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City Dance Company
"My
daughter could take dance lessons from a number of places,
including at her school; however, she would not receive
the warmth and special attention she gets at City Dance.
Not only are they teaching her the fundamentals of dance
(at age 3) but also they make it fun and exciting. We
recently celebrated Faith's birthday at City Dance, and
the owner, Sherese, and her staff was outstanding. Several
days in advance, they made sure the day would be a success."
Melanie Miles
Attorney-at-law
Houston TX 77092 |
| PROFESSIONAL
COMPANY'S MEMBERS AND STAFF
City Dance Company exists to
bring the many aspects of the dance experience to the
most extensive and diverse population possible.
City Dance Company is a non-profit
educational organization which enjoys the support of
grants from the city of Houston and Texas Commission
on the arts through the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris
County as well as private companies, foundations and
individual donors.
City Dance is
a place where voices are given life, where feelings
are provided structure and focus, and where dancers
can do what they love.
In 1994, Sherese
Campbell established City Dance Studio, her non-profit
dance school and performing arts organization as a way
to reflect the ethnic diversity of the Houston Metropolitan
area. Since then, Ms. Campbell has been the driving
force in teaching the school's over 200 dance students,
some 20% of whom receive scholarships. The school features
a culturally and internationally diverse student body,
with dancers hailing from Russia, China, Japan, Hungary,
India, Nigeria, Mexico, Germany, and Italy, as well
as various Houston neighborhoods. Ms. Campbell's commitment
to dance education and instruction shows itself in City
Dance's comprehensive class schedule, featuring an array
of ballet, jazz, modern, tap, break-dancing, and hip-hop
offerings that cater to students of all ages and ability
levels.
The Company's
students are given the opportunity to perform in a variety
of settings. Our students
are also expected to routinely give their time and talent
to the community by performing for Houston area retirement
communities, hospitals, and homeless shelters.
City Dance's
touring company performs their vibrant mix of jazz,
hip-hop, and classical styles in theaters and at cultural
events throughout Houston, and has performed internationally
in Spain, Switzerland, and Monaco. The Company's performers
are young adults of diverse ethnic, social, and cultural
backgrounds, some of whom were at one time at-risk students
or high school dropouts from troubled or broken homes
and many of the performers are products of Ms. Campbell's
classes themselves, and now teach master classes of
their own.
The company is
a flowing tapestry of visual and aural experience, and
to watch City Dance perform is to see the pulsing synthesis
of cultures, languages, neighborhoods, and lives. The
company's practice studio shakes with the beating rhythms
of innovation and tradition, the near-primordial screams
and echoes of the mind working with and against the
body, gathering a verve that spills into the performance
halls and out onto the city's streets. City Dance promotes
the art of dance through community service at venues
such as school, assisted living facilities and various
at-risk facilities.
City Dance's
long history of selfless public service puts it in the
forefront of many of the dance companies in the Houston
metropolitan area. |
| City
Dance Company brings the energy of Houston's eclectic
urban community to the stage, employing performance styles
ranging from jazz and hip-hop to some of Houston's most
cutting edge modern dance, imparting an ongoing message
of inclusion and expression. Under the guidance of founder
and artistic director Sherese Campbell, City Dance's dynamic
first company uses dance as an artistic medium through
which to engage its audiences in a dialogue exploring
both the dark and light sides of the human experience,
both the struggles and the triumphs. |
Sherese
Campbell
Twelve years ago Sherese Campbell while embodying her
ambitious and eclectic artistic vision, committed to forming
a dance company that would reflect her own experiences,
as well as the diverse lives of its dancers, Sherese combined
the principles of her artistic training with a personal
goal to positively affect social change. In 1994 she established
City Dance, Inc. bringing together dancers from a myriad
of ethnic and cultural backgrounds from all parts of Houston.
At this point, Sherese's dream of a multi-ethnic, socially
conscious, and artistically vibrant company became a reality.
|
Joan
Galvan  Joan
started dancing as a child, performing in Greek folk dances.
Later, she attended Stephen F. Austin University on a
dance scholarship, performing with the school’s dance
squad and acting as its fitness instructor. She began
dancing with City Dance as a member of the second company
in 2002 before joining the first company in 2004. She
is currently a certified dietician. |
Jaimee
Vilela
 Jaimee
joined in 2001 and has acted as a principal dancer and
been named director of the City Dance Ensemble since.
