James Fayette and Kathleen Tracey will perform as guest artists during the 7 p.m. program on Saturday, April 27, in the Cultural Center’s West Virginia State Theater when the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History presents the 2002 West Virginia Dance Festival. Fayette and Tracey are soloists with the New York City Ballet.
The festival runs April 26 - 28. Two nights of performances begin on Friday, April 26, at 7 p.m., and will showcase the talent of West Virginia dancers who come to perform and take classes from the nationally acclaimed festival faculty. The Friday concert will include 20 West Virginia dance groups and modern dance ensembles featuring Shane O’Hara, Cynthia Thompson and Kate Trammell. On Saturday, 16 more groups will perform in addition to Fayette and Tracey (bios attached).
Both evening performances are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-seated basis and seating is limited. A list of the performing Mountain State dance groups is on the back of this page.
Thirty-nine dance groups will participate in this year’s festival. More than 450 dancers from West Virginia schools and companies were adjudicated in advance and will take part in classes and performances. For more information about the 2002 West Virginia Dance Festival or other programs of the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, call (304) 558-0162.
The West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, an agency of the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, brings together the state’s past, present and future through programs and services in the areas of archives and history, the arts, historic preservation and museums. The Cultural Center is West Virginia’s official showcase for the arts. Visit the Division’s website at www.wvculture.org for more information about programs of the Division. The Department of Arts, Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
Friday, April 26, 2002, Performing Groups
(in order of appearance)
Momentum Dance Center, Clarksburg
Michael McGowan, director
American Academy Ballet, Charleston
Kim Pauley, director
Trillium Performing Youth, Lewisburg
Beth White, director
The Art Center School of Dance, Huntington
Ella Hay, director
Wyoming East High School, Beckley
Lisa Griffin Oxley, director
Mid Ohio Valley Ballet Arts Academy, Parkersburg
Suzy Gunter, director
Greenbrier Dance Academy, Lewisburg
Ginny Walls, director
Green River Dance Theater, Alderson
Rachel Blue Biesemeyer, director
feMo Dance Theatre, Huntington
Bess Park Reynolds, director
Inwood Dance Company, Inwood
Denna Smith/Shan Dai, directors
Alderson Dance Ensemble, Alderson
Adrienne Belafonte Biesemeyer, director
Guest Artists
Cynthia Thompson, Kate Trammell
Greenbrier Dance Theatre Company, Lewisburg
Ginny Walls, director
Zenith Dance Theatre, Sweet Springs
Carli Mareneck, director
Capital High School, Charleston
A. Michelle Legg, director
Guest Artist
Shane O’Hara
Concord Dance Ensemble, Athens
Antoinette Lewis, director
River City Youth Ballet, Charleston
Michelle Rader, director
Siren, Morgantown
Jennifer Thomas/Michelle Hatcher, directors
Augusta Youth Ballet Company, Buckhannon
Nina Scattaregia, director
Saturday, April 27,2002, Performing Groups
(in order of appearance)
Kitchen Sink Dance Company, Clarksburg
Michael McGowan, director
Schrader Youth Ballet, Parkersburg
Velma Schrader, director
Mid Ohio Valley Ballet Company, Parkersburg
Suzy Gunter, director
Beckley Dance Theatre School, Beckley
Jerry Rose, director
Kat & Co. Dance Studio, Westover
Katreena Snyder, director
Trillium Performing Arts Collective, Lewisburg
Barbara Michaelson, Beth White, Carli Mareneck, directors
Huntington Dance Theatre, Huntington
Amy L. McElroy, director
Guest Artists
James Fayette and Kathleen Tracey
Beckley Dance Theatre, Beckley
Jerry Rose, director
West Virginia Dance Company, Beckley
Toneta Akers-Toler, director
Morgantown Dance Studio, Morgantown
Liz Finklea, Eunice Kim, directors
West Virginia Wesleyan College Dance Company, Buckhannon
Bess Park Reynolds, director
Guest Artists
James Fayette and Kathleen Tracey
Pineville Dance Theatre, Beckley
Toneta Akers-Toler, director
January’s Academy of Dance, Charleston
January Johnson Wolfe
Charleston Ballet, Charleston
Kim Pauley, director
Guest Artists for the 2002 West Virginia Dance Festival
James Fayette
James Fayette began his ballet training at age five at the Patricia Schuster School of Ballet. In 1985 he entered the School of American Ballet, the official school of the New York City Ballet (NYCB). He became an apprentice with the NYCB in 1990, joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in 1991 and was promoted to the rank of soloist in 1997.
Fayette has appeared in many works from the NYCB’s vast repertory, dancing featured roles in George Balanchine’s Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet, Firebird and The Nutcracker; Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering, Interplay, In the Night and Ives; Peter Martins’ Fearful Symmetries, Morgen, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty; Richard Tanner’s Ancient Airs and Dances; Kevin O’Day’s Badchonim (merrymakers) and Huoah; and Miriam Mahdaviani’s Correlazione among others. Fayette also has originated roles in Martins’ Harmonielehre, Jazz (Six Syncopated Movements) and Reliquary; Tanner’s Episodes and Sarcasms and Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Chiaroscuro to name a few.
Fayette has made guest appearances with the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Dances Patrelle, Ballet, Inc. and the Columbia Artists Tour. For the last four years, he has taken a group of dancers to Manchester, Vermont, for benefit performances and led a performing tour of northern Italy. Most recently, Fayette has begun guest teaching at various ballet schools and is pursuing an undergraduate degree at Fordham University.
Kathleen Tracey
Kathleen Tracey was born in Pueblo, Colorado where she studied
at the Ballet Theatre of Pueblo. She first attended a summer course
at the School of American Ballet, the official school of the New
York City Ballet (NYCB), in 1983 and entered the winter session on
scholarship in 1984. She participated in the Danish-American
national Cultural Exchange Program in 1987, spending three weeks
training with the Royal Danish Ballet and then joined the NYCB in
1987 as a member of the corps de ballet. She was promoted to the
rank of soloist in 1993.
Tracey has performed numerous featured roles including George
Balanchine’s Agon, Apollo, Coppelia, A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, Raymonda Variations, and Swan Lake; Jerome
Robbins’ The Four Seasons, Goldberg Variations, Opus 19/The
Dreamer, and Piano Pieces; Peter Martins’ Ash, Black and
White, Delight of the Muses, and The Sleeping Beauty; and Twyla
Tharp’s The Beethoven Seventh, among others. She also has
originated roles in Martins’ Reliquary and Slonimsky’s
Earbox; David Allan’s Pastoral Dances; and Trey
McIntyre’s Steel and Rain to name a few.
Tracey has toured extensively, both with the NYCB and on
independent tours, including trips to Italy, Korea, Taiwan and Hong
Kong. In addition, she appeared in the film version of
Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, produced by Elektra
Entertainment/New Regency Enterprises.
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