Sophia Grace Mazzei is participating in a free virtual dance workshop with the Axelrod Contemporary Ballet Theater, part of the Axelrod Performing Arts Center.
The Axelrod Contemporary Ballet Theater (AX-CBT), part of the Axelrod Performing Arts Center of Deal Park, has been providing a syllabus of multifaceted, free-of-charge virtual dance and theater arts workshops in response to the national stay-at-home order beginning in March. For the program’s launch, Axelrod Contemporary Ballet Theater’s director and choreographer Gabriel Chajnik presented his first Advanced Ballet Workshop online with students not only from New Jersey but all over the nation and they have been “tuning in” and dancing along ever since.
Renowned dance professionals joining Chajnik in the company’s mission to offer “dancing through distancing” include Michael Trusnovec of famed Paul Taylor Dance Company, Dylan Pearce, assistant choreographer of Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas Spectacular, Gabriela Soto who is featured as a Shark Girl in Stephen Spielberg’s highly anticipated “West Side Story,” and Jessica Sgambelluri of Martha Graham and José Limón Dance Companies. Perhaps even more impressive than the credentials of these heralded instructors is the fact that they have donated their time and talents as a way for the Axelrod Performing Arts Center and AXCBT to give back during these difficult times.
AXCBT’s staff feature performers and instructors including Tuyana Balzhieva of the Moscow and Roxey Ballet companies, Lindsay Jorgensen and Olivia Miranda, both recent graduates of the Ailey/Fordham’s dance program, Wendy Roman, who teaches a range of classes from preschool movement for beginners to triple threat musical theater for intermediate students, and Thomas Ryan Ward, also Fordham University educated, who has been inspiring students to explore poetry creation and combine it with dance, as well as teaching acting for dancers.
Workshops and information about AXCBT can be found at axelrodartscenter.com or axcbt.org.
Article originally appeared in the May 7th – May 13th, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.
