Norbert De La Cruz III

 

 

Thursday, 5/28

1:00-2:00pm EST

 

Donation Based

 

Venue: Online

Register at  https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/classic/ws?studioid=31459&stype=-110&sView=day&sLoc=0&sTrn=100000177&date=05/28/20

 

Registered participants will be emailed a link to the class 15 minutes prior to the start.

 

The Playground NYC, in partnership with Gibney, is offering Online Studio, digital dance space. Join us, wherever you are for LIVE online classes with teaching artists in New York City and around the world. Let’s keep moving together and finding new ways to connect. Classes are open to movers of all levels! 

 

Classes will be streamed live via ZOOM. Participants must pre-register for class and create a (free) ZOOM account to join.  Registration will close 20 minutes before the class time.  Fifteen minutes before class, you will receive an email with the ZOOM link.

 

Let’s dance it out!  Community Strong.

 

Class Description:
Norbert’s contemporary movement practice will explore various choreographic tools, exercises, prompts, repertoire phrases and/or imageries to find potentiality in mobilizing the body. 

 

The class will provide a thorough 30-45 minute contemporary fusion and body conditioning warm up that aims to focus ourselves inward. He will be strengthening the trunk whilst fortifying the structure of our bodies towards our movement exploration. His warm up targets to condition the dancer’s body from the ground up - strengthening our relationship to effort, center of gravity, alignment, and circulating the energy between each of our limbs. He encourages the dancer to take the warm up at their own pace. He will sparsely integrate phrase movements into the warm up as cardio repetitions; this helps the student to develop muscular familiarity for the style and strengthen specific pathways of the arms, torso, and legs. 

 

By synthesizing the foundations of classical, modern, and improvisatory techniques, He is interested in how we oscillate from stability and recovery. This internal focus aims to balance the effort required to shape-shift between choreography and improvisation.  He is interested in facilitating a hybrid movement practice where our own physicality is in dialogue between our bodies, the music, time, space, and directionality.

 

The workshop will conclude with repertory phrase work or we will build up into improvisatory scores. Alternatively, the class may be steered into an improvisatory movement workshop where we explore textural possibilities and philosophies of movement materialization.

 

BIO:
Norbert De La Cruz III was born in Bayombong Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines and raised in Los Angeles, CA. He is a NYC and LA-based freelance contemporary dance choreographer and artist. Since receiving his BFA from the Juilliard School in 2010, he has danced professionally as a soloist with Balletto Teatro di Torino, the Metropolitan Opera House, Aszure Barton & Artists, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet and Complexions Contemporary Ballet to name a few. He was recently casted as dancer in Warner Brothers Entertainment’s musical film, In The Heights, directed by Jon Chu.  As a choreographer, he has been commissioned to choreograph for Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Tulsa Ballet II, Barak Ballet, Hubbard Street II, James Sewell Ballet, BalletX, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, Grand Rapids Ballet, and was commissioned twice for the New York Choreographic Institute (an affiliate of the New York City Ballet). De La Cruz has been awarded fellowships from the Jerome Robbins NEW foundation, the Princess Grace Awards - USA, The Jerome Foundation, The Wolf Trap Foundation, and the Commissioning Choreographers Campaign.

He has been selected for professional development programs such as the NY Choreographic Institute, the National Choreographers Initiative (Irvine, CA), Hubbard Street’s National Choreographic Competition (Chicago), Joffrey Academy of Dance Winning Works (Chicago), and Alvin Ailey New Directions Choreography Lab (NY).

His work has been presented by the Joyce Theatre (NY), Wolf Trap (VA), Ailey CitiGroup Theatre (NY), Martha Knoebel Dance Theatre (CA), Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (NY), Blanche Touhill Performing Arts Center (MO), Aspen District Theatre (CO), Lensic Performing Arts Center (NM), Wallis Annenberg (CA), Kelly Strayhorn Theatre (PA), the Broadway Playhouse (IL), Irvine Barclay Theatre (CA), and McCallum Theatre (CA). 

In teaching and choreography, his credentials include The Juilliard School Summer, Ailey/ Fordham University, Joffrey Ballet School J&C NYC, Princeton University Ballet, University of Hartford Dance Division, The University of Richmond. SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, Marymount Manhattan College, NJ Performing Arts Center, Center Of Creative Arts (St Louis), LA County High School for the Arts, OC School for the Arts, Windward School for the Arts, Westside Dance Project, and is currently developing a new work for Point Park University.

Additional honorable mentions include the Asian Arts Alliance Jadin Wong Award, McCallum Theatre Choreography Festival Award, and was featured as one of Dance Magazines Top 25 to watch. While navigating a career as a freelance Choreographer and educator, Norbert is currently performing and collaborating with NYC-based contemporary dance company Boca Tuya with Omar Román de Jesús whilst completing his Masters degree in Fine Arts in dance at Hollins University Graduate Program.