Media Contact: Sharon Adams
PR for DSM Academy of Performing Arts
Direct Line: 972.773.9289
Cell: 214.924.9959
adamscomm1@aol.com

DSM Academy of Performing Arts Contact: Kevin Cook
Director of Education
Phone: 214.969.7569
kcook@dallassummermusicals.org

DSM Academy of Performing Arts and Dimensions Dance and Performing Arts Company along with the International Music Conservatory Bring Their Expertise Together Under One Roof

The International Conservatory of Performing Arts

A wide variety of master classes, camps and year-round instruction offered in musical theatre, acting, voice, directing, dance, drill team, tap, jazz, hip-hop, violin, viola, cello, piano, double bass and more – all topped off with stunning student performances.

            (Dallas, TX – August 13, 2013)  DSM Academy of Performing Arts along with Dimensions Dance and Performing Arts Company (DDPAC) and the International Music Conservatory (IMC) will all offer classes under one roof at the IMC location in Plano, dubbing the effort International Conservatory of Performing Arts.
“There is nothing like this in our metro area,” said Kevin Cook, Director of Education at the DSM Academy. “DSM Academy is thrilled to offer theatre training while these top-rate companies bring their expertise to offer a triple-threat opportunity for music, dance and acting. For young performers, it’s one dream of three collaborators in one building.”
DSM Academy will continue its theatre programs at Park Cities, Frisco and Town North, but this new relationship will include individual classes in overall Musical Theatre as part of the ongoing curriculum at IMC. There will be classes in Musical Theatre, Acting, Acting for Film, Improvisational Acting, Directing, Semi-Private Voice, Lyric Interpretation, Voice for Dancers, How to Audition as a Triple-Threat and Dance for Theatre.
Ronald Neal, Director of the International Music Conservatory said, “This is an extraordinary and long overdue association between music, theatre and dance. The IMC program is designed to assist aspiring young artists in finding his or her voice and style through the fundamental training for instrumental technique, theory of music and music communication skills, etc. We are thrilled to welcome these two notable companies in the creation of a world class performing arts center for pre-college students and aspiring professionals.”
Kerry Dove, Artistic Director, DDPAC agrees, saying, “Our main focus is to integrate with the IMC and DSM Academy to offer all aspects of performing arts under one roof. Here, we will educate and equip children, teens and adults to become employable artists in the performing arts field, or to simply foster their love of the arts by providing the chance to study with the best of the best in one facility, which offers a state-of-the-art environment in a centralized location.  For this reason, our curriculum emphasizes art making, technical development and mastery of one’s unique creative process.  We will assist our students in their endeavor by providing experienced, knowledgeable instructors and instilling discipline, dedication and a respect for the arts.”
The IMC location includes individual and group instruction areas for the instrument classes, a recording studio with full video and audio production services overseen by an onsite studio manager, performance hall which doubles as a fully functional sound stage and a new spacious sprung wood dance floor with Marley surface.
“Everyone at Dallas Summer Musicals, Inc. applauds the efforts of the International Music Conservatory, Dimensions Dance and Performing Arts Company and of course, Kevin Cook of the DSM Academy, for their dedication to this vision of the future in performing arts education,” said Michael A. Jenkins, President and Managing Director, Dallas Summer Musicals, Inc. “This winning combination offers students a truly incomparable educational experience.”

Visit the website at: http://www.icparts.org

About DSM Academy: The DSM Academy of Performing Arts was founded in 1999 and operates as an affiliate of Dallas Summer Musicals, Inc. in four locations in Dallas, Frisco and Plano areas. Dallas Summer Musicals is a company that produces and presents Broadway, off-Broadway, West End and touring theatrical productions. The DSM Academy is comprised of 60% youth under 13 years of age, 40% teens and 10% adults. The Academy is proud of its diverse and ethnic student population. The DSM Academy has granted over 300 need-based scholarships. The DSM Academy helps to prepare the amateur and the professional for involvement in the performing arts.

About International Music Conservatory: The International Music Conservatory is comprised of a 50 member acclaimed university faculty, graduates of Julliard and Eastman School, Curtis Institute, Shanghai Conservatory and Moscow Conservatory, who provide private/group instruction, music theory and master classes. Our facility offers students an environment in which they can thrive with practice rooms, an audio-video recording studio and 75-seat performance hall. With focus on our students goals, IMC faculty and staff are dedicated to their success. Working hand-in-hand with dedicated parents, our students have been selected as international competition winners and this year, for the National Youth Orchestra of the U.S.A.
Website: http://www.imusicconservatory.com/home

