2006 Press Releases
Takes a World To Dance
July 24, 2006
Consul General John Stepanchuk and PAO Virgil Strohmeyer took part in the opening ceremony of the International Summer Dance School “Small World” July 24, 2006. The Yekaterinburg Modern Arts Center that organized the seminar brings choreographers and professional dancers from different parts of the world to train local dancers and share their experience and dance techniques. During this two-week session, dance instructors from Japan, Australia and the U.S. will be working with their Russian colleagues and students and performing together upon its completion. The U.S. Consulate provided a grant to facilitate the visit of Eddy Ocampo, a distinguished modern dance professional from Chicago, IL.
Eddy Ocampo has worked in the Chicago musical theater and with some of Chicago's premiere dance companies. As a master jazz teacher, Eddy has taught in Europe, Mexico, Canada, Turkey, the Russian Federation and throughout the U.S. He is also the founding artistic director of the American Jazz Dance Festival-New Generation in the Russian Republic and continues to travel to Russia yearly to spread his passion of jazz dance to many who may have never been exposed to this art form. Eddy received the Dance Chicago 2004 Outstanding Choreography Award as well as the Cliff Dwellers Arts Foundation Choreography Award for Dance Chicago in 2005. He was a featured jazz dance teacher in the June 2005 issue of Dance Teacher Magazine as well as named one of the best jazz dance teachers in the country by Dance Spirit Magazine. Eddy Ocampo currently works as an independent teacher and choreographer for his own production company, Bento Box Productions, and resides in Chicago, IL.
