Young New Orleans Dancers get chance to shine

Taylor Landry and Parsons Dance veteran and Metairie native Abby Silva Gavezzoli rehearse for the May 10 performance at Mahalia Jackson Theater.

The seasoned, sparkling grand finale of the New Orleans Ballet Association main stage season also marks the beginning of eight, bright, young careers.

New York-based Parsons Dance has choreographed a new work to Allen Toussaint’s iconic “Yes We Can Can,” featuring a cast of eight NORDC/NOBA Center or Dance pre-professional students ages 13-18, most of whom have never had the opportunity to dance with a professional company and/or to live music.

NOBA faculty member Aline Neves de Souza rehearses with the students, videotapes their performance, sends the videos to Parsons Dance Associate Artistic Director Liz Koeppen and dancer Abby Silva Gavezzoli, and then implements the feedback.

A culmination of a yearlong project, the students are practicing 15-20 hours per week leading up to the May 10 performance at Mahalia Jackson Theatre.

“This has a whole other show quality to it for me, not only because I was once a young girl and I remember being in their shoes, but because this is my hometown,” Metairie native Gavezzoli says. “They are getting an opportunity that even a 30-year-old dancer in New York City doesn’t get — and they’re getting it at 14!”

Gavezzoli describes the dancers as polite, professional, serious and tremendously

NOBA faculty member and local rehearsal director Aline Neves de Souza and Parsons Dance’s Liz Koeppen and Abby Silva Gavezzoli observe a rehearsal for “Yes We Can Can.”

dedicated at such a young.

“I remember being so young and eager and hungry like they are,” she says. “There’s just something about being on the other side of it, you’re in there giving, giving, giving and you feel like you’re the one receiving.

Koeppen praises NOBA for the commission which, she says, is really three shows in one: Parsons Dance regular repertoire, the premiere of the young dancers from NORDC/NOBA, and the live music from legendary New Orleans piano man and producer, Toussaint.

“I feel I’ve had a big part of education through execution, and that’s very special,” Koeppen says. “They bring a lot of energy to the room. It’s going to be like birthing something on May 10!”

Koeppen says the NORDC/NOBA program is inviting and professional.

“It doesn’t matter where you’re from or what your background is,” Koeppen says. “This program gives everyone an opportunity to be on the same page and be pushed by professionals. And these kids are getting it all for free! It’s really unbelievable.”

Mandeville’s Lakeshore High School senior Mercedez Mize was chosen to learn and

perform the Gavezzoli’s role during a special performance of the work as part of the NORDC/NOBA Center for Dance Spring Concert on May 18 at Tulane University’s Dixon Hall.

“I’m happiest when I’m dancing,” Mize says. “Dancing is literally its own thing; it’s like, asking ‘why do you like to dance?’ is like asking ‘why do you brteathe?’ I do it because I have to.”

Lusher Charter School senior Catherine Woodfox says the instruction from Parsons Dance is teaching her to let go — a lesson that applies not just to her performances, but to her life in general.

“I know I have a problem letting go,” she says, “but I’m learning to let loose. Liz and Abby are teaching me to throw away the technique, that it’s okay to get down and have a little bit of fun!”

Chalmette High School junior Ashlie Russell says the rehearsals are long and hard but teach them to keep pushing and keep going.

“You can’t give up, can’t stop,” Russel says. “We can apply this to our regular lives at school, dancing, or even a job.”

Understudy Tatiana Jacques says even if she doesn’t perform, she’s taken considerable life lessons from the experience, which has been challenging in ways she can’t quite explain.

“I can’t explain myself in words,” Jacques says, “but I can explain it in dance.”

The most basic things in dance, Emma Loetzerich explains, are the first things a dancer learns and the last thing they will master.

“You’re never going to be perfect at it, but the way you perform it is your thoughts of perfection,” Loetzerich says. “You make it your own. There’s technique to it, but people have their limits, and that’s your whole goal, to stretch your limits until you reach as good as you can be.”

Dancing, Kennedy Dorsey explains, is not what they do; it’s who they are.

Other dancers chosen for the performance are Isabella Beninate, Celeste Jupiter, Taylor Landry, Cori Lewis, Tia Peck, and Jaelyn Robinson.

“As a dancer on stage, there’s no greater feeling of excitement than live music,” Koeppen says. “The musicians might jazz out and change tempo, and you have to be on your toes and adapt to that and it’s really, really fun!”

The world premiere performance is at Mahalia Jackson Theater, 1419 Basin St., on May 10 at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $20-$80 and may be purchased through the NOBA Box Office at 504.522.0996 or online at www.NOBAdance.com, and through Ticketmaster at 800.745.3000 or www.ticketmaster.com. Discounts are available for students, seniors and groups.

NOBA dance students Emma Loetzerich, Cori Lewis, Isabella Beninate, Jaelyn Robinson, Kennedy Dorsey and Taylor Landry rehearse new work from Parsons Dance.

Eight NORDC/NOBA Center for Dance students will perform in Parsons Dance Company’s performance of Allen Toussaint’s “Yes We Can Can” on May 10 at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre. Mercedez Mize, of Mandeville, seated, will perform the role of Metairie native and Parsons veteran Abby Silva Gavezzoli during a special performance of the work for the NORDC/NOBA Spring Concert on May 18 at Tulane’s Dixon Hall.

Published in The New Orleans Advocate, May 8, 2014.