Namedropper
Ballet Yuma
Ballet Yuma topped off another successful season with a trip to Spokane, Wash., where they participated in Regional Dance America’s Pacific Festival. Attending as Arizona’s sole representative in the prestigious national organization, Ballet Yuma dancers have been following an intense rehearsal schedule to perfect the artistic pieces selected by an outside, professional adjudicator to present at the festival. Membership in Regional Dance America not only raises the artistic level of a company, it also provides its dancers with scholarship opportunities worth over $100,000 annually, training and performance opportunities, and exposure to a much broader dance world.
Ballet Yuma performed “Fortitude,” choreographed by Ballet Yuma’s 1st Company member Lily Cong in the Emerging Choreographers program. Ballet Yuma’s featured work was a “Fractured Path,” a new work by San Diegobased choreographer Annette Barcelona. During the finale of the festival, Ballet Yuma was designated as an honor company for 2018.
Summer study scholarships were awarded to Lily Cong to attend Spectrum Dance Theater/Donald Byrd Workshop with a full tuition scholarship and Eric Snyder to Ballet Arizona summer program on a full tuition scholarship. College and university awards to company members included Lily Cong who was offered a non-resident portion scholarship for Utah Valley University 2019, early admittance to the dance major program for University of California Santa Barbara 2019, and a 1/2 tuition scholarship to the Ballet Department at Brigham Young University. Carina Gresham received early admittance to the dance major program for University of California Santa Barbara, a Brigham Young University 1/2 tuition scholarship and Utah Valley University acceptance as a transfer student into the ballet program. Sophie Henry was awarded early admittance to the dance major program for University of California Santa Barbara and acceptance to the Ballet Department at Brigham Young University with a 1/2 tuition scholarship. Madilyn Toms was encouraged to apply to ballet department at Brigham Young University.
ATLANTA — A new exhibition in Atlanta celebrates Winnie-the-Pooh, wandering through his magical world and giving visitors a peek behind the scenes at the people, relationships and inspirations behind the “silly old bear” and his friends.
“Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic” opens Sunday at the High Museum of Art. It highlights the intensely collaborative relationship between author A.A. Milne and illustrator E.H. Shepard, who brought the stories to life, and guides visitors through those tales and their lessons.
“It’s the idea that a writer can imagine a whole world but the written descriptions can only go so far, and then the illustrations take you the next step,” said Virginia Shearer, the High’s director of education.
Milne was inspired by his young son’s stuffed toys to create stories about a boy named Christopher Robin (his son’s first and middle names) and his beloved Winnie-the-Pooh, also known as Pooh Bear. The bear and his plush friends come to life on the page just as they do in the imagination of a child, animated by witty prose and playful drawings.
In a room hung with pale blue and white striped wallpaper to evoke a nursery, a faux window looks out on the imaginary world created by Milne and Shepard as the only known recording of Milne reading from the “Winnie-the-Pooh” book of stories plays in the background. A glass case houses replicas of the plush toys that inspired the characters.
Milne invited Shepard to his home to draw portraits of his son’s toy animals “from life” and hosted Shepard at his country home so he could observe and sketch the trees and landscapes that inspired the Hundred Acre Wood, where Pooh and friends live. Some of the pencilsketched studies that resulted are on display in a part of the exhibition that explores their collaboration.
Drawings grouped by the chapters in “Winniethe-Pooh” and “The House at Pooh Corner” are the exhibition’s main focus. Story panels at adult eyelevel give brief summaries of the chapters. Panels at child eye-level are written for beginning readers and encourage children think about the lessons learned.
The exhibition ends with a room filled with Winniethe-Pooh merchandise, ranging from the earliest days to the present, to illustrate the spread and growth of the brand. It includes the familiar plush bear with a red T-shirt reading “Pooh” marketed by Disney, which bought the character rights in 1961.
The exhibition is a continuation of a series at the High that puts the spotlight on children’s book authors and illustrators.
“I think with all of these projects we’re encouraging people to look closely at what they have at home and realize they have works of art in their own homes,” said co-presenting curator Ginia Sweeney. Another goal, she said, is to provide children with skills they can use to visit and enjoy the rest of the museum and to give parents the tools to help them.
Shearer and Sweeney said they hope the exhibition inspires kids to get outside and have adventures.