Rider University's Westminster College of the Arts Announces Emerging Choreographers Competition and Showcase

(LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ) -- Rider University's Westminster College of the Arts invites emerging choreographers for ballet and contemporary dance to participate in a new Emerging Choreographers Competition and Showcase that will be held at Rider University during the 2013-2014 season.

The competition is open to any emerging choreographer who is a United States citizen or resident. There is no age limit, but he/she should be in the early stages of his/her professional career.   Choreographers interested in participating should submit a six-minute video of a work set on a minimum of three dancers.   Videos will be reviewed by a four-person panel that includes legendary dancer Edward Villella.

Semi-finalists, who will be selected from the video submissions, will be invited to perform their works in person for the panel at Rider University on Saturday, January 18, 2014.  The panel will select five finalists, who will perform their completed works in a showcase on Saturday, May 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Bart Luedeke Theater on the Rider University campus in Lawrenceville, N.J.

The competition panelists reviewing the submissions are Edward Villella, legendary dancer and artistic director; Douglas Martin, artistic director of American Repertory Ballet; Kimberly Chandler Vaccaro, professor of Dance at Rider University; and Kerry Gallagher Rowan, master teacher of the American Dance Legacy Institute.

"The Emerging Choreographers' Competition and Showcase gives aspiring dance-makers a platform to develop their artistic voices as well as an opportunity to present and develop an audience for their work," says Robert L. Annis, dean and director of Rider University's Westminster College of the Arts.  "We are pleased to be able to offer this opportunity to these emerging artists."

Rider University's Westminster College of the Arts educates and trains aspiring

performers, artists, teachers and students with artistic interests to pursue professional, scholarly and lifelong personal opportunities in art, dance, music and theater.  The College consists of three divisions: Westminster Choir College, the School of Fine and Performing Arts and Westminster Conservatory, a community music school.  It offers a Bachelor of Arts in Dance, a four-year performance-oriented program that includes courses in dance history, movement theory, choreography and pedagogy.

To learn more about this program and for submission information go to www.rider.edu/ecc or contact ecc@rider.edu or call 609-896-7725.