Dance

The Media City Ballet and the Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance gathered respectfully last week to honor their artisans and supporters. Encore! An Evening of Dining and Ballet was staged at Glendale's Chevy Chase Country Club to celebrate the kickoff of the Media City Ballet's 10th season. Headquartered in Burbank, the ballet company presents a season of full-scale productions and studio session presentations. They also bring arts-centered educational programming into local elementary school classrooms.

Molly Shore NORTHWEST DISTRICT -- An after-school dance program for third graders at Bret Harte Elementary School will be showcased at the school's annual spring dance festival at 10 a.m. Friday. Special education assistant Terri Leatherwood, who has been at the school for 15 years, led the children through their choreographed routines Tuesday in preparation for the event. Leatherwood, who teaches dance to 40 students, is a professional dancer with more than 30 years experience in ballet and Broadway musicals.

Robert Blechl BURBANK -- A holiday teen dance will be held Saturday at Verdugo Recreation Center for students at Burbank middle schools. From 7 to 10 p.m. teens can dance to music from J.B. Mobile DJ Service. The Burbank Lions Club will also have a raffle for prizes. The dance will be supervised by staff from Burbank Parks and Recreation and also by Burbank police officers. Students are required to bring their school ID. and a note from a parent or guardian stating they are in middle school.

Snapping their fingers and tapping their feet, students at Ralph Emerson Elementary gave their all in a dance celebrating the season on Tuesday. They took over the playground behind the school, wearing homemade costumes and headdresses, performing in turns for a crowd of enthusiastic parents and teachers. "There are like 800 people watching," said 9-year-old Arthur Ayvasyan. Arthur and his fellow fourth-graders had been practicing their dance to the Beatles' "I'm a Believer," for two weeks, and seeing the crowd, some students felt their nerves kick in. "When you practice and no one's watching you, you don't feel nervous," said Ian Shovestull, a 9-year-old Emerson student.

Jenna Bordelon MEDIA DISTRICT NORTH -- The Burbank Center for the Retarded is strapping on its spurs for the fifth dance of the season. A "Western Round-Up" will be from 7:15 to 9:15 p.m. Friday at the McCambridge Recreation Center, 1515 N. Glenoaks Blvd. The center has been holding dances for adults and teenagers 16 and older with developmental disabilities for 28 years. Cowboys and cowgirls are welcome to enjoy a barbecue dinner and stay to kick up their heels.

BURBANK — Don Cohen’s palms started to sweat in anxious anticipation of his goddaughter Mia Sanchez taking the stage in the Burbank School of Ballet’s 10th annual recital. “All the dancers just rose to the occasion and were absolutely spectacular,” Cohen said, gripping a bouquet of red roses after the performance. “They have all grown and matured and have beautiful moves.” Cohen was among a packed audience at the Glendale Community College Auditorium on Saturday afternoon to take in dance performances by the school’s 150 dancers.

Ardie Bryant has been tap dancing since the age of 5, when his mother took him to an amateur talent show. The master of ceremonies pulled him up onto to the stage and asked him to show him what he could do. Although he only knew a few steps, it was enough to win him his first competition — and the $5 prize, and set into motion a career that lasted more than 70 years. Now a Burbank resident, the 77-year-old continues to make music with his feet, using a special drum platform he had built to support him and his tapping, he said.

{LDQUO}Mad Hot Ballroom" is a delightful documentary about three groups of fifth-graders from New York City public schools whose lives gain class and dignity by their participation in a citywide ballroom dancing competition. Told in the spirit of "Spellbound," last year's charming documentary of school youngsters in a national spelling bee, "Mad Hot Ballroom" also examines the home lives of several of the children who learn poise and the benefits of team participation, and the effect this has on the process of growing up. Sometimes touching and oft times hilarious, "Mad Hot Ballroom" is as engaging for the audience as the dance competition is for the young students.

Maya Kukes NORTHWEST DISTRICT-- The thought of teaching 30 third-graders might be a little daunting. Terri Leatherwood plans to take that one step further -- she's going to teach them to dance. Her afterschool class begins Tuesday at Bret Harte Elementary School. The conclusion of the program will most likely coincide with a spring recital, Leatherwood said. Students will be selected for the program on a first-come, first-serve basis. Permission slips were sent home and the deadline for signing up is Friday.

Long after many younger folks had gone to sleep on New Year's Eve, more than 160 senior citizens were still dancing the night away at the Joslyn Adult Center in Burbank. The Recreation Committee, led by Retired Senior Volunteer Program volunteer Libby Na rdo , organized the evening of dinner and dancing. Many of the guests were those who regularly attend the Sunday and Thursday night ballroom dances. People from Burbank, Glendale and La Crescenta attended, as did others from Lancaster, Palmdale, Granada Hills and Chatsworth, Simi Valley and Long Beach.

