Much to Know: An Evening of Dance

Dear Friends of Idaho Dance Theatre,

     My name is Mary Kate Sickel and for those of you who may not know I have been a dancer with the company for the past two seasons. Also I regret to inform you that I will not be dancing with the company in the next season 2011-2012.

     It has been such a pleasure to get to know so many of you and to have the opportunity to perform in such a rich and vibrant community. I hope everyone realizes how wonderful and supportive this community truly is. Everything from the people to the foothills have been embracing and welcoming. I can not thank you enough for the privilege you've provided me with.

     It is thanks to this all consuming kindness that I have the pleasure to present an evening of my own choreography on May 8th at 7:30pm in the Danny Peterson Theatre of the Morrison Center. The press release is below. I hope you can come and continue your support of local dance!


Boise State University Department of Theatre Arts and Idaho Dance Theatre are proud to sponsor "Much to Know: An Evening of Dance" featuring the five works by choreographer Mary Kate Sickel. Please join Sickel and her company for an exciting performance, including
two world premieres and a guest performance by Off-Center Dance Project. Using a mixture of recycled goods, commissioned sound-scores and a dynamic cast of community artists, "Much to Know" is a modern-dance Mother's Day treat!

Sunday, May 8th
7:30 p.m.
Danny Peterson Theatre of the Morrison Center
$5.00 student/$7.00 non-student

     Again, thank you to the board for making IDT a wonderful place to work full of kind people and great connections! Thank you to Carl and Marla for offering me the position and showing me the awesomeness of Boise. And thanks again to Marla, Fred, and Richard Klautsch for encouraging and providing me the opportunity to produce my own show!

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I wish you all a great summer and fruitful fall!

Mary Kate Sickel (the girl from Wisconsin)

Great Season

     What a great season it has been. We ended our 2010-11 season with a great show full of what we do best, dance and lots of it! We want to THANK all of our generous donors, sponsors and amazing audience members throughout the season. We would not exist without your amazing support.

    Now we look forward to a much needed break in the summer, but not before we hold auditions for our next season. This next Saturday, April 23rd, IDT will hold auditions to look for new talented dancers to possibly join our family.

     IDT is also very excited to announce the launch of its new endeavor in the fall of 2011, IDT Junior Dance Company. We see the young talent and future IDT dancers all over the Treasure Valley and we want to offer a pre-professional program where they can gain real life performing experience. Stay tune to hear and see this new and young company make an impact in the performing arts community in Boise.

Again, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to each and everyone of you who volunteered, donated, sponsored or attended one of our shows.

Be sure to check out the review of our Spring Performance at http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/04/17/1612897/review-idaho-dance-theatre-goes.html .

See you next season!

Sincerely,
Mary Kate, Caitlin, Lia, Melynda, Elizabeth, Eric, Yurek and Gonzalo

Improving It

     As part of downtown Boise's First Thursday, we spent this past Thursday improving and giving a sneak peak of our upcoming Spring Performance. DL Evans bank is our show sponsor and in their downtown branch is where we spent the evening dancing, improving and meeting many new faces.  Check out the clips of some of the fun dancing that happened. We also gave a little sneak peak of Jenn Freeman's piece Flux, one of four new pieces in our show!

     The show is this week, April 15th - 17th. Preview 'pay what you can afford' night is April 14th @ 7:00pm. So be sure to buy your tickets in advance!

See you at the show!

Dress To Impress

     A dance piece is incomplete until you add the final touch, costumes! Just like choreographers have different styles of movement they also have different approaches to dressing their piece. Essentially costumes can be just an accessory or they can be crucial in helping the piece tell a story or create the right ambiance.

     I am very excited to be premiering a new work in our upcoming Spring Performance. Even before I began to create movement and choreograph I decided to start with costumes. Usually its the other way around, choreography first then costumes. I wanted to create costumes that would inspired me and help me in describing and showcasing a story and characters.  I wanted these costumes to come alive and be transferred onto the dancers. I wanted the costumes to be the driving force of my choreography. 

     I was immediately in contact with Lito-John Demitita, costume designer and creator extraordinaire. I expressed my ideas and thoughts behind this piece and he took that and designed 8 different amazing costumes. With renderings in hand I immediately began to let me creativity run wild and I began to create a piece. 

     The costumes themselves are quite the characters. So once I matched the costume to the IDT dancers, it was magic! From the very beginning these costumes have been a very important element to the piece, without them the expression of the movement would not be the same. It just makes sense and you will be able to see the final result April 15th - 17th at Boise State's Special Events Center. 

     Lito-John has also designed and created the costumes for Marla's Orpheus & Euridice piece, which is also in the shows program. 

     I also had to raise the funds to have these costumes created and THANKS to lots of generous people I have ALMOST raised all of the money needed. If you would like to help out by making a taxable donation you can go to our website at www.idahodancetheatre.org and made a contribution to my costumes.  Under purpose of donation just put 'For Gonzalo's Costumes'. 

     Check out the renderings of the costumes and be sure to come to the show to see what these crazy costumes are all about. 

Spring Performance - April 15th-17th, 2011 - Boise State University - Special Events Center

April 14th - Preview Night "Pay what you can afford night".

~ Gonzalo