua at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin. For more information, visit steffinossen.org.

Matt Smith is a writer and regular contributor to the Inside Press. For more information, please visit www.mattsmiththeatre.com.

From Armonk to Broadway: One Recent Grad’s Journey

March 6, 2016 by The Inside Press

How Alexander Baron is making waves in the theater world
By Lindsay Hand

We all have dreams of making it big and doing what we love. Here in Westchester, many kids are fortunate to have the fun and exciting experience of being in a show, whether through school or community theater, but only a select few are able to turn it into a career. For Armonk native and current Penn State freshman Alexander Baron, however, that dream has come true.

Discovering the NYC Theater Scene

Though he never dreamed of being involved in theater when he was younger, while at Byram Hills High School, Baron discovered a passion for the production aspect of the business. Rather than studying for finals, Baron wrote a one-act show and submitted it to the Manhattan Repertory Theatre. The show was accepted, and from there his involvement in New York City theater really took off. “I’m terrible at writing plays and it was the worst show ever, but I loved producing it,” says Baron. “I loved bringing things from page to stage.”

Through this initial experience, Baron was introduced to many successful people involved in theater who have helped him gain experience and discover his passions. One such person is Marathon Live Entertainment president and Penn State Programming Board of Theater member Mike Karns, who “has been able to make me realize how many more options there are in the theater world than just producing,” explains Baron.

Through Karns and Marathon Live Entertainment, Baron had the opportunity to intern at both The Last Ship and Hamilton, two extremely successful recent Broadway shows. In addition, in 2014, he produced his own off-Broadway show entitled Vote For Me: A Musical Debate, which provided him invaluable experience and a new connection in producer Dori Berinstein, a fellow Armonk resident.

She was impressed with him from the moment they met. “Not only was Alex already–at such a young age–a determined, visionary producer,” she says, “but he was kind, warm, articulate and very clearly an extremely smart and focused young man.”

Gotta Dance (and Produce)

Despite starting college, Baron is still working nonstop. He started his own production company called Baron Theatrical Inc., and then truly got his chance when producer Berinstein presented the opportunity for Baron to co-produce Gotta Dance, a pre-Broadway show set for the Chicago stage. The show focuses on a story about the 2007 New Jersey Nets senior citizen basketball team and incorporates music and dance. After a successful premiere in Chicago, the show, directed by Kinky Boots director Jerry Mitchell, is planning on a Broadway debut this Fall. Baron points out how the show “crushes the stigma of age that you’re never too young to dance,” and compared it to himself, stating proudly, “you’re never too young to produce.”

He is fortunate to bring extensive experience to the show, and credits Hamilton in particular with really showing him the power of social media, and he plans to use those ideas “to get the younger crowd to come see the show.” For someone so young he has already accomplished so much, and this fact is not lost on him. “The opportunity has done so much for me and we’re only getting started, and I’m really excited for what the show is going to hold in the future,” Baron states.

He recognizes that he has been incredibly lucky to have some experienced, extraordinary people helping him along and providing him with incomparable opportunities. “As we ramp up for Broadway, Alex’s insight on how best to excite and engage younger theater-goers about Gotta Dance will be invaluable,” Berinstein adds. “I’m thrilled to have Alex on our team and I’m very much looking forward to watching him become a major force on Broadway.”

Alex Baron with Gotta Dance director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell

Looking Ahead

While of course paying attention to his studies and life in college, Baron is highly focused on Gotta Dance. He plans to not only keep producing but also get more involved in the advertising, PR and marketing aspects of the industry. He is co-producing a show headed to Broadway and living his dream, and can serve as inspiration for many young people with similar dreams of working in the theater. There is no doubt that he will continue to grow and become an important part of the New York theater community. “It’s an incredible feeling to open up a playbill and see my name under the title,” Baron adds. “Every second I’m truly grateful.”

Two-time Inside Chappaqua Guest Editor Lindsay Hand is a sophomore at Cornell University.

The Gift of Dance

April 17, 2015 by The Inside Press

By Ellen Bachner Greenberg

Becoming a Bat Mitzvah signifies a girl’s transition from childhood to Jewish adulthood. Preparation for this milestone event includes learning the responsibilities of Jewish religious rituals and commandments, and embracing the importance of doing good deeds. Typically, students experience the Jewish obligation to help others through initiatives known as Mitzvah Projects. While synagogues and agencies often have lists of suggested projects that students can choose from, many students opt, instead, to create their own project.

