Congratulations to CU Theatre & Dance faculty member, Nada Diachenko! Last week, Nada was honored as one of 2018's "Legends of Dance in Colorado." Since 2004, the annual "Legends of Dance in Colorado" honors individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to dance.
About Nada: Nada Diachenko’s 43-year career as a dancer, choreographer, educator, and somatic specialist, includes 20 years in NYC as a soloist and master teacher with the Erick Hawkins Dance Co. and faculty member of the Hawkin’s School, and co-artistic director/choreographer/performer with NYC based Greenhouse Dance Ensemble Co. She also directed Nada Diachenko and Dancers, and Nada Diachenko: Solo Dance...
She has conducted numerous teaching and choreographic residencies nationally and internationally including The Duncan Center in Prague, CZ, The American Dance Festival, Colorado Dance Festival, Boulder Jazz Festival, Dansen Hus in Denmark, NYU SOA, University of Illinois, North Carolina School of the Arts, Connecticut College, University of Texas at Austin, James Madison University, Case Western, Princeton and many other colleges in the USA. Highlights of more recent activities include the creation of “ Women Speak,” guest artist at the Mundanza Festival in San Jose Costa Rica where she worked extensively with the National company of Costa Rica, choreographing and teaching at the Institute of the Arts at Campinas, Sao Palo, Brazil, participation in an interdisciplinary international collaboration for the CESTA Festival in the Czech Republic, teaching an performing in Costa Rica with the Emerging Artists of the 21st Century Program and a collaborative dance video project in France. She collaborated with sculptor/installation artist Antoinette Rosato on several projects and created choreography to Rosato’s “Journey Into Her World” in honor of her passing. In 2010. Nada was a master teacher and led a panel for the Erick Hawkins Symposium sponsored by the Harkness Center and had her acting debut in 2011 as the Grand Duchess Olga Katrina in “You Can’t Take It With You” for the Dept. of Theatre and Dance main season.
As an AmSAT certified Alexander Technique (AT) Teacher she is active in presenting at the Freedom to Move Conferences in NYC and annual conferences for the national American Society for the Alexander Technique. She also presented at the conference of the American Association for Orthopedic Medicine. Nada is a co-founder and current teacher for Alexander Technique Denver, a 3 year teacher certification training. She directs the somatic Track and the Wellness Program in the Dance Dept, teaches privately and conducts workshops on Alexander Technique, Injury Prevention, and application of AT to dance training.
Her research interests include the complementary nature of Prolotherapy and AT, somatic application to dance and movement education, and somatic exploration in the creative process.
About the award: Since 2004, the annual "Legends of Dance in Colorado" honors individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to dance. Starting with the untimely death of Freidann Parker, co-founder of Colorado Ballet, we realized it was time to preserve the rich dance heritage of Colorado.
In order to preserve the history, a video interview is recorded of all honorees, and with relevant photos and memorabilia, all are placed in Special Collections.