RIOULT Dance Presents a 5-Borough Arts-in-Education Tour of DanceREACH

RIOULT's educational program, DanceREACH, now in its 14th year, has forged a partnership with City University of New York (CUNY) performing arts centers and NYC public schools in a two-year project that brings RIOULT's DanceREACH to classrooms and stages in each of New York's five boroughs.

The participating CUNY schools are Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, Lehman College in the Bronx, John Jay College in Manhattan, and LaGuardia Community College in Queens. Each venue provides in-kind support for rehearsal and performance space along with technical assistance, shared marketing initiatives and outreach to public schools in need of arts education in their area. RIOULT provides world-class artists, choreography, instruction, and performances to each community.

Through the two-year Arts-In-Education tour, over 15,000 NYC residents are expected to be exposed to arts education and dance performances, growing the dance audience-base and making dance more accessible in each borough. In addition, the program will instill connections between the CUNY schools and their communities by advancing CUNY performing arts centers as hubs for dance programs and encouraging higher education through high school student involvement at their campuses in the second year of the project. This tour will open workshop, teaching, learning and performance opportunities for NYC dancers and students and will serve as a replicable model for other dance companies.

In 2011-2012 the tour will reach an estimated 3,000 elementary and middle school students through interactive lecture demonstrations led by RIOULT company dancers and DanceREACH teaching artists. An additional 600 students will be involved through dance residencies at elementary schools in each borough, developing student-choreographed works based on RIOULT's family ballet, Small Steps, Tiny Revolutions. Extending outside the classrooms, there will be an opportunity for 12-20 local students ages 8-13 in each borough to audition, rehearse and perform alongside RIOULT company dancers in public performances at each CUNY venue, reaching over 3,000 families across NYC.

In 2012-2013 the tour will transition into high schools reaching 3,000 students through lecture demonstrations and 300 additional students through dance residencies at public high schools in their respective borough. The students at participating high schools will create their own choreographed works based on RIOULT's City, which premiered at the company's New York Season at The Joyce Theater in 2010. The project will culminate in public performances at the CUNY venues in each borough presenting City and additional RIOULT repertory.

Currently, the lecture demonstration portion of this year's tour is wrapping up with successful, sold-out programs held at each borough's participating CUNY performing arts center. RIOULT is excited to begin the dance residencies at PS259 in Brooklyn, PS223 in Queens and PS11 in Manhattan, with school shows and family performances lined up.

RIOULT/CUNY Five-Borough Arts-In-Education Tour 2011-2012 Performances:

Dec. 4th, 2011 - 3:00pm Family Matinee
Lehman Stages, Lehman College (Bronx)
Dec. 5th, 2011 - 10:30am School Show
Lehman Stages, Lehman College (Bronx)
Feb. 4th, 2012 - 3:00pm Family Matinee
On Stage at Kingsborough, Kingsborough Community College (Brooklyn)
May 11th, 2012 - 10:30am School Show
Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College (Manhattan)
May 13th, 2012 - 3:00 Family Matinee
Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College (Manhattan)
May 20th, 2012 - 3:00 Family Matinee
LaGuardia Community College (Queens)
May 21st, 2012 - 10:30am School Show
LaGuardia Community College (Queens)

RIOULT was founded in 1994 and fast became an established name in modern dance with a reputation for creating and presenting the sensual, articulate and exquisitely musical works of Pascal Rioult. Born into the American modern dance tradition, RIOULT is creating its own legacy of contemporary dance that speaks to the mind as well as the heart. The company, based in New York City, presents an annual New York season and tours nationally and internationally. In addition to an established repertoire of over 30 dances, educational and community outreach have been integral to RIOULT since its inception. RIOULT's DanceREACH program, founded in 1997, provides various public and private school children in the New York Metropolitan area with arts-in-education programs that introduce students to the art of modern dance, using Pascal Rioult's repertory as a springboard. Please visit www.rioult.org for more information.

RIOULT is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Its major 2011-2012 season supporters include: Shana Alexander Charitable Foundation, American Music Center Live Music for Dance Program, The Atlantic Philanthropies Director/Employee Designated Gift Fund, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Harriet & Gordon Greenfield Foundation, The Geoffrey C. Hughes Foundation, Jana Foundation, Kendall-Parker Associates LLC, Kenneth French Fund for New Works, The Lepercq Foundation, Morgan Stanley, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York Community Trust, New York State Council on the Arts, O'Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, Open Society Foundations and the Fund for the City of New York, The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The Shubert Foundation, and Sidley Austin LLP.

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