DCNT Honors - Dance Council of North Texas

Honoring Dedication...

2013 Dance Council of North Texas Honors
September 29 . Dallas Black Dance Theater 2pm - 5:30pm

Each fall, the Dance Council of North Texas celebrates the accomplishments of individuals for their
lifetime contribution; artistic and educational achievement; and service to the community.
The prestigious awards are named for four talented and prestigious names in the dance community of
North Texas: Mary McLarry Bywaters (founder of Dance Council) award for lifetime achievement to dance,
Natalie Skelton (Founder of Dance Council) award for artistic excellence, Mary Warner
(Initial Board Member of DCTV) award for outstanding service to dance, Larry White (Premier Dance
Educator at SMU) dance educator award, and the Texas Tap Legend award.
The afternoon recognizes excellence of education, performance and community support for dance in Texas.
Past recipients include such luminaries as Nathalie Krassovska, Tom Adams, Ben Stevenson,
Patsy Swayze, Ann Williams, Anita N. Martinez and Veletta Forsythe-Lill.

Congratulations to the
2013 DCNT Honors Recipients!
dance.broadwayworld.com

Mary Bywaters Award for Lifetime Contribution to Dance ~ Ann Etgen & Bill Atkinson
Ann Etgen was a member of the New York Metropolitan Ballet Company. She has also danced with the Alicia Alonso Ballet Company and in the Broadway productions of “Brigadoon” and “Carousel”. Also, she has made television appearances in Canada and on the Omnibus “History of Dance” program for Agnes DeMille. Miss Etgen has studied in New York from such masters as Pereyaslevec, Dokoudovsky, Antony Tudor, Edward Caton and on the west coast from Eugene Loring.
Bill Atkinson has performed with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in Canada and with the Ballet AAA in South America. He appeared on Broadway in “My Fair Lady”, “Oh Captain” and “Happiest Girl in the World”. Also, he has danced in the Texas State Fair Musicals and at the Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts. Atkinson has studied from such prominent teachers as Dokoudovsky, Pereyaslevec, Caton, Vilzak and Lazowski in New York.
Since starting the Etgen-Atkinson Ballet School, they have distinguished themselves in their ability to train dancers, choreograph ballets and direct The Dallas Metropolitan Ballet Company. Three of their ballets have been selected for the Choreography Plan of The National Association for Regional Ballet, also, they have received a choreography fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts. The Dallas Metropolitan Ballet is an Honor Company in Regional Dance America Southwest. It is the unique combination of instruction and performing which has produced alumni that are dancing with many major United States and European dance companies.
Their dancers have joined the ranks of many professional ballet companies including: New York city Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, Berlin Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Ballet Wallonie of Belgium, Hamburg Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet and others.
They were two of the few Directors in the United States invited to the George Balanchine Teaching Seminars in New York City under the auspices of the Ford Foundation.
In addition to maintaining their well established ballet school and directing the Dallas Metropolitan Ballet, Ms. Etgen has served on the Dance Panel of Texas Commission on the Arts and Humanities and both have held offices in Regional Dance America/Southwest (RDA/SW)
They applied their years of teaching and training dancers to its development and the result is this comprehensive, interactive Ballet is Fun for CD-ROM and DVD.

Natalie Skelton Award for Artistic Excellence ~ Nycole Ray
A Detroit native, Nycole Ray graduated from The California Institute of the Arts with a Bachelors of fine Arts in dance. She received additional training at the California State Summer School of the Arts, Wayne State University, and as an exchange student at the London Contemporary Dance School in England. Mrs. Ray has performed with the Bruce Wood Dance Project, Walt Disney World Entertainment, Christopher and Friends directed by Christopher L. Huggins, the Lula Washington Dance Theater, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company II and the Zadonu African Dance Company. She has worked with noted choreographers such as Donald McKayle, Dianne McIntyre, Christopher L. Huggins, Alonzo King, Donald Byrd, Bruce Wood, Rennie Harris and Camille A. Brown. In addition to her concert dance performances, and has appeared in music videos, industrials in the U.S. and Europe.
She teaches for the Dallas Black Dance Academy and has set choreography on Wayne State University’s Dance Company, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Dallas Black Dance Theatre II, and the Milwaukee Dance Connection. Mrs. Ray was commissioned to create Le Afrique Masquerade for the Dallas Museum of Arts’: The Art of Disguise exhibit of African Masks in the fall of 2010 as well as a commissioned work for the Dallas Holocaust Museum in 2009.
Mrs. Ray was a featured choreographer for the Tenth Annual Choreographers Choice Series in Dallas; and her work premiered in Vienna’s 2003 International Black Dance Festival. he accompanied Dr. Chuck Davis, as an invited guest, during his annual pilgrimage to Africa, and has been a teaching Assistant and adjunct at Texas Woman’s University. Mrs. Ray received the 2011 Artful Dancewear Teachers Scholarship through The Dance Council of North Texas to continue her studies, and has been accepted as a candidate to receive her certificate as a certified Dunham Technique Instructor.
She is very involved in the community as an individual and as a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She is a community outreach instructor and the Director of Dallas Black Dance Theatre’s Summer Intensive program. Nycole is the past director of Bloom, Dallas Black Dance Academy’s Performing Ensemble, and the Assistant Rehearsal Director for Dallas Black Dance Theatre. This marks her Forth season as the Artistic director for Dallas Black Dance Theatre II, as well as her sixteenth season as a dancer with Dallas Black Dance Theatre

