NORBERT DE LA CRUZ III || THE PLAYGROUND NYC
Company:
THE PLAYGROUND NYC
NOBERT DE LA CRUZ III
SATURDAY, 7/27
2:00PM-4:00PM
$5
Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, 280 Broadway NYC
Entrance 53A Chambers
The Playground NYC allows dancers to experience various choreographic styles and ideas, engage with a new community of dancers, and gather resourceful information and inspiration from the array of choreographers involved. In turn, established choreographers are paid for their creative investigations, are given free space to explore new movement with professional dancers, and are provided with the opportunity to establish relationships with new dancers and fellow choreographers.
BIO:
Norbert De La Cruz III was born in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines and raised in Los Angeles, CA. He is a NY and LA-based freelance contemporary dance artist. Trained classically in Cecchetti and Vaganova, his movement practice is shaped by his contemporary sensibilities, an eclectic training background, performance experience, and learned embodiments from Gabriella Foundation in LA, LA County High School for the Arts, Marat Daukayev School of Ballet, and at The Juilliard School where he received his BFA in dance. He has performed professionally as a soloist in the Metropolitan Opera production of Aida, Aszure Barton & Artists in Germany & Austria (Blue Soup & Busk), Balletto Teatro di Torino (Italy), Sydney Skybetter & Associates, Santa Clarita Ballet’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Lustig Dance Theatre, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Gallim (Lacoste Promo), and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. He represented the Juilliard School at Kodak Theatre’s first annual Dizzy Feet Foundation Gala in Hollywood, CA. As a dancer, Norbert has performed works by choreographers José Limón, David Parker, Adam Hougland, Johannes Wieland, Ohad Naharin, Aszure Barton, Jerome Robbins, Larry Keigwin, Jiri Pikorny, Hernando Fernando Magedan, Spenser Theberge, Jeremy McQueen, Camille A. Browne, Dwight Rhoden, Desmond Richardson, Lightfoot & Leon, Crystal Pite, Alonzo King, Zachary Tang, Gregory Dawson and Jirí Kylián.
Norbert was further mentored by esteemed Aspen Santa Fe Ballet (ASFB) Directors, Tom Mossbrucker and Jean-Philippe Malaty. His choreographic career was further recognized through the kind support of the Jerome Robbins Foundation’s NEW Essential Works Grant (2012), commissioning his first large-scale ballet, “Square None” (2012) with ASFB. He was a finalist of Hubbard Street’s National Choreographic Competition (2013), a Princess Grace Foundation-USA Award under the choreography fellowship (2012), Alvin Ailey New Directions Choreography Lab (2013), finalist for the Joffrey Academy of Dance’s 2014 Choreographer of Color Award, and a recipient for the 2015 National Choreographic Initiative choreographer in Irvine, CA. He was recently selected for the 2017 and 2018 Spring Sessions at the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of New York City Ballet, where he created his “Lunar” and "Traces" ballet working alongside Juilliard Composer, Nathan Prillaman. He has since been commissioned to create and premier new works for companies such as Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Hubbard Street 2, Joffrey Academy of Dance, James Sewell Ballet, Tulsa Ballet II, Barak Ballet, Grand Rapids Ballet, Ballet Florida, Attack Theatre, Ballet X, and Periapsis Music & Dance.
Additional honorable mentions include the Asian Arts Alliance Jadin Wong Award, McCallum Theatre Choreography Festival, and Dance Magazines Top 25 to watch in 2016. Working as a freelancer, Norbert is currently pursuing his MFA in dance at Hollins University Graduate Program.
Photo Credit : Jeremy Jackson