Twelve year old Arielle Levy instinctively knew that the most meaningful way for her to give back to others was to incorporate her passion for dance into her Mitzvah Project. A student at Armonk Center for Dance since she was three years old, Arielle broached the subject of sharing dance with developmentally disabled children with her mentors there. The Center introduced her to the Steffi Nossen School of Dance, with two studios in White Plains and a program in Chappaqua, and to the Steffi Nossen Dance Foundation which furthers the school’s commitment to serving populations that are underserved or have special needs through various outreach programs. Arielle requested an interview and was subsequently offered the opportunity to serve as a Volunteer last summer at Moving Wheels and Heels, Nossen’s camp-like program for children with special needs.

Each and every day that she volunteered at the Moving Wheels and Heels program, Arielle lived by Steffi Nossen’s philosophy that “anybody can dance and everyone should.” She brought her love of dance to the program and, through her warmth, smiles, and sincerity, enriched the lives of the children she worked with. Her hands-on approach to giving back clearly demonstrates kindness, compassion and a commitment to bringing enjoyment to the lives of those less privileged and/or disadvantaged. “It’s important in our busy lives to stop and be thankful for what we have and realize what others don’t have and to also take responsibility to help those who are not as fortunate,” says Arielle.

Many other twelve years olds might have felt that their Mitzvah project was completed when the summer program ended, but not Arielle Levy. She so loved seeing the joy that dance brought to the children at Moving Wheels and Heels that she wanted to give the gift of dance to other special needs children too. Arielle turned her passion into action and requested that, in lieu of Bat Mitzvah gifts, her guests donate the money they would have spent on a present to the Steffi Nossen Foundation’s Moving Wheels and Heels program. When asked why she did not want gifts, Arielle thoughtfully replied, “The gift I received is knowing that other children who would not otherwise have the opportunity to dance now do.”

Judith G. Ross, Community Relations Director at Steffi Nossen School of Dance, watched Arielle interact with the campers and remarked,

“Arielle’s empathy and sensitivity to people with special needs is way beyond her years. She, in particular, is such a young person to be so comfortable around people with special needs.”

Perhaps this is partly her nature, partly her nurturing family’s values. Arielle’s mother, Julie Levy, explained that being philanthropic and compassionate are values she and her husband, Jerry, have instilled in their family. “Philanthropy is not just about giving money –it is about something that is in your heart. I grew up in a family that was very philanthropic and my husband is very philanthropic–that’s what our children know.”

Arielle’s Bat Mitzvah was held last October and, while the celebration of accepting the responsibilities of becoming a Jewish adult is over, the impact of her philanthropy will continue for a long time. Recognized “for her generosity of spirit and selflessness in giving to the Steffi Nossen Foundation Moving Wheels and Heels adaptive dance program”, Arielle was invited to and honored at the Foundation’s March Benefit.

As a direct result of the donations received on Arielle’s behalf, there will be many more opportunities in Westchester for the underserved and those with disabilities to, as Judith Ross stated, “enjoy the same dance and movement opportunity as their typical peers.” Initiatives include a substantial financial aid package for the Moving Wheels and Heels summer program to anyone in need for the next two years. In addition, four new programs will be offered at no charge throughout Westchester: classes for 64 students at the Cerebral Palsy School of Westchester; a series of classes at Burke Rehabilitation Center for Young Parkinson’s group; a summer dance program for 65 children through the Yonkers Park and Recreation Department; and a newly created Moving Wheels and Heels program in Chappaqua.

Through her commitment, kindness, and generosity,  Arielle has illuminated the lives of the less fortunate by giving them the gift of dance. She feels blessed to have received as much as she gave, and is looking forward to volunteering again this summer; Steffi Nossen is delighted to have her back.

Ellen Bachner Greenberg, a lifelong resident of Westchester, is a certified Parenting & Family Life Coach. Ellen can be contacted at ebg0516@aol.com

Dance

Steffi Nossen/Burke Rehab Offer “Dance Party for Parkinson’s”

Sharing Dance: A Tribute to Kathleen Fitzgerald’s Extraordinary Career