Larry White Dance Educator Award ~ Solomon Espie
Upon graduation, Solomon began his teaching and coaching career with the Columbus Public Schools in Ohio; teaching physical education and biology and coaching basketball and track and field. He left the school district in 1973 to become an Assistant Director of Admissions at Capital University in Columbus. After Capital, Solomon joined BPA Enterprises, Inc., Employment Services Division of Detroit, Michigan, where he recruited scientific and technical personnel for the automobile, computer and aerospace industries. From 1980 through 1984, Solomon returned to Columbus Public Schools and as an assistant track & field coach at Ohio State University.
Solomon moved to Dallas in 1985 and met his wife Deborah, where they raised a daughter, Elizabeth. As a toddler, he saw that dance would be Elizabeth's "thing", so Solomon took a ballet class at Dallas Black Dance Academy in order to help his daughter. Little did he know it would be the start of the Lisbon Elementary School “Character Counts” Dance Company. Over the years, generous supporters of dance help send the Dance Company to Columbus, Ohio; Atlanta, Georgia; and New York City, plus all over Texas for performances and tours.
Solomon also spent six summers teaching Rhythm, Coordination and Creative Movement to special needs children at Camp Thunderbird and served as President of The Dance Council of North Texas.
He is retired now, but still involved, serving as President of the Board of Trustees of ARGA NOVA DANCE/Beckles Dancing Company, where they have initiated a Resident Artists Program at The W. E. Greiner Exploratory Arts Academy. It includes a free developmental dance class one evening per week open to the community and master classes once per month for Greiner dance students during the school day. Their community outreach includes volunteering at the South Park YMCA to teach Beginning Rhythms to 3 and 4 year olds.

Mary Warner Award for Outstanding Contribution to Dance ~ Sharen Bradford
For over 35 years, Sharen has been devoted to dance photography. As owner of The Dancing Image for the last eleven years, she has captured the brilliance of dance of such companies as Aspen-Santa Fe Ballet, Bruce Wood Dance Company/Bruce Wood Dance Project, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, TITAS and more. Her skilled knowledge of dance allows her to capture art in mille-seconds, before offering them to the public.
Sharen earned her Bachelors and Masters of Fine Arts in Dance from Southern Methodist University, and has had many of her outstanding photographs published by Dance Magazine, Pointe Magazine, Popular Photography, Photos That Inspire - Photo Workshop, and The Dallas Morning News, to name a few.
A Founding Member of Dancers Unlimited Repertory Company, she served on their Board of Trustees. Sharon has also served on the Board of Directors of Allen Street Gallery (Center for Visual Communications), and is a past Chairman, President, and Secretary of the Dallas Dance Council.
Sharen’s photographic generosity is known by dancers in the North Texas area, Austin, Tulsa, and New York.

Texas Tap Legend ~ Peggy McCaslin
Peggy McCaslin has been a faculty member at Dallas Ballet Center since 1971 and currently serves as Tap and Jazz Director. She is the instructor and choreographer for The DBC Tap Connection, a tap performance group comprised of advanced tap students from the Dallas Ballet Center. The DBC Tap Connection has appeared in numerous National Tap Day events and has been invited by The Rhythm Junkies to perform in ‘Everything On Tap’ for the past five years.
Peggy began her training at age ten in Tyler, Texas at the Ballet Academy under the direction of Marcia Grubb. Performing credits include four Coronations of the Tyler Rose Festival, musical productions with the Tyler Civic Theater and Tyler Junior College and numerous vocal performances with area churches and civic organizations.
Peggy studied dance, theater and voice at TCU and received her B.F.A. in 1972. She has studied with Fernando Shaffenburg, Nancy Schaffenburg-Cross, Victor Moreno, and Jerry Bywaters Cochran. Her Jazz training includes Gus Giordano, Luigi, Sam Fiorello, Jackie Sleight, Rhonda Miller, Bill Prudich and others. She has studied tap locally with Buster Cooper and Jackie Troup Miller and numerous others in Master Classes and workshops.
Peggy’s tap students range in age from age 5 to adult and she shares her love of musical theater in her tap classes as well in various summer workshops.