PUSH Physical Theatre’s summer kids’ programs are back for 2016

~REGISTER BY APRIL 25 FOR DISCOUNTS~


Rochester, NY – After a two-year hiatus, Rochester’s award-winning PUSH Physical Theatre brings back its two popular summer programs for youth this year: PUSH Pins Performing Arts Camp for ages 5-13, and PUSH Teen Training for ages 13-18. Cost for either program is $250, with early-registration (by April 25) discounts as well as multiple-family-member discounts available. For more information, call 585-278-0123, email pushpins@pushtheatre.org or visit pushpinsforkids.org.

“I’ve really missed these summer programs – and apparently so have many of the families who participated in the past,” says PUSH Pins Director Heather Stevenson, who is also co-founder/artistic director of PUSH Physical Theatre. “Touring with PUSH has taken up more of my time and energy these past few years, but working with children and seeing them respond so positively to what we do is my most rewarding work.”

The tenth PUSH Pins Summer Camp will run the week of Monday, June 27 – Friday, July 1 at First Presbyterian Church, 25 Church Street, Pittsford, NY 14534. Times are 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. on Friday. The camp highlights training in physical theatre, mime, dance, acting and more by fellow PUSH company members and other local teaching artists. Each day features a different performance (kicking off with one by PUSH Physical Theatre!) intended to inspire, and the week closes with a Camper Showcase and dessert reception. Campers bring brown bag lunches from home, and healthy snacks are provided twice a day. Before and aftercare are also available from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Registration is open now at: PUSH Pins Registration.

PUSH Teen Training 2016 will run 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. daily from Tuesday, July 5 – Friday, July 8, at PUSH’s rehearsal studio in the South Wedge (Weider Hall, 389 Gregory Street). Teens receive training in mentoring as well as in physical theatre, partnering, modern dance and mime techniques. They’re also invited to act as junior camp counselors during the previous PUSH Pins camp week, for which they’ll receive a 10-minute evaluation, a certificate of their community service for use in their upcoming school year requirements, and a recommendation letter from PUSH for future employment or college applications. Registration is open now at: PUSH Teen Registration.

Following PUSH’s summer programs for kids, husband and PUSH Co-Founder/Artistic Director Darren Stevenson will lead the company’s two-week Summer Intensive for actors, dancers, mimes and movers ages 18 and over on July 10 – 23. Past intensives have drawn students from Venezuela, Hong Kong, Jordan and the Dominican Republic, and this summer, Greece and South Africa will be represented. Registration is still open at pushtheatre.org/summerintensive.

PUSH Physical Theatre was founded in Rochester, NY in 2000 by husband-and-wife team, Darren and Heather Stevenson, with a mission to push the boundaries of conventional theatre. For 16 years, this talented group of performers has been inspiring awe and igniting emotion with physical illusions and gravity-defying, dance-infused, acrobatic high- jinx. The current company also features veteran PUSHer Jonathan Lowery, former Cirque du Soleil performer Avi Pryntz-Nadworny, and Fulbright scholar and dancer Katherine Marino. In addition to a busy touring schedule that continues to take them all over the U.S. and the world, these masters of physical storytelling were finalists on truTV’s Fake Off in 2014 (Season One). They are also very involved in arts-in-education programs – often working with at-risk children – and run their own PUSH Pins Summer Camp, Teen Training, and Summer Intensive for adult students from all over the world. In 2009, Darren and Heather received the Performing Artist of the Year Award from the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester, as well as the Anton Germano Dance Award. The following year, they were invited to speak about PUSH’s unique artistic process at TEDx Rochester. PUSH has been profiled on PBS and NPR, and is represented by Robin Klinger Entertainment. More information is available at www.pushtheatre.org.