Executive Producer / Founder Jamie Nichols
Since its bold beginning in 2006 Executive Producer Jamie Nichols has engaged diverse and electrifying dance talent. Each year Celebrate Dance’s annual dance production grows in applause and accolades from both dancers and audience alike. Celebrate Dance has presented over 70 dance companies to over 12,000 enthusiastic audience members in the annual event and has served as a platform for artists to enhance their craft, develop a foundation of support and propel their careers locally, nationally and abroad. Each participating dance company can also boast being part of critically acclaimed, seamlessly produced productions at the historic 1,400 seat Alex Theatre in Glendale, California.
Celebrate Dance was created to provide an opportunity for recognized and emerging dance companies and choreographers from the greater Los Angeles area to present their work, while at the same time fostering a sense of community and achievement consistent with the production of high quality concert dance in a respected theatrical venue. Celebrate Dance has also presented companies from: San Francisco, San Diego, New York and Brooklyn.
From its inception, Celebrate Dance has reached out to community youth, inviting them to the yearly event without expense. Thus far more than 2,000 students from local schools and studios have seen the production. In 2010 with initial support from the Flourish Foundation, Celebrate Dance was able to expand its community engagement efforts with the launch of the “Master Class Series”, bringing a professional dance workshop into the classroom for dance students at Hubert Howe-Bancroft Middle School in Hollywood. The “Master Class Series” proved a rewarding experience for both student and instructor. For the 5th year, the Celebrate Dance 2014 Master Class Series at Bancroft Middle School was supported by a generous gift from the Flourish Foundation.
Jamie Nichols was the Artistic Director and founder of the Pasadena based contemporary dance company Fast Feet for 23 years. Until retiring her dance company in 2003 she self-produced her work in festivals and venues throughout California. Ms. Nichols has been critically acclaimed for the emotional intensity and eloquence of her dancing and choreography. “A memorable performance for its depth of feeling” “remarkable gestural detail” “galvanizing” from The Los Angeles Times, describes Jamie Nichols.
She is the recipient of six Lester Horton Dance Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the categories of: Performance Individual, Re-staging/Revival, Excellence in Teaching, Production of A Festival /Series (Celebrate Dance 2006-2007-2008) and Celebrate Dance 2009 and 2010 were nominated for Lester Horton Dance Awards.
Ms. Nichols was honored with the esteemed Dance Resource Center Of Los Angeles Meritorious Award for Outstanding and Extensive Years of Service and Leadership in 2006 and was honored with the prestigious Furthering The Visibility of Dance Award at the 19th Annual Lester Horton Dance Awards.
Ms. Nichols is the marketing director, fundraiser, press contact and sole producer of Celebrate Dance. She has also produced modern dance icon Marion Scott’s Spirit Dances 10 at Highways Performance Space, the fabulously successful
16th Annual Lester Horton Dance Awards 2007 at the Alex Theatre and was Co-Producer with Theater Bethune of Ray Bradbury’s Frost and Fire at the Alex Theatre.
As a well respected member of the professional dance community Ms. Nichols has been: an adjudicator for the Music Center’s Spotlight Awards, a judge for the professional and semi- professional division at the “Palm Desert International Choreography Festival”, a judge for the McCallum Theatre’s “Open Call” talent competition, for nine years on the selection committee for The Los Angeles Dance Invitational and the Executive Production committee for LADI, on the Board of Directors of the Jazz Dance L.A. Foundation and the Board of Directors of The Dance Resource Center of Greater Los Angeles where she served as Membership Chair. She has also been a panelist for the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department Cultural / Regional Grants.
Ms. Nichols is currently teaching her own powerful and passionate method of Contemporary Dance at Live Arts Los Angeles and Theater Movement / Dance for Actors at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Hollywood, California.
