Community in motion

Dance company built on giving back

We’re going to get to dance to help someone,” choreographer Mary Trulock said. “That, to me, is more important than (a) concert.”

The Pineapple Tree Dance Company, a-new nonprofit in Northwest Arkansas, will debut Feb. 19 in a private performance at EOA Children’s House. The dance is called “The Sky Begins at Your Feet,” choreographed by Trulock for Ballet Arkansas in 1999. Before the performance, Trulock will read “Chicken Little.” Afterward, the kids will participate in an art project to make their own Chicken Little, and the dancers will dance and play with the children.

EOA Children’s House is a therapeutic child development and crisis intervention center that serves children from 6 weeks to 5 years old who have suffered from physical, sexual and emotional abuse and life-threatening neglect, according to childrenshousenwa.org.

Brenda Zedlitz, director of children’s services at Children’s House, said the organization is always looking for ways to bring arts and literacy programs to its students.

“Our organization focuses on meeting the emotional and physical needs of abused and neglected children, to help restore their lives.

Programs like this one enrich their educational experience,” she said.

“The Sky Begins at Your Feet” will also be featured as the finale of March 28 and 29 evening performances at Starr Theater at the Walton Arts Center, and there will be a community outreach demonstration featuring three concert numbers at 2 p.m. March 29 at Starr Theater for nonprofit organizations such as Girl Scouts, Peace at Home Family Shelter, the Northwest Arkansas Women’s Shelter and EOA Children’s House.

“The purpose of the company is to give back to the community,” said Erin Basnett, dance company founder. Basnett, 28, danced with Western Arkansas Ballet in Fort Smith and now dances at Fayetteville Dance Center.

Basnett said the company would like to do more community outreach events in the future, but they have not yet decided which nonprofits will be targeted for these.

Co-founder Sally Ashcraft, 32, added that they want to create beautiful moments for the Northwest Arkansas community and make those moments easily accessible. Ashcraft,who also dances at Fayetteville Dance Center, trained at Pine Bluff School of Ballet, Dancebase and the Manor School of Ballet in Edinburgh, Scotland, and North Carolina Dance Theatre.

COMPANY ROOTS

Pineapple Tree Dance Company stemmed from a performance last March at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville. Tessa Cockrell choreographed a piece for a literacy event called the Fairy-Tale Ball, and she asked about 10 dancers to perform, Ashcraft said. People at the event asked the name of the group - which didn’t have one - and the question sparked Ashcraft, Basnett and Cockrell to begin laying the ground work for a nonprofit arts organization.

“We knew we wanted to do something where everyone was welcome as an artist, where the community felt welcome, where new ideas were welcome,” Ashcraft said.

“Our members are leaders in the local dance community, and our focus is creating beautiful art in motion, with trained dancers and talented choreographers,” Ashcraft noted. “We want our performances to be community oriented, and all of what we do is charitable and on a volunteer basis.”

She said Pineapple Tree Dance Company is “intended to definitely be fanciful.” The inspiration for the name, building on the initial fun and lighthearted energy from the Fairy-Tale Ball, is based on the pineapple being a symbol of warm welcome and southern hospitality, she said.

“Pineapples don’t grow on trees, and neither does talent,” Basnett said.

Built on contemporary ballet, the company started with 16 dancers last June and has now grown to about 20 performers ages 14 to 40. Along with the dancers, more choreographers have also come on board: Trulock, Karen Castleman, Beth Hickman and Roselyn Cicerone. Castleman, who is formerly of MOMIX, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, is also a dancer in the company. Ashcraft said the dancers, hand-picked for the company, are “beautifully trained,” each with a wonderful, unique presence.They’re also good people who enjoy doing things for the community, she added.

The dancers all study in different studios, Basnett said, including the Fayetteville Dance Center, Classical Ballet Academy,Joy of Motion Dance Studio and Adonai Ballet Academy. They are joined by dancers from other companies, such as the Northwest Arkansas Ballet.

“These dancers are going above and beyond their regular dance obligations to be a part of this,” Basnett said.

“Instead of schools competing against each other, it’s showing we can come together and do something good for the community.”

Castleman said the main emphasis of the company has been on quality and “a rapport with all of the other choreographers and dancers of mutual respect.”

“It’s been a really positive atmosphere,” she said.

MARCH PERFORMANCES

The dance company’s performances at Walton Arts Center will feature a variety of dances, Trulock said. Trulock, who is 55 and said she still takes dance classes, is choreographing four of them, including the show finale of “The Sky Begins at Your Feet.” One is a piece inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe called “Inside the Waterfall,” an abstract contemporary ballet set to music by Bach.

“Those girls are moving every which way,” she said of the dancers.

Ashcraft is part of this piece, which includes eight dancers. She said the piece is very structural, and she believes it will be “very visually interesting to the audience.”

“It’s just so nice to dance with so many dancers who are good at working together,” she said.

Another piece by Trulock is a deconstruction piece with three dancers. She also choreographed a number with two dancers, which she said with a laugh was “the easiest one to do.” The girls will dance as a classical guitarist plays on stage.

Castleman, 35, is choreographing a piece with five dancers for the show. It has three movements and runs about 11 to 12 minutes, she said. She said it is a little pensive with a somber tone.

“It’s abstractly based on experiences that I think are common to everyone,” Castleman said.

Cockrell, founding choreographer, is choreographing and dancing in a duet with her daughter called Chapter 39, Ashcraft said. There is also a number choreographed by emerging choreographer CeCe Benson. Ashcraft and Basnett saw her student choreography at Benton County School of the Arts and asked her to join the company as a dancer and choreographer.

“She is someone that Erin and I have had our eye on for a while,” Ashcraft said.

Ashcraft said the best part of being in the company is “just getting to work with all of these lovely artists.” She enjoys the collaboration, sharing of ideas and getting to dance.

“People think that the performance is the best part. For dancers, I find that rehearsal and getting to work with each other, it brings me so much joy,” she said.

GO & DO

Pineapple Tree Dance Concerts When: 7:30 p.m. March 28 and 29 Where: Starr Theater at Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville Cost: $15-$20 Information: pineapple treedancecompany.org

Style, Pages 27 on 01/23/2014

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