Gary Geis Dance Company and School of Dance

Gary Geis Dance Company:
Gary Geis - Artistic Director

The Gary Geis Dance Company's mission is to advance the appreciation of the art of dance and to bring focus on dance education in the Springfield, Ohio community. With the wide range of experience that our artistic staff has to offer, our goal is to provide the members of this pre-professional dance company with a highly diverse curriculum. By design, this preparation and training will act as a "springboard" into a professional career in a major dance or musical theatre company.

A Board of Directors and an artistic staff have established goals for the company. Those goals are to provide seasonal dance concerts for the Springfield area and to appear as guests in area university dance concerts. We will also participate in community out-reach lecture programs to introduce the art of dance to young people in our school system.

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company 2:
Shonna Hickman Matlock - Director

Founded in 1975 by Jeraldyne Blunden, DCDC2 is the repertory-training ensemble of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and is comprised of college graduates and undergraduates preparing for professional careers. This culturally diverse modern dance company is committed to providing the highest standards of artistic excellence through live dance performances and innovative educational outreach programs to diverse audiences of many social, ethnic and economic backgrounds. DCDC2 reaches thousands by offering education and outreach programs through public performances, educational institutions, and for any number of occasions and organizations, throughout the Miami Valley and to communities beyond our region.

Wright State Dance Ensemble:
Teressa McWilliams - Associate Professor and Coordinator

The Dance Program is designed to prepare students for careers as professional dancers, choreographers, or teachers. The dance program uniquely fuses theatrical and musical training and perspectives into the dance curriculum, enabling dance students to prepare for specialized careers in modern and ballet companies or in the professional theatre as dancers who sing and act.

The underpinning of the dance curriculum is the daily ballet class with specialized training in modern and jazz/theatre dance. Training is completed with studies in dance history, dance pedagogy, improvisation, choreography, tap, pointe, men's class, and pas de deux. Seniors are required to complete a senior choreographic project before graduation. Our students have gone on to perform nationally and internationally in dance companies such as Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, BalletMet, Cincinnati Ballet, Louisville Ballet, Lula Washington Dance Theatre, and Dayton Ballet as well as appearing in Broadway and regional musicals.

Gem City Ballet:
Barbara Pontecorvo - Artistic Director

Gem City Ballet began its life in 1991 as a performing outlet for Pontecorvo Ballet Studios. It gained its non-profit status in 1995 and joined the prestigious Regional Dance America organization that same year. Highlights of Gem City Ballet’s history include performances as guest artists for the Sorg and Whitewater Opera Companies and artistic collaborations with Dayton Philharmonic, Miami Valley Symphony Orchestra and Ohio Dance Gala and in Innsbruck Austria as part of the Tanzsommer Dance Festival.

In May 2002, Gem City Ballet hosted Regional Dance America Northeast’s Festival 2002. The festival brought to Dayton between 400 and 600 pre-professional dancers, their directors and choreographers for three days of classes and performances. The festival was praised by the Dayton Daily News and the Oakwood register for exceptional quality and for bringing regional dance back to Dayton. As member of Regional Dance America, GCB has performed in Allentown PA , Boston MA, Canton OH, Columbus OH, Houston TX, Pittsburgh PA.

Each year GCB presents three full length concerts, usually combining standard classical repertoire with new works by both established and developing choreographers.

November 2003 was a landmark date for GCB marking the first performance of a work by master choreographer George Balanchine, Concerto Barocco. The following season saw GCB's premier of Mr. Balanchine's Valse-Fantaisie and the 2005-2006 season featured Mr. Balanchine's Who Cares? The 2006-2007 season will find GCB dancing one of Mr. Balanchine's masterpieces, Serenade, which is found in the repertoire of nearly every professional ballet company. GCB plans a full evening of Mr. Balanchine's work in the 2006-2007 season.

One of GCB’s most exciting ventures is the opportunity for the Dayton community to watch world class guest artists perform with the company. In November 2003 Jennie Somogyi and Charles Askegard of New York City Ballet performed Concerto Barocco with the Gem City Ballet dancers. In January of 2005 Xiomara Reyes and Jose Carreno from American Ballet Theatre performed the 2nd act of Giselle with GCB dancers. For the ballet Who Cares?, GCB brought in three guest artists, Bonnie Pickard, formerly from Wilmington, OH and now dancing with Suzanne Farrell Ballet and her partner from Suzanne Farrell Ballet, Momchil Mladenov, also featured, Adam Hundt, formerly from Kettering, OH and currently dancing with BalletMet Ohio. The 2006-2007 season will find more guest artists performing with GCB in Act Three of Coppelia as part of the Victoria Theatre Gala in January.

Gem City Ballet is currently in artistic partnership with Michigan Classic Ballet under the direction of Mary Geiger to produce yearly performances in both Dayton and Detroit, home of MCB. This program introduces the companies to the rigors of touring and exposes them to new audiences, stages and performing colleagues.