Article by Nanette Wiser
Photo by Tom Kramer
DANCING QUEEN The choreography and poetic motion of St. Petersburg native and artist laureate Helen Hansen French is showcased in Look Touch Move @ Creative Pinellas Jan. 20 6-8pm. French is on the faculty of St. Petersburg College and teaches dance both in NYC and here. She began dancing at Judith Lee Johnson’s Studio of Dance, and at the Pinellas County Center for the Arts. After attending the HARID Conservatory, she earned a BFA from Juilliard School under the Early Admissions Option and after graduation she joined Buglisi Dance Theatre where she is currently a principal dancer as well as rehearsal assistant. In addition to BDT’s annual New York City seasons she has performed at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Chautauqua Dance Festival, Vail International Dance Festival, Rishon LeZion International Festival in Israel, and the Oriente Occidente Festival in Rovereto, Italy. Mrs. Hansen French has also been instrumental in restaging BDT’s works at Marymount Manhattan College, The Alvin/Ailey Fordham BFA program, George Mason University, and the University of California at Long Beach.
French has been featured the New York Times Arts and Dance Teacher Magazine and lauded by The Arts Alliance and others. In addition to her work with BDT Helen has performed with the Nilas Martins Dance Company, been in residency at White Oak Dance working with choreographer Adam Hougland and performed in the Guggenheim’s Works/Process program with choreographers Brian Reeder and Pam Tanowitz. In 2010 she presented a solo show at Studio@620 that featured the re-created works of Ruth St. Denis, Doris Humphrey and Jacqulyn Buglisi. She has been a member of the dance faculty at the Neighborhood Playhouse in NYC and The Juilliard School. Committed to arts education, she is a founding member of the St. Pete Dance Alliance and co-producer of Beacon, a performance series for St. Pete.
BOOK NOOK Paradise boasts authors of every genre from earth lovers (local gardener Craig Huegel’s Butterfly Gardening with Florida’s Native Plans) to mystery writers (St. Petersburg’s Tamara Lush and her Coffee Lover’s Series, pen name Tara Lush). Her newest whodunnit is Cold Brew Corpse, and it’s a hoot. Craig Pittman’s The State You’re In chronicles Florida’s wildest stories. Clearwater Beach first-time author Jan M. Walton’s first novel River Avenue is a departure from her day job coaching people to write their autobiographies.