About Us
About Us
A Different Drum Dance Company (ADD) is dedicated to providing a place for dancers to sharpen and broaden their technical abilities and to develop artistically as both dancers and choreographers. We are committed to constantly challenging and pushing ourselves to grow and expand our boundaries. We are the only dance group at Yale to offer two weekly technique classes taught by professional instructors.
Technique Class
We see regular technique class as a vital part of continuing to push ourselves as dancers as well as a way to maintain our technique and strength to keep us dancing safely. Technique class is also a way to expose the company to a variety of movement styles, which both broadens our knowledge as dancers and enhances our movement vocabulary as choreographers. One of our two weekly technique classes is a modern or ballet class taught by one of our regular teachers. For the second class, we hire a different professional guest artist every week and we try to maintain a diversity of styles to keep us constantly learning. Thus, in a given semester a typical lineup for our second weekly technique class would include Graham, Bhangra, West African dance, Classical Indian Dance, Ailey, Limon, and contemporary contact improvisation.
Schedule
ADD puts on two shows each year, one in the fall and one in the spring, at the Off Broadway (OBT) and Education Center for the Arts (ECA) theaters. At the beginning of the semester, dancers decide how many pieces they would like to be in. Besides the three and a half hours of technique classes, each piece is an hour commitment per week. Thus, company members can tailor their time commitment each semester according to their needs.
Outreach
ADD is actively involved with reaching out to the New Haven community and beyond. Recently, it has collaborated with the New Haven Ballet and the Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School. ADD has also performed at the Grannum Jamboree, a fundraiser for college scholarships for New Haven high school students, as well as in charity fundraisers for Haitian earthquake and Philippines typhoon victims, Unite for Sight, and Save the Children. ADD also performed its Fall 2010 show at a local AIDS clinic.
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