Young Dancemakers Company
A Free Summer Dance Ensemble composed of
New York City Public High School Students
Summer 2009
Founding Director: Alice Teirstein
Assistant Director: Jessica Gaynor
Music Director: William Catanzaro
YOUNG DANCEMAKERS COMPANY is a completely free summer ensemble open to students in current grades 9-12, from public high schools throughout New York City, brought together by their love of dance and desire to create and perform their own choreography city-wide.
The company enters its 14th year in the summer of 2009, beginning the season in the state-of-the-art professional studios of Dance Theater Workshop and continuing in the newly renovated Performing Arts Center of the Fieldston School, in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, easily reached by subway or bus.
Training & Rehearsal
In daily, intensive sessions Mondays through Fridays 10 AM to 5 PM throughout the month of July, the students study dance technique, improvisation and dance composition. The company explores dance-making processes under the direction of Alice Teirstein, choreographer, dancer, dance educator and head of the dance program at the Fieldston School. In the guest Repertory Project, students learn the work of a master choreographer. Past projects have been the work of Donald McKayle, Robert Battle, Sean Curran, Ronald K. Brown, José Limón, Alvin Ailey, and Merce Cunningham. In the 2009 Guest Repertory Project students will learn and perform work from the repertoire of famed choreographer Mark Morris. The company's city-wide performance tour will conclude with a Gala Celebration Concert at The Ailey Citigroup Theater, Saturday evening, August 1.
Performing on Tour
YDC performing Alvin Ailey repertory The company performs their choreography at various sites throughout the city. These performances are often followed by participatory dance-making workshops involving the entire audience, led by Alice Teirstein and the company, with musician William Catanzaro, exploring the elements of dance through improvisation and on-the-spot choreography.
YDC leads post-performance
audience participation on stage The Company has been invited to perform each year for the past decade in the annual, professionally renowned Dancenow/NYC Festival at Dance Theater Workshop, and has twice been presented by the famed Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, in Lee, Massachusetts. Out-of-town the Company has also been presented by The Yard, in Martha’s Vineyard, MA, the Omega Institute20in Rhinebeck, NY (three seasons), and by the International Conference 2000 "Dancing in the Millennium" held by the NDEO at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
Each season the Company has performed throughout NYC at venues such as the Kumble Theater, LIU, Brooklyn, Dancing in the Streets, the Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, Abrons Arts Center, The Brooklyn Museum, Schomburg Center, Stuyvesant High School, Fordham University at Lincoln Center, the World Trade Center, Chelsea Piers, the Downtown Dance Festival in Battery Park, the Joyce SoHo Theatre (with Dancenow), the The Bridge for Dance as part of the Uptown Performance Series, "Up! On the Roof" at John Jay College Theater.
The Company has given highly successful performances and workshops for hundreds of young people from United Neighborhood Houses and at Hostos Center for t he Arts and Culture for capacity audiences of 900 youngsters and adults, Ailey Dance Camp, the Police Athletic League, The Arts at University Settlement, The Point, a community development initiative in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx, Goddard-Riverside Community Center, the 92nd St. Y, Chelsea Art Museum, Harlem School of the Arts, Mt. Sinai Medical Center, Lovinger Theater at Lehman College, The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, The Flushing Library, and at Fieldston School for audiences of community groups from throughout the city.
Dance New York,
At the theater 
Pre-concert talk with
Paradigm Dance Co, at DTW
an enrichment component, introduces students to the professional world of NY dance, with free tickets to dance concerts, behind-the-scene visits with choreographers and their company rehearsals, master classes with guest artists, and college/career seminars.
A Completely Free Funded Program
Young Dancemakers Company, offering motivated urban youth an opportunity not otherwise available to them, is made possible by foundation funding, individual contributions and the Fieldston School. The 16-member company is selected by city-wide auditions, to which they are referred by their high school teachers. The Company members represent diverse social, economic, and ethnic backgrounds with one goal, to create and perform their own work.
The Company is grateful for the generous support through the years of the Richenthal Foundation, the Joseph S. Kornfeld and Emily Davie Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, the Harkness Foundation for Dance, the Arnhold Foundation, and the New York Times Company Foundation.
Student Application Process/Auditions
Students are selected through auditions held in March. Maximum enrollment is sixteen students. Both males and females are encouraged to apply through the recommendations of their city high school dance teachers, guidance counselors, or community center leaders.
Requirements: students must be open to new ideas and ready to commit to rigorous intensive work. The company is a diverse mix of students with prior dance experience and strong dance technique and highly motivated beginner students with technical and creative potential. Acceptance is based on student potential for both artistic growth and development of skills, as well as demonstrated motivation and seriousness of purpose.
For More Information
If you are a student applying to the program, a teacher who would like to help students apply, a program director interested in bringing the Young Dancemakers Company to your stage, or an audience member interested in seeing the Young Dancemakers Company, click on the appropriate link below for additional information for:
or contact Alice Teirstein, Director (718) 329-7300 ext. 3358 or by email at aliceteirstein@aol.com.
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