Celebrate Dance 2014 Reel:
Celebrate Dance Companies (2006-2014)
ATE9DANCE COMPANY
BACKHAUSDANCE
BAKER & TARPAGA DANCE PROJECT
BARE DANCE COMPANY
BODY CURRENT DANCE
BODYTRAFFIC
BPM BEATSPERMINUTE
CALIFORNIA CONTEMPORARY BALLET
CATCH ME BIRD
COLABO YOUTH DANCE COLLECTIVE
COMMONALITY DANCE COMPANY
CONTRA-TIEMPO
CREATIVE OUTLET DANCE THEATRE OF BROOKLYN
DEBORAH ROSEN AND DANCERS
DJANBAZIAN DANCE COMPANY
FUSION DANCE THEATER
HYSTERICA DANCE COMPANY
INVERTIGO DANCE THEATRE
JAZZANTIQUA DANCE & MUSIC ENSEMBLE
JOSIE WALSH’S MYOKYO
KEITH JOHNSON/DANCERS
LADIEGO DANCE THEATER
LA CONTEMPORARY DANCE COMPANY
LEDGES AND BONES DANCE PROJECT
LEVY DANCE
LISS FAIN DANCE
LOLLIEWORKS
LUX AETERNA DANCE COMPANY
LYDIA ZIMMER + DANCERS
MARROW DANCE
MALASHOCK DANCE
METHOD CONTEMPORARY DANCE
MIZERANY DANCE
MONAT DANCE
MOTION TRIBE
NICKERSON – ROSSI DANCE
PENNINGTON DANCE GROUP
PTERO DANCE THEATRE
REGINA KLENJOSKI DANCE COMPANY
RHETORACLE DANCE COMPANY
SAN PEDRO CITY BALLET
SOLEVITA DANCE COMPANY
TERRI BEST DANCE
TRIP DANCE THEATRE
VIKTOR KABANIAEV & DANCERS
VISIONS DANCE THEATRE
VIVER BRASIL DANCE COMPANY
PRESS QUOTES
“Jamie Nichols is a savant of concert dance who consistently curates a lineup that dazzles and invites deep analysis all at the same time.”
Rachel Levin – Exploredance.com
“The “Celebrate Dance” showcase, every year providing a platform for aspiring dance troupes, affirms the basic truism about Los Angeles: a plethora of dancers and companies, a dearth of distinguished choreographers with both chops and exceptional artistic vision.”
Debra Levine – arts•meme
“Celebrate Dance is ”An artful and rewarding experience.”
Pete Allman – Celebrity Scene News
“perennially sold-out performances reflect how much dance fans rely on this showcase to keep them current on what established companies are up to and which emerging companies to watch.”
Ann Haskins / LA Weekly
“the grandmommy of local festivals remains Celebrate Dance! Thanks to producer Jamie Nichols’ good taste and careful yearlong viewing of local dance performances, Celebrate Dance! annually attracts sell out audiences to view a diverse, curated line up of SoCal dance troupes. The audience often finds new favorites deserving a full evening and sometimes, an ongoing relationship.”
Ann Haskins / LA Weekly
“While the pieces themselves celebrated the resilience of the human spirit through such conceptual contrasts, Celebrate Dance affirmed the resilience of local dance companies who – even in the shadow of Hollywood – strive to convey so much more than just a pretty picture.”
Rachel Levin / ExploreDance.com
“Whether on the cusp of noise and silence, bliss and irritation, youth and old age, marvel and menace, motion and stillness, or onstage and offstage, every piece in this year’s lineup had a place on concert dance’s cutting edge…. Saturday’s show was proof positive that the event has become a forum for not only celebrating concert dance in the region but advancing it as well…”
Rachel Levin / ExploreDance.com
“Celebrate Dance 2012 held up to its reputation as one of the leading concert dance events of Los Angeles… the show continues to exceed itself and provide with a unique and breathtaking evening of dance to the delight of its Southern Californian audience.”
Vanessa Adelmann / Setting The Dancer Within Free
“She’s not quite Google, but producer Jamie Nichols certainly is a one-woman search engine for anyone who wants to know about the L.A. dance scene…”
Ann Haskins – LA Weekly
“…the showcase confirmed the power of dance to both reflect and critique reality and distract us from it with good, old-fashioned entertainment. In our current cultural climate, we desperately need both. As funding for dance companies and the arts in general withers under the burden of a sour economy, Celebrate Dance proved itself once again a beacon of light for both artists and audiences.”
Rachel Levin – Exploredance.com
“…drop-dead awesome in its millennial bravura”
Lewis Segal-The Los Angeles Times
“No matter how the eight pieces began — whatever vocabularies or idioms represented home base — you could predict that they’d soon head into uncharted territory.”
Lewis Segal –The Los Angeles Times
Official Website: http://www.celebratedance.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CelebrateDance
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CelebrateDance
Contact: Jamie@celebratedance.org
Founded: 2006
Executive Producer: Jamie Nichols
Location: Los Angeles
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