Dance troupe is ending, but its efforts to support community endure | news/arlington

[Sun Gazette Newspapers provides content to, but otherwise is unaffiliated with, InsideNoVa or Rappahannock Media LLC.]

The conclusion of its 25th season in September will mark the stop of the line for the Arlington-centered Bowen McCauley Dance Corporation. But there definitely will be an encore.

Thanks to an anonymous contribution, the dance troupe’s founder, Lucy Bowen McCauley, will be capable to continue a partnership with the Maryland Youth Ballet to preserve the collaborative, free of charge “Dance for Parkinson’s Disease” (or “Dance for PD”) initiative.

Considering the fact that 2009, Bowen McCauley Dance has served far more than 800 people living with Parkinson’s – a ailment of the central anxious system affecting motion – throughout the area by means of the software. With the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, the concentrate shifted to weekly on-line courses, a transition that boundaries interaction opportunities but delivers the reward of expanded public access.

(Even following the pandemic’s summary, some of the courses will go on in an on the internet structure. Lessons also are readily available on the dance company’s YouTube channel.)

The Bowen McCauley work is a licensed affiliate of the Brooklyn-based mostly Mark Morris Dance Group’s research-backed Dance for PD initiative, in which individuals are empowered to explore motion and tunes and, usually, report a minimize in bodily indicators and enhanced psychological and emotional properly-getting.

Bowen McCauley’s “talents, skills and compassion carry on to make an indelible impression on the location and beyond,” said David Leventhal, method director of the Dance for PD initiative at Mark Morris Dance Team. The effort and hard work, Leventhal said, has grow to be “a lifeline for so many” in the area area.

Lucy Bowen McCauley has been a faculty member with the Maryland Youth Ballet for much more than 20 years, and Alyce Jenkins, the organization’s government director, said everyone is champing at the bit for a resumption of the method.

“We are thrilled to be capable to again offer you the Dance for PD courses when COVID limitations are lifted and it is safe to return in-studio,” Jenkins mentioned.

On the specialist-performance front, Bowen McCauley Dance Enterprise will kick off its year with a effectiveness at the Kennedy Center on May perhaps 26. It will be the initially live overall performance there because the onset of the pandemic, and also will be livestreamed.

The night will contain a pre-display dialogue with Bowen McCauley and the artists, adopted by a new work, “Trois Reves,” set to Ravel’s “Gaspard de la Nuit” and intended to be executed in a socially-distanced natural environment. The troupe will shut out the year on Sept. 14 with an additional Kennedy Centre effectiveness.

Above the yrs, Bowen McCauley Dance Enterprise has brought its performances across the nation and to Mexico, Germany and China. Until the pandemic strike in 2020, no springtime for numerous families was comprehensive devoid of the “Move Me” festival at Kenmore Middle College. The troupe also has participated in a range of in-school dance residencies.

For details, see the Website at www.bmdc.org.