DANCEFEST SHOWCASES VARIETY OF STYLES
The Vanaver Caravan’s DanceFest is not a competition. Instead, it seeks to build a community among dancers.
This year’s festival will bring together students from 10 different dance schools across the Hudson Valley on Saturday, Feb. 29, at 7 p.m. at Rondout Valley High School.
“It’s not a competition. It’s a sharing of what we do, what we do best,” said Livia Vanaver, founder and artistic director of the New Paltz-based Vanaver Caravan. “A big part of Vanaver Caravan is creating community.”
Vanaver said this contrasts with a larger dance environment that increasingly emphasizes competition driven by television shows like “So You Think You Can Dance.” The emphasis on competition has extended to dance schools, she said.
“It’s about competition and winning in a lot of these dance schools,” Vanaver said. “These are the ones that don’t go to DanceFest anymore, because it doesn’t have that flavor, and that’s just not our purpose.”
These schools treat dance more like sports, according to Vanaver.
“I have nothing against sports,” she said. “I love sports, but, here at DanceFest, there’s no winner and no loser. Everyone is a star, a shining star, and they all get to be appreciated by everybody.”
The dancers who will take the stage are all youngters who dance with the 10 schools, she said.
“We started DanceFest to given students a chance to perform,” Vanaver said.
All the funds raised at DanceFest go to the Vanaver
Caravan’s arts education programs in Hudson Valley public schools, she said.
This year, DanceFest will welcome at least one new studio, Take the Leap Studio of Gardiner. There will also be a number of returning schools that haven’t taken part in DanceFest in recent years, like Energy Dance Company of Kingston, she said.
“We try to get a good variety of people,” Vanaver said.
The festival will open with Kuchipudi Dance, an Indian dance group based in Hopewell Junction and led by Kantham Chatlapalli.
“Kantham Chatlapalli is a wonderful teacher and choreographer of that particular style of Indian dance,” Vanaver said.
It’s been such a long time since these groups have performed, she said, that they are essentially new. “Most of the audience hasn’t seen them.”
Other participating schools include hosts The Vanaver Caravan and the Fei Tian College of Middletown, which will bring Chinese classical dance to this performance, Vanaver said.
Barefoot Dance Center, of West Park, will premiere a new piece created by director Jessie Levey that investigates the United States’ culture of immigration. Other schools, like the New Paltz School of Ballet and the Saugerties Ballet Center, have performed at DanceFest throughout its 28-year run.
Other returning schools include Ballet Arts Studio in Beacon, Dream Studio in Red Hook, the Veritas Dance Company and the Dutchess School of Performing Arts in Poughkeepsie.
As for how schools become part of the festival, Vanaver said they often write Vanaver Caravan asking to be part of the event.
“We’re happy to include new schools who haven’t been part of DanceFest,” she said. “It’s a question of the quality of dance and also the diversity of styles.”
Those styles range from ballet to modern dance, hip hop, percussive dance and even a little jazz.
Even within ballet and modern dance, Vanaver said, there’s plenty of variety.
“Each school has its own choreographers and teachers,” she said. “It’s like a smorgasbord of dance.”
People often don’t realize just how much variety of dance there is in the Hudson Valley, she said. She credits that variety both to people who move here from New York City and longtime residents.
“There’s a real diversity of styles.”
Perhaps her favorite part of DanceFest, she said, is seeing the 10 schools coming together to perform for one another’s audiences.
“Usually, each school has its own community of parents, relatives and friends of their dancers,” Vanaver said. “Here, you have to perform for the whole Hudson Valley community of dance.
“It’s a real celebration in this festival setting.”
That fosters an environment where dancers can learn about each other, she added.
“What we’ve found each year is each school gets better and better. They see each other and get ideas from each other. Each school gets more proficient and more creative.”
Vanaver said each school gets a chance to display photos of the work they do, along with brochures and schedules during the festival’s intermission.
“This is a chance for us to open our eyes to experience more dance than just our school,” she said.