About DDPAC: Dimensions Dance and Performing Arts Company is committed to developing artists who make valuable, long-term contributions in personal and professional arenas. The main focus of the DDPAC will be to integrate with the International Music Conservatory to offer all aspects of performing arts under one roof. Here we will educate children, teens and adults by offering classes in ballet, tap, jazz, musical theatre, hip hop, contemporary, lyrical, modern, acro and tumbling, and conditioning at the competitive or recreational level. This will help them become artists in the performing arts field, or simply foster their love of the arts by providing the chance to study with the best of the best in one facility that offers a state of the art environment in a centralized location.  www.ddpac.com

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Eldridge Publishing Interviews the Dallas team of
Kevin Cook and Denis Kashoid
By Nancy Vorhis
President of Eldridge Publishing

Many of Eldridge’s most popular playwrights and composers live and work in the great state of Texas. Often they are fixtures in their local community and school theatres, and you’ve probably enjoyed their work, either in development or in productions. This month meet Kevin Cook and Denis Kashoid, the well-known creative team at the Dallas Summer Musical Academy.

Tell us a little about yourselves.
KEVIN: I moved to Texas 6 years ago for Dallas Summer Musicals. I have a Master’s degree in Theatre and have spent most of my postgraduate life involved in the theatre as an actor, director, manager, producer, teacher and writer in the U.S. and abroad. When not running the DSM Academy, I enjoy my home located in the hills south of Dallas.

DENIS: I loved my years in Moscow at the Music Conservatory. Being immersed in the creative atmosphere of fellow musicians and being in a city that pulses with art and fashion charged me with creativity that forever changed my world.

How did you get to be a team?
KEVIN: As Director of Education for DSM, I hired Denis for the position of Musical Director 5 years ago. Denis teaches voice and music to students ages 6 to 20, and I teach acting for the Academy. Several years ago we decided to try our hand at creating musicals for our students which began our writing partnership. We also write non-theatrical works, most recently the city song for Grand Prairie, Texas.

Tell us about the process and challenges of writing with a partner. What makes it easier or more satisfying to have a creative partner…or what makes it harder?
KEVIN: Usually the story, characters, plot and dialogue are written first before deciding the positions and styles of the songs.  The next step is to write the lyrics for each song which are then sent to Denis with tempo, mood and style guidelines. Usually several variations of each song are created before finalizing the music. As writing partners, we take each other’s notes and suggestions openly with the hope of conveying a clear and entertaining story. Egos are dropped. Writing with a partner is a joy as the process of creating a script and score can be a lonely journey. The challenge of working with a partner is clarity of thought. What a word means to one person is not necessarily what it means to the other person. I think Denis and I have both learned to put up with each other’s pace of writing. It’s not always done when the other thinks it should be!

How many musicals have you written together?
DENIS: We are working on our fifth musical together. The first one was staged in Dallas in December 2009. Eldridge Publishing was the first company to publish our work with our children’s musical, The Pied Piper of Possum Kingdom. We do not always write for children, however. We are currently working on an adult musical with the working title Forbidden which is comedy/drama about forbidden love.

What comment do you hear most often from others…from family and friends, from directors, from actors or audience members?
KEVIN: Most people comment on the funny and often unusual approach we use to tell a story. Along with the script and score, this approach also includes the style of choreography and acting.

Many writers are hardly “overnight success” stories. How long did it take to get where you are today?
KEVIN: I’ve written on and off over the last 20 years, mostly as a show doctor. The horror story is giving up on a project. It’s so final. How do I avoid that? I write a minimum of two pages a day. Before long, you have a novel or a musical. Then, you rewrite and rewrite and rewrite.

If you could somehow choose another talent, what would it be?
KEVIN: Medicine. It always gets my curiosity going.

DENIS: Since my parents are artists I still paint a little and do some graphic design work as a freelancer. So if I could choose another talent it’d probably be dancing! Ballroom, ethnic, hip hop, all of it!

Do you have a bucket list and if so, what’s on it?
KEVIN: To finish what I start today. I try to live in day-tight compartments. So, each day has a bucket list.

DENIS: Oh I do! It’s long! I started fulfilling it last summer with skydiving, went on to shaving my head bald, bungee jumping, taking karate lessons, getting a motorcycle, learning new instrument (got an accordion), visiting Europe (this summer) and the list goes on!

How would you describe perfect happiness?
KEVIN: Perfect happiness is removing expectation from your life.

DENIS: Loving the life you live and living the life you love.

What is your motto or maxim?
KEVIN: Begin.

DENIS: Work like you don’t need the money, love like you’ve never been hurt, dance like nobody’s watching.

How would you like to be remembered?
KEVIN: As one who cared.

DENIS: I want to be remembered for being a kind, compassionate person, and to be remembered for helping and inspiring others.

You can read a Freeview (opening pages) and hear a music demo of “The Pied Piper of Possum Creek” at http://www.histage.com/playdetails.asp?PID=2457.

Nancy Vorhis is president of Eldridge Publishing Co., Tallahassee Fl. The family-owned company has offered quality plays since 1906. Visit them at www.hiStage.com.