Fieldston dancers have the right moves

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It has been 20 years since the Ethical Culture Fieldston School’s dance program got off the ground.

Seeing graduates of the Young Dancemakers Company (YDC) celebrate with some fancy steps on July 17 was a nostalgic occasion for the group’s founder, Alice Teirstein.

“This is what I’m so proud of,” she said at the school’s auditorium. “That throughout the years we could gather together nine or ten people, who are still dancing and choreographing and up there doing it.”

Eleven YDC alumni performed a total of seven independent works and a final routine, directed by Ms. Teirstein, was performed by the YDC class of 2015.

Ms. Teirstein taught at the Fieldston School for 34 years.

“I decided in 1996 that I would like to create a company for students who would not otherwise have this opportunity,” she said. “Students from the New York City public high schools, who would not otherwise have this opportunity like our Fieldston students had. So I started the company free, no tuition.”

Students from all over the city audition every year for the chance to join the YDC. Ms. Teirstein’s first class had only six kids and today she accepts roughly 20 students per year.

The company has remained totally free of charge thanks to donations from contributors such as the Richenthal Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts, among others.

“I’m one of the older members represented here, Young Dancemakers ’99,” Jessica Danser said with pride. “I went on to be a professional choreographer, and Young Dancemakers were tremendously influential in that.”

Ms. Danser, a Bronx-based dancer, choreographer and educator, recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of her own dance company, JD/dansfolk, at the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance. She has also won several grants and awards from the Bronx Council on the Arts.

“I wasn’t a teenager who knew that I wanted to choreograph and not just be a performer,” said Ms. Danser. “And to have the opportunity when I was 15 years old to be able to say Alice, I have this idea and this very ambitious idea that not many would try, and to say run with it and be given the support. I mean, it was probably one of the most influential experiences of my entire career.”

Young Dancemakers Company, Fieldston School, dance, choreography, Alice Teirstein, Jessica Danser, Noele E. Phillips, Everrett Johnson, Shanell Garcia
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