In April 2011, the Department of Dance at Texas Woman’s University published IN TIME TOGETHER: Viewing and Reviewing Contemporary Dance Practice, the online Proceedings from the World Dance Alliance-Global Summit held in New York City summer 2010. The Proceedings will have free accessibility through an online link in the Department of Dance home website and will include papers from the global community concerning current and ongoing conversations within the discipline of dance. Papers accepted for the WDA Conference Proceedings have been through a double-blind review process with approximately 60 professional reviewers participating from around the world. To access the World Dance Alliance Home Page, go to http://worlddancealliance.net/index.htm and click on Publications to find the 2008 Conference Proceedings.
Doctoral Candidate Thom Hecht (2008 Doctoral Cohort) at Texas Woman’s University and Visiting Fellow at Harvard University in affiliation with the Committee on Women, Gender and Sexuality since 2010, has extended his fellowship for the 2011-12 academic year. The fellowship supports his historical research on Dancing Archives—Archive Dances in the Radcliffe College Archives at the Harvard’s Schlesinger Library. In Spring 2011, Thom organized the Educational Bodies: The Performance of Gender and Sexuality in Academia conference, which received funding from the Committee on Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies (Graduate School of Arts and Science, Harvard University), the Harvard College Women’s Center, the Harvard College Queer Students and Allies, and The Open Gate Foundation.
MFA student, Amanda Jackson and Matthew Cumbie (MFA ’11) presented their collaborative dance work thinking seeing standing feeling object of attention in April at Harvard University in Educational Bodies: The Performance of Gender and Sexuality in Academia. The work was also selected for the Gala Concert at the American College Dance Festival in New Mexico. Matthew and Amanda will perform this work at Big Range Dance Festival in Houston this summer.
Undergraduate dance student Alex Benavidez is choreographing a music video for Hip-hop Artist Marie Ferow and received a scholarship to Debbie Allen’s Dance Academy summer intensive in Los Angeles. Alex’s all female dance crew Wrk’n Progress, featuring fellow undergraduate dance students: Dede Dixon, De’Amber Houston, Megan Marcano, Ashliegh Christian, Kyrstal Hurd and Dailsy Aguilar, performed in New York City CBS studios in December as back-up dancers for music artist DeWun on the BET Network show 106 & Park and in April, performed at the 2011 National World of Dance Hip Hop Convention at the Palladium Ballroom in Dallas, TX.
Gladys Keeton (Associate Professor) was recently elected President of the National Dance Association at the convention in San Diego. Keeton also presented a poster session entitled “Building Lesson Plan Expertise in Pre-Service Teachers” and a program “Implementing E-Portfolios as Assessment and Career Marketing Tools” at the National Dance Association Convention in San Diego in March. The TWU International Dance Company directed by Gladys Keeton was selected to perform in the National Dance Association Gala Concert at the convention.
Doctoral student Lela Aisha Jones has been awarded a New Stages for Dance Initiative Grant, in co-production with Mascher Space Coop. Included in this grant is funding for two evenings of new works by FlyGroud/Lela Aisha Jones and The Requisite Movers. The Requisite Movers was created by Lela Aisha Jones and Deneane Richburg in 2010 as a platform for emerging African American female artists to present performance work. Leadership Support for the New Stages for Dance Initiative is provided by MetLife Foundation. New Stages for Dance is a program of Dance/USA Philadelphia.
Undergraduate dance student Annabelle Chen recently organized a fundraiser with American Red Cross in conjunction with TWU dance department in collecting donations for the Japan earthquake and tsunami relief. The project raised $206.06 during the Dance UpClose concert series presented at Texas Woman’s University, and she also raised $551 from the Dance to Support Japan workshop that took place in Richardson in April.
Shelley Padilla (Adjunct Professor) presented The Grilled Cheese Express: Investigating Options for Creating an Inclusive Performance Experience through Dance Video, at the World Dance Alliance Conference in New York (July 12th 2010). Shelley also produced Dancing to Restore the Gulf, a free dance concert endorsed by the National Wildlife Federation to raise funding for oil spill clean-up efforts (July 31st 2010). In September 2010, She presented It Will Hold You and Me, a collaborative choreography/text project with Texas Poet Laureate Karla K. Morton at the Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas at Tarleton State University. And in May of 2010, Shelley was awarded the Gordon Yeargon Adjunct Faculty Member of the Year for 2009-2010, North Central Texas College. This spring, Shelley worked with Refugee Resources, teaching dance to African refugee students in Richardson Independent School District. These students performed at Forestridge Elementary in April 2011.
Matthew Cumbie (MFA '11) will be working with the Von Howard Project, directed by Christian Von Howard, for their upcoming July performance at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City, NY.
MFA student Whitney Boomer and colleague, Mary Chase, will premier a new collaboration "Get Be Dirty" at the Big Range Dance Festival in Austin, TX June 24 - July 3, 2011 at the Salvage Vanguard Theater.
John A. Niemi (Doctoral Candidate, 2006 Cohort) will attend the 1st Annual Movement Fundamentals (MF) Invitational Coalescence from July 17-23, 2011 at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, facilitated by Jane Hawley, Associate Professor of Dance. https://www.luther.edu/theatredance/movement/.
Undergraduate dance student Andrea Mosher was recently promoted to Principal Dancer of CholoRock Dance Theater. CholoRock is a dance company based in Denton, TX, that focuses on making culture popular through performance and community outreach. www.cholorock.com.
page last updated 2/9/2012 1:22 PM