Members of the Burbank Civitan Club once again rolled out the green carpet to members, guests and local dignitaries as they staged their annual St. Patrick's Day Champagne Brunch at the Castaway this past Sunday. A Burbank tradition, once celebrated at the now-gone Genio's Restaurant, this year saw over 250 Civitans and their supporters gather for the 41st time to honor the patron saint of Ireland, while also tipping their green derby hats to the organization's 57th year of service to the community.

A new restaurant planned for San Fernando Boulevard will bring lush landscaping to create a park-like atmosphere and nearly 900 square feet of outdoor dining. The restaurant, to be located at 546 S. San Fernando Blvd., will incorporate an existing 2,494-square-foot building that was once a landscaping nursery. With two large outdoor dining areas, there will be a total of about 3,600 square feet of restaurant space, according to plans approved by the Planning Board last month. Applicant Aram Mnatsakanyan had requested an outdoor stage for unamplified performances by musicians, but planning commissioners nixed that feature because of two nearby apartment buildings.

As both a celestial and geographic pole, the axis mundi is a point of connection between the heavens and earth where compass points meet. It is a place where lines of communication freely pass between higher and lower realms, giving those on the lower realm the opportunity to ascend, and from where those on the higher realm disseminate blessings. This past Friday evening, to celebrate their 10th anniversary, the Media City Ballet (MCB) opened those lines of communications and bestowed the blessings of their talent upon longtime supporters and new-found friends by performing “Axis Mundi: A Global Multi-Cultural Celebration of Ballet Dance” at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre.

Mr. Tchaikovsky, meet "So You Think You Can Dance. " In the popular dance competition TV show, contestants at the top of their profession in various styles of dance are challenged to perform in styles for which they have no training. Hip-hop dancers must perform contemporary; ballet dancers are forced to learn the fox trot; and ballroom dancers have to show that they can do a Bollywood routine. This exposure to unfamiliar styles improves them within their own discipline and turns them into more complete dancers, they say. That's exactly what Burbank resident Raquel Cordova is trying to do with Creations Dance Theatre, Inc., a nonprofit arts organization.

While once it was de rigueur for charitable organizations to simply lease a ballroom at a local hotel or restaurant and request supporters to don either black tie or business attire, today’s anemic economy has seen many fundraising groups scale back and stage more casual and creative affairs. That was certainly the case as the Family Service Agency of Burbank passed on the usual formalities of its annual “Imagine a City” fundraiser and presented a touch football game at Johnny Carson Park followed by a homecoming dance in the gymnasium of Providence High School this past Friday.

Dance is all about fun for choreographer Sophie Olson. And that's why she named her dance company Sophie Olson Dance Explosion. "I always get very excited about stuff," says the bubbly 32-year-old. "I wanted a fun name and that's what it is. Dance doesn't have to be serious all the time. So the name of the company defines who I am as a choreographer. I don't take myself too seriously. " When she's not teaching at Garri Dance Studio in Burbank, Olson is a choreographer for music videos.

The Media City Ballet and the Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance gathered respectfully last week to honor their artisans and supporters. Encore! An Evening of Dining and Ballet was staged at Glendale's Chevy Chase Country Club to celebrate the kickoff of the Media City Ballet's 10th season. Headquartered in Burbank, the ballet company presents a season of full-scale productions and studio session presentations. They also bring arts-centered educational programming into local elementary school classrooms.

Though ballroom dancing is all the rage now on popular prime-time shows like ?Dancing with the Stars,? Glendale has been doing the fox-trot and West Coast swing all along, with Arthur Murray Franchise Dance Studio holding the title of the oldest licensed business on Brand Boulevard. While Arthur Murray has been in Glendale since 1954, the studio celebrated its 20th anniversary this weekend with current and former students, professional dancers and a live band, just down the street from where the toe tapping originally began.

After losing her father Matt Copping to a long battle with cancer, Amanda Copping remembers and honors his legacy through dance and volunteer work. The Burbank resident is a senior at Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy in La Cañada Flintridge and a member of the Burbank Chapter of National Charity League with her mother, Patricia, and sister Melissa. She has a brother, Christopher, and two sisters, Melissa and Kayla. Her entire family, including her father, who died Jan. 5, is active in the Burbank community.

For five years now, Jamie Nichols has brought her exuberant vision of dance performance to Glendale, and it’s not all about pink tutus and demure pliés. At Sunday’s gala event Celebrate Dance 2010 at the Alex Theatre, Nichols drew together nine dance companies of energetic talent and creative choreography to illustrate that dance, thrillingly, is for all audiences and all ages. Nichols, executive producer of Celebrate Dance, invites dance companies from around the country to participate in a show that gives each act 10 minutes or so to wow the audience, and all delivered.