Two titans of dance are represented here next week in master classes. One, amazingly enough, is for those with Parkinson’s Disease. It makes sense, doesn’t it, that dancers — who know how to use the body — are the best teachers of those who have difficulty moving.
On Saturday, January 15, at 2:30 p.m., two dancers from the Mark Morris Dance Group will give a free movement class for those with Parkinson’s Disease and their partners, caregivers, and friends. Space is limited at the PDT studio in Forrestal Village at 116 Rockingham Row, so register now, says Marie Snyder, who organized this class, the first such master class in New Jersey. Here;s a link to a documentary about this therapy.
Bill T. Jones will lecture and show a video of his 1978 work Continuous Replay, which Princeton University students are scheduled to perform. Then Jones will conduct an open rehearsal. The Tuesday, January 18 lecture and screening will be from 3 to 4:15 p.m. in the James M. Stewart theater at 185 Nassau Street, and the rehearsal will start at 4:45 p.m. in the Hagan Dance Studio in the same building. Both events are free, and no tickets are needed. Master classes “open to the university community” are also offered, in January, on the styles of Balanchine, Fosse, and Robbins.
Looking ahead, the students will likely perform the Bill T. Jones work at the Spring Dance Festival, February 18-20 in McCarter’s Berlind Theatre. The Mark Morris Dance Group (pictured) will no doubt be a sellout at McCarter on March 30.