Patrik Widrig and Sara Pearson provide creative opportunities for TDPS students

Governor's Island, New York, and St. Petersburg, Russia, are 2 of the destinations where TDPS students performed with PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER

In July, 2014, TDPS students performed with PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER at the OPEN LOOK FESTIVAL in St. Petersburg, Russia.

OPEN LOOK FESTIVAL is an international event offering training and performance programs that cover a wide range of contemporary dance forms. Held each summer during the beautiful St.-Petersburg white nights, the festival gathers Russian dancers, choreographers and students for daily performances as well as a series of intensive master classes held by well-known dance masters from all over the world.

One of the dance masters for the 2014 OPEN LOOK Festival held in July, was PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER, led by Professors Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig, and including TDPS faculty and undergraduate and graduate dance alumni and students: Tzveta Kassabova, MFA Dance ’09, Graham Brown MFA Dance ’13, Stephanie Miracle MFA Dance ’14, Robin Brown, MFA Dance candidate '15, Connor Voss BA Dance ’13, Bethany Disque, BA Dance ’13, and Jonathan Hsu, BA Dance ’15. TDPS professor Paul D. Jackson accompanied the group as the fabulous lighting designer and stage manager.

Over the course of the week, PWDT incorporated eleven Russian dancers into the company’s signature work Ordinary Festivals, which was performed as the festival's closing event on the New Stage of the venerable Alexandrinsky Theater. They also performed on the faculty gala that opened the festival, and they created A Curious Invasion/St. Petersburg, a site-specific work for the Alexandrinsky’s multi-leveled, glass and stone lobby in the theater’s award-winning new building.

When asked to share some words about the experience from a Russian dancer perspective, the following response was received: “This world is so big and so small. For the first time in my life I felt connected to Americans. You left and took my heart so far away. This was an unforgettable experience. There was no magic – there were only REAL breathtaking emotions and feelings. I hope our hearts will beat sometimes together at the opposite sides of the planet through all the problems and make our world more beautiful. We are the dancing family. I loved you with all my heart in such a short time cause you are amazing people with an amazing show. And I thank God I was a part of it. Come back!”  Anna Vlasova