H appy Holidays! 2005 has been an active and fulfilling year for C. Eule Dance. In January, I completed a new work face2face which was presented at the COOL New York Festival in D.U.M.B.O. and then again at Dance Theater Workshop as part of Fielday. In April, we held our largest and most entertaining benefit party ever “Sweet Brazil,” with thanks to our hard-working benefit committee, the generous donations we received of food, drinks, auction prizes, and the loft provided by Committee Chair, Phil Toews and Yuu Fujita. The proceeds from the event, individual contributions, and a grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Manhattan Community Arts Fund all went towards the production of Clean Springing 3 at the Merce Cunningham Studio in Greenwich Village. The show featured collaborations with composers, Colin Jacobsen, Jeremy Kasha, and Jon Diaz and with visual artist Yuliya Lanina. With 16 wonderful dancers and 8 live musicians, the show was very highly received. Lori Ortiz, of the Gay City News, wrote, “Talented dancers and musicians engage their adoring and returning crowds with visceral magic.” We were also able to give back to the community by offering a free show for families and residents of the area where the kids had a chance to come up on stage and learn some of the choreography.

In July, we were invited by Dancers Responding to AIDS to perform part of Suite Brazil in their Fire Island Dance Festival 11. It was a huge honor to be sharing a stage with celebrated companies like Mark Morris, Alvin Ailey, and Complexions, and we were proud to have been part of an event that raised over $170,000 for such a worthy cause. Dan Evans of the Fire Island Tide wrote, “Not only did they dance beautifully, but Alexa Weir and Cornelius Brown acted with aplomb.”

In August, we performed at SWEAT Outdoors in the Frank Sinatra Park in Hoboken. During this time, C. Eule Dance became the subject of a documentary called Little Caron has a Big Dream made by New York Media Workshop, a group of film students from Japan. They filmed us in rehearsals and performances, and showed the outside lives of the dancers. In September, we presented Nocturne at the Connecticut Meets New York Dance Festival at the Crystal Theatre and then again in October when I was selected for the second time to be one of the twelve choreographers to present work in the Elan Awards. This year’s Elan Awards was an amazing production honoring renowned choreographer/director Susan Stroman. We also had several site-specific performances at art exhibits throughout the year: at the Manhattan Borough President’s Office for artist Samara Sussman, and at the Broadway Gallery in SOHO, and the KPB Gallery in Williamsburg for artist Yuliya Lanina.