FeaFtuoroed
RIOULT Brings
Dance to Astoria
www.qns.com I LIC COURIER I OCTOBER 2018 37
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
RIOULT Dance Center officially
opened its doors to the Astoria com-munity
on Oct.4. and open houses
were held on Oct. 6 and 13.
Last year, The Wall Street Journal
reported that the 24-year-old RIOULT
Dance NY would move from its loca-tion
in Manhattan to Queens. The
company’s founder, Pascal Rioult,
signed a 15-year lease for the new
11,000-square-foot 34-01 Steinway
St. location.
According to Joyce Herring, asso-ciate
artistic director of the RIOULT
Dance NY, the open houses were
meant to allow Queens residents to
get to know instructors and company
members. But also, and more impor-tantly,
to allow for RIOULT to learn
about the community so that future
programing could enrich the lives of
the center’s new neighbors.
Open houses consisted of free
dance classes for children and adults
from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Classes in-corporated
a variety of dance styles
from the traditional ballet and jazz to
Gyrokinesis, a movement method that
addresses the entire body similar to
yoga and pilates.
During the open houses, company
members performed excerpts from
their repertoire and afterwards met
with and talked with visitors.
The modern dance company was
founded by Rioult, a French track-and-
field star turned modern dancer,
in 1994. Rioult was a principal — or
highest ranking dancer — with the
Martha Graham Dance Company
before founding his own troupe. He
developed a reputation as a leader
in the neo-modern genre of dance.
Since its creation, the dance
company rehearsed and produced
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