Special Thanks to:
Keith Martin named "Arts Educator of the Year"
March 13, 2007
Evansville, IN – Keith J. Martin, Artistic Director of the Evansville Dance Theatre, has been named the recipient of a state arts award.
The Indiana Coalition for the Arts Foundation (INCAF) has named Mr. Martin, Arts Educator of the Year. The award is one of four Community Arts Leader Awards given annually to four outstanding Hoosiers for their part in advancing the cause of community and local arts in Indiana.
The award ceremony will take place on March 22, 11 a.m. in Indianapolis at the Indiana Statehouse Rotunda and will include members of the Indiana House and Senate.
Mr. Martin has been artistic director of EDT for 18 months. During that time, he has increased the quality and variety of dance instruction available to EDT students and children in the Tri-State. He has established classes for individuals not traditionally considered ballet students, including adults and financially-challenged children.
“Under Mr. Martin’s direction, EDT’s school has doubled its enrollment,” said Gregg McManus, Vice-President of the EDT board of directors, who nominated Martin for the award. “Mr. Martin brings a level of professionalism to arts education that is not only unique to Evansville, but to the state of Indiana. His success as an educator is due to his experience as a dancer, his dedication and enthusiasm for children and his passion for dance.”
Mr. Martin’s wife, Bj Martin, is ballet mistress for EDT. Their son, Jason Martin, dances with the St. Louis Ballet.
'Nutcracker' engages children
Courier & Press staff writer 464-7520 or mcbainr@courierpress.com
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Kelly Beisel, right, and Kaitlin Bitter are entertained by dancers as they perform in a mini-performance of “The Nutcracker” at the St. Mary’s Auditorium in Evansville recently.
Keith Martin, playing the mysterious Herr Drossel-meier in “The Nutcracker,” presents Clara, played by Kelly Beisel, her Christmas gift in the first scene of the mini-presentation at St. Mary’s Auditorium recently.
“Chinese” dancers Maggie Coslett, left, and Rainesford Stauffer perform in “The Nutcracker.”
To those ends Martin, who became Dance Theatre's artistic director in 2005, has hired professional soloists with international credentials to work with his own student company, he's recruited boys from an Evansville elementary school to play soldiers, and he'll introduce a special party guest in a wheelchair.
All will appear on stage at The Victory at 2 p.m. Saturday and again at 7:30 p.m. Each will be performed to Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky's music, played live by the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra. This will be the Evansville Dance Theatre's 25th anniversary performance of the celebrated Christmas ballet. Keith Martin, playing the mysterious Herr Drossel-meier in “The Nutcracker,” presents Clara, played by Kelly Beisel, her Christmas gift in the first scene of the mini-presentation at St. Mary’s Auditorium recently.
Featured soloists are Leonard Ajkun, an Albanian dancer who's performed in Europe, Asia and the United States, who will dance as the
Nutcracker Prince and Cavalier, and Mifa Ko, a Japanese ballerina who's also performed internationally, who will perform as the Snow Queen and Sugar Plum Fairy.
They'll join an 80-member cast that ranges from pre-school students performing as angels to high school students dancing on pointe in featured variations and in the ballet corps. Adults in character parts will join in the opening party scene and in a couple of roles in the second act.
This year's performance will introduce four boys recruited from eight Howard Roosa Elementary School students who have been taking classes in an after-school scholarship program Martin established this year.
Howard Roosa students Antonio Carey, Phoenix Blevins, Alex Stasch and River Thorne will join Dance Theatre students Andrew Grisler and Caleb Kuykendall, to dance the roles of toy soldiers in the ballet's battle scene with mice. Carey also will dance in the second act's Chinese variation, says Martin. “Chinese” dancers Maggie Coslett, left, and Rainesford Stauffer perform in “The Nutcracker.”
And 10-year-old Sage Hawkins, this year's Easter Seals representative, will appear in a wheelchair in the ballet's opening scene. Hawkins, who has cerebral palsy, will be a party guest, says Martin.
Jack Schriber, who plays a butler in the opening scene, will wheel her into the parlor, and other participants will move her around throughout the party.
Martin, who's worked with clients in Evansville's Rehab Center, offered Hawkins the scene, telling her she needed only to appear in one show if she wanted. She wants to be in every show, however, including a Friday morning show for school audiences.
"My kids have been great involving her in the performance and connecting with her," Martin adds.
"I think the whole thing is a great representation of what we're about as a school," says Martin. "It's wonderful to give these kids a chance to be on stage with true professional dancers, people who make their living dancing all over the world."
At the same time, it's important for the production to include people such as Hawkins, whose disability prevents her from dancing, but not from taking part in the show, says Martin.
"I want to make this an annual event for the Easter Seals child representative to have the opportunity to be on stage in a full production with orchestra."