Posts filed under ‘Summer Program’
Legendary Dancer Jock Soto Teaches Master Class
by Julia Countryman
In what is perhaps the first time since modern dancer Bella Lewitzky was in residence at Idyllwild Arts, IAA was honored to play host a world-renowned ballet dancer this past week. Jock Soto, retired principal ballet dancer of the New York City Ballet was in residence to teach a master class to Academy dance students and to choreograph a ballet pas de deux to music by Laura Ortman who is White Mountain Apache which will be performed during the Native American Arts Festival.
Soto, who retired from the City Ballet in 2005, at the age of 40, enjoyed a remarkable 25-year career with the Ballet and continues to teach at The School of American Ballet. Over the course of his exquisite career, Mr. Soto inspired the creation of approximately 100 new ballet roles composed specifically for him with a repertory that included numerous works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Peter Martins. He also inspired the creation of roles in many new ballets, including Peter Martins’s A SCHUBERTIAD (1984), ECSTATIC ORANGE (1987), FEARFUL SYMMETRIES (1990), JAZZ (SIX SYNCOPATED MOVEMENTS) (1993), SINFONIA (1993), and MORGEN (2001) among others.
Ellen Rosa, Director of the Dance Department commented, “We are very excited to have Mr. Soto here on campus. Besides teaching and choreography, he will be a great inspiration to the young men of the dance department.”
Soto’s visit was made possible by a grant from the Arts Enterprise Laboratory (AEL). The Arts Enterprise Laboratory is a new program that provides student grants for emerging young artists to create new works of art, develops directed master classes designed to facilitate mentorships that live beyond the master class experience. For more information regarding the Arts Enterprise Laboratory, visit http://www.idyllwildarts.org/arts-q10509-c10022-Arts_Enterprise_Laboratory.aspx.
Summer Program Alumnus Receives 2012 Honickman Book Prize
Tomás Q. Morín, a past fellow at the 2006 Summer Poetry in Idyllwild Festival, was recently awarded the 2012 Honickman Book Prize for his manuscript A Larger Country.
Tomas Q. Morin, Winner of the 2012 Honickman Book Prize
During the Summer Poetry in Idyllwild Festival Tomás worked with Pulitzer Prize winner and poet Natasha Trethewey and poet Cyrus Cassells, winner of the Lannan Literary Award and a Pushcart Prize. Mr. Morín states, “I had a wonderful time at Idyllwild’s poetry program. It was great spending time with so many talented students in the idyllic mountains of southern California. The faculty was stellar and encouraging of all the students. That kind of early encouragement and validation is priceless.”
He received his MFA from Texas State University, and MA from Johns Hopkins University. He is the recipient of scholarships from the Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference and the New York State Summer Writers Institute, and was a fellow at the Idyllwild Summer Arts Program. He is a Senior Lecturer at Texas State University.
His poems have appeared in New England Review, Narrative, Boulevard, Slate,Threepenny Review, Best New Poets, and elsewhere.
