Palm Desert Choreography Festival
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Jacob Montoya
President, Sacramento Contemporary Dance Theater
Jacob@SCDTheatre.org
Choreographer Jacob Montoya wins the Palm Desert Choreography Festival with his pre-professional submission, “Juliet”
November 8, 2015 – Sacramento, CA – Coming off his recent ELLY Award win, choreographer Jacob Montoya adds another achievement to his repertoire capturing the Grand Prize at the 18th Annual Choreography Festival at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert honoring him as top choreographer in the pre-professional division. The nationally renowned event took place on November 7th and 8th, 2015 to celebrate the creativity and harmony of dance as an art form with performances presented in both professional and pre-professional categories.
Montoya’s creation “Juliet” was selected as one of the 12 finalist pieces out of 115 dance submissions. Montoya brought his Hawkins Contemporary Jazz Company Elite team from the Hawkins School of Performing Arts in Folsom to showcase his work and their interpretation of his creation, “Juliet”, a contemporary modern piece with jazz influences and the routine opened the 2015 pre-professional division.
In a rare winning tie, Montoya shares the Grand Prize with Terry Tansey Schulke & Mandy Rogers/Points of View Dance Company – Lesson #35 All Things Are Possible and Nothing is Safe. Montoya shares enthusiastically, "I couldn’t be more proud. I couldn’t be more humbled. I couldn’t be happier. What a journey this has been.”
This is Montoya’s second appearance at the Choreography Festival. His fluid piece, “Presence” was a finalist at last year’s event. Montoya is also Founding Director of the Sacramento Contemporary Dance Theater (SCDT), and looks forward to sharing his talents with the greater Sacramento community. Sacramento Contemporary Dance Theater, is a registered 501c3 featuring talented professional dancers inspired by Montoya to share their grace and athleticism with meaningful intent throughout the greater Sacramento Community. SCDT’s inaugural season concert, “Resilience” will debut on December 4th, 2015 as a benefit performance with proceeds donated to the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center.
About Jacob Montoya
Nationally recognized, award-winning choreographer, Jake Montoya, is a native of Sacramento, California where he continues to explore his gift for dance as a performer, teacher, and influencer in his community. Montoya is trained in jazz, ballet, tap, contemporary and hip hop and studied at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he performed at Missy Cochran Entertainment and danced for the Las Vegas Contemporary Dance Theatre. His expertise includes mastering the Horton Modern Technique and certification in Erick Hawkins Modern Technique. Montoya is the Artistic Director of the Hawkins Contemporary Jazz Company at Hawkins School of Performing Arts and is currently a teacher at Sacramento Theatre Company and Rio Valley Charter school. He has also served on the Staff for the Sacramento Ballet, Northern California Dance Conservatory.
To view Juliet, follow the link to McCallum Theater's Education page for the Palm Desert Choreography Festival. Performance is approximately 5 minutes into the Division II concert for 2015.