Jaimee studied dance for 13 years at the Banbury School
of Dance being accepted to study at the Robert Joffrey
School of Dance Summer Program in New York. An active
member of the Filipino cultural community, Jaimee was
a choreographer for the Filipino Student Association at
the University of St. Thomas where she received her bachelor's
degree. Graduating from the Texas Heart School of Cardiopulmonary
perfusion Jaimee has been a cardio thoracic perfusionist
at Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston. Jaimee teaches
workshops at City Dance and at her local church and other
venues. |
Lauren
Anderson
Guest Teacher From The Houston Ballet (semester Sept-Dec
2008)
 Currently
an Outreach
Associate with The Houston Ballet, Lauren is a native
Houstonian and danced with The Houston Ballet from 1983
to 2006, performing leading roles in all the great classical
ballets, appearing across the world to critical acclaim,
and in the process, becoming one of Houston Ballet’s
most beloved stars.
In January 2007, Ms. Anderson
assumed her new role of outreach associate in Houston
Ballet’s education department where she teaches ballet
classes at Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy, conducts
master classes at area schools, and lectures to students
on dance and her historic career as one of America’s
most distinguished African-American ballerinas.
She trained exclusively at
Houston Ballet's Ben Stevenson Academy from the age
of seven. She joined Houston Ballet in 1983 and in 1990
became the first African-American to be promoted to
principal dancer at Houston Ballet – and one of the
few African-American ballerinas at the head of a major
ballet company anywhere in the world. In addition, Ms.
Anderson received the Special Jury Award at the 1990
International Ballet Competition as well as the International
Critics Award in Chile.
Ms. Anderson danced leading
roles in numerous classical ballets. Her repertoire
included works by George Balanchine, Sir Kenneth MacMillan,
Christopher Bruce, James Kudelka, and Trey McIntyre.
Ms. Anderson created the title role in Ben Stevenson's
Cleopatra, and her performance as Cleopatra received
accolades from international critics. Anna Kisselgoff
of The New York Times compared her to the great Italian
actress Eleanora Duse, and Christine Temin of The Boston
Globe pronounced her "a powerhouse in interpreting the
role that Stevenson created on her." Ms. Anderson performed
across the world as a guest artist, appearing in New
York, Chile, Moscow, and Chicago.
In April 1999, Ms. Anderson
was featured on the cover of Dance Magazine. She has
also been featured in the magazines People and Pointe,
as well as on the television programs "A&E Breakfast
With the Arts," "CBS News Sunday Morning," and the game
show, "To Tell the Truth." She has been honored by The
Martin Luther King Foundation, Coalition of 100 Black
Women, YWCA, by the Urban League, Delta Gamma Foundation,
Texas Woman’s Chamber of Commerce, Houston City Council,
and the Texas Legislature. Ms. Anderson is also an honorary
member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Most recently,
Ms. Anderson has been appointed Artist in Residence
of the Fine Arts Department at Texas Southern University. |
Kim
Taylor
 Ms.
Kim Taylor began dancing at the age of five under the
direction of Debbie Busby at Busby Dancecenter in Victoria,
TX. She was a member of the Victoria Ballet Theatre
for four years. She was accepted into both Joffrey and
Ballet Austin’s summer intensive programs. Ms. Kim traveled
with the Victoria Ballet Theatre to Regional Dance America
for two years. She had the opportunity to travel with
VBT to Austria and Germany to perform and take master
classes.
She was an officer of her high
school dance team for two years and Captain her senior
year. Ms. Kim won numerous awards at camps and was a
solo winner at a competition the drill team attended.
She is a 2007 graduate of Sam Houston State University
with a BA in Fashion Merchandising and minor in Dance.
Ms. Kim had the opportunity to perform in Kista Tucker’s
Dance Company and the Sam Houston Dance Company performances.
She is currently dancing with
the City Dance Company in Houston. Ms. Kim has had the
privilege of being an instructor at City Dance since
January 2008 and enjoys sharing her love of dance with
others. |
Ronda
G. Lewis
Administrative
Assistant |
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