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Springboard Danse Shifts Stateside Thanks to a New Partnership With Point Park University

Following a two-year hiatus, Springboard Danse’s signature summer program is springing back into action. Formerly based in Montreal, Springboard’s Summer Project is now ensconced at Pittsburgh’s Point Park University, with which Springboard has begun a five-year partnership. The inaugural U.S. edition runs May 25–June 13 at Point Park’s downtown campus.

Springboard Danse’s objective is to directly connect professional-track contemporary dancers with companies and choreographers. During the three-week Summer Project, its primary initiative, dancers are assigned to work with specific choreographers. The 120 dancers selected for this year’s edition will be cast with one of the 10 participating principal companies—including Kidd Pivot, Kyle Abraham, and chuthis—in addition to one of the 10 resident, fellow, and emerging choreographers. “There are no understudies and no second casts,” says artistic director Alexandra Wells, who co-founded Springboard with Susan Alexander.

The not-for-profit organization attests to directly connecting more than 900 dancers with paid employment since its 2001 founding, but Wells believes the number to be much higher: Even artists who do not walk away from the program with contracts make connections that may subsequently lead to jobs.

Springboard operated continuously in Montreal from its inception until its pandemic pause from 2020–21. “We pulled it together for 2022, but things were rocky with dance all around the world,” says Wells. “We realized we needed a new home.”

In 2023, at a Point Park–sponsored event in New York City, an alumnus of both the university and the Summer Project suggested that Garfield Lemonius, dean and artistic director of Point Park’s School of Dance, get acquainted with Wells. They clicked.

“Events like this highlight Pittsburgh as an arts-center city,” says Lemonius, who regards the partnership as a win-win. The influx of Springboard participants will become aware of the university and its offerings, he says, while currently enrolled dance students will have opportunities to work with two Springboard choreographers during the academic year. In addition to 10 large studios, Point Park is providing use of its Pittsburgh Playhouse, a downtown venue housing multiple performance spaces.

Currently, tuition for the three-week program is $1,975. Springboard distributes $39,000 among 40 percent of each summer’s participants based on financial need. Wells says the ultimate goal is a tuition-free program, and hopes that public or foundation funding may become part of the picture in the future.

The post Springboard Danse Shifts Stateside Thanks to a New Partnership With Point Park University appeared first on Dance Teacher.

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Tapas Das: Tapas Das, a young entrepreneur of our times started TWIST N TURNS in 2005. A person who is kind, generous, creative and down to earth wanted to start his own one of a kind dance academy. According to him, Dance is a language of movements that involves space, time and the human body. He was born and grew up in Kolkata, the cultural hub of India. Being appreciated in the field of dance all his life, he is extremely talented. He has been dancing since the age of four. Once he finished his high school, he learned jazz/modern and contemporary dance. His horizons were broadened even more when he started dancing Bollywood with Beat Busters for 4 years, which then was the most upcoming dance crew in Kolkata. After that exposure, he studied how to be a dance teacher, which later started helping him impart his knowledge about dance. Thus, in 2005, with the help of family and friends, he started TWIST N TURNS. Starting with a mere number of 40 students, today TWIST N TURNS currently has over 500 students. Over the time Tapas has taught and performed all over the country. He has performed in cities such as Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Jhansi, Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Udaipur etc. He has been an active participant in the Salsa India Congress in the cities of Bangalore and Bombay, and he has also visited various International Salsa Congresses in Europe, namely in Berlin ,Singapore, Hong Kong,Dubai. He is been also trained recently at Broadway Dance Center (New York), Alvin Alley (New York) and Steps on Broadway (New York). He is not only a dancer or teacher. He is a successful choreographer and has coordinated various shows without difficulty in our country. His leadership skills are exceptional, thus he is where he stands today. His aim in life would be to become a dance educator. He wants to share his tremendous knowledge in the right way to the right people. He is also, simultaneously running other brands like Zumba Kolkata, Bollywood Studio ArtistWala.com and India International Dance Institute.