Have you ever been to DancerPalooza? When attending the summer event, one would think that every young dancer in America was in attendance! With enough energy to bump the Richter scale, brought by thousands of excited dance students, DancerPalooza is the place to be this summer.
In July, DancePalooza will be held in sunny San Diego, offering several new intensives for young dancers, including the much-anticipated Travis Wall Experience.
“If you can do it, let’s go, let’s go! I’m here 150 percent, and I expect the same,” exclaims Wall when speaking with Dance Informa about the new intensive.
Wall is understandably enthusiastic about this new offering, where he can share more insight, tools and inspiration than ever before.
Travis Wall.
“In past years at DancerPalooza, I basically came in to just share my knowledge with the kids, teach a couple of combos and maybe set a piece,” he explains. “But this DancerPalooza, I’m much more involved – I’m holding my own dance intensive, which means that from the beginning, to the middle and to the end, everything that goes into structuring this experience for the dancers is literally going to be made up of my DNA. I’m putting a lot of myself into it, and this is so different than anything I’ve ever done before for DancerPalooza.”
Aptly named the Travis Wall Experience, this contemporary dance intensive will allow dancers to work hands on with Wall to experience his creative process and take part in his and their own choreographic ideas. “I will let them exercise their choreographic muscles!” he explains.
With a lineup of in-demand choreographers such as Mandy Moore, Derek Hough, Marguerite Derricks, Denise Wall, Jason Parsons, Lauren Adams and Al Blackstone, alongside Travis Wall, it won’t be long until all registrations have sold out. Classes will include contemporary technique and combinations, body placement education, contract improvisation, choreography and more.
Wall tells us that his heart behind this new offering is to equip the next generation.
“The level of talent that comes through DancerPalooza and all of these dance conventions is incredible,” he says. “I’ve been part of this for so long that I actually feel like I’ve had a hand in their exposure to training and choreography, and I want to take it to the next level because I feel like this next generation right now is literally going to take over the world! I just want to share as much as I possibly can because I really do care about these kids.”
He adds, “This intensive will broaden their spectrum and ask questions like ‘Are you a creator?’, helping these dancers become individual artists and not necessarily robots.”
Wall is about to embark on a journey to Australia in the next few weeks to teach at a Palooza-like festival called VDF in the coastal tourist hot-spot of Warrnambool, as well as hold masterclasses in Sydney, sponsored by Dance Informa and Australian dancewear brand Energetiks.
And while busy with this new season of So You Think You Can Dance and working on a new Netflix docu-series/musical called Westside, Wall is in high demand. This ever-changing and incredibly busy schedule prompts Wall to urge young dancers to take this opportunity to learn from him this summer.
“At this point in time, I’m hoping that I am going to be able to do this next year and to start to create a more consistent foundation for the dancers to have this experience with me…but I can’t promise it,” he reveals. “I don’t know what I’m going to be doing in the next two years as far as my jobs go and if I’m going to have this opportunity to do this again at DancerPalooza. So, dancers, if you have the opportunity, jump at it, because I am! We’re only promised living in the moment, right now, so if you can do it, let’s go!”
DancerPalooza has seven different intensives this year for ages seven up, including the Travis Wall Experience. For all the information and to register, just head to DancerPalooza.com.
By Deborah Searle of Dance Informa.
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