Olivia DrakeArtist-in-Residence Hari Krishnan’s dance company inDANCE presented the Canadian premiere of Fallen Rain Oct. 1-2 at the Robert Gill Theatre in Toronto, Canada. The dance troupe performs Indian classical dance style bharatanatyam with Western contemporary eroticism. Under the artistic direction of Krishnan, inDANCE performed the 60-minute premiere as part of the Festival of South Asian Literature and the Arts and the University of Toronto’s The Centre for South Asian Studies. Initially choreographed as a series of solos and duets, the Canadian premiere of Fallen Rain features seven lyrical dancers and six musicians. It includes rare genres of dance that have never been presented on…
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Pam Tatge, director of the Center for the Arts, received a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the Breaking Ground Dance Series July 2011-June 2012. The series features cutting-edge choreography and virtuosic dancing by world-renowned companies. This is the 11th anniversary season of the Breaking Ground Dance Series at Wesleyan.
The Center for the Arts received six grants worth a total of $30,300 from the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) to support five visiting dance engagements and a jazz performance in 2011-12. NEFA is supporting Vincent Mantsoe; the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange’s “The Matter of Origins;” Eiko & Koma; Viver Brazill; the San Francisco-based hula company Halau ’o Keikiali’i; and jazz musician Charles Lloyd.
Hari Krishnan, artist-in-residence in the Dance Department, was featured in the March 13 issue of The Toronto Star. In an article titled, "Dance: Traditional Meets the Postmodern," Krishnan speaks about his dance troupe, InDANCE, which performs Indian classical dance style bharatanatyam with Western contemporary eroticism. Krishnan was raised in Singapore, part of the small island republic's Indian minority. He studied bharatanatyam and an imported European form of ballet. He embraced Western contemporary dance as an undergraduate in Canada. He holds a master's degree in dance from York University in Toronto. As a result, he's hard to categorize and this has proved to be…
Corrina KerrThis issue, we ask 5 Questions to . . . Katja Kolcio, associate professor of dance, and author of the new Wesleyan University Press book Movable Pillars Organizing Dance, 1956–1978. Q: How did you become involved with the “Branching Out, Oral Histories of the Founders of Six National Dance Organizations" assignment, which led to your book? A: In 2001, I was invited by the American Dance Guild to conduct interviews with founders of six major American dance organizations. Marilynn Danitz and Margot Lehman, past presidents of the Guild, conceived of the project. These organizations were founded in the '50s and '60s,…
Wesleyan celebrates its 11th annual DanceMasters Weekend March 6-7, an exciting event for choreographers, students, and dance enthusiasts alike. "The mission of DanceMasters is to introduce dance students to contemporary techniques with the hope that they gain an understanding of the breadth and depth of what is out there in the dance world," says Pamela Tatge, director of the Center for the Arts. "We are also providing regional dance teachers an important professional development opportunity through contact with world-class master teachers.” Dancemasters offers a unique combination of outstanding performances and master classes. This year’s showcase performance features the Taylor 2…
Pedro Alejandro, associate professor of dance, is a recipient of the C. Newton Shenck III Award for a "lifetime achievement in and contribution to the arts." Alejandro received the award from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven board of directors. He was mentioned in a Nov. 9 article in The Hartford Courant. Alejandro was featured in The Wesleyan Connection in May 2008.
(Photos by Cora Lautze '11)
Tesla Place, a "thunderous light project" by Pedro Alejandro, associate professor of dance, was performed May 10 and 11 on the Wesleyan campus. The dance, light and sound-based performance began outside Crowell Concert Hall and ended in the Center for the Arts Courtyard. The theme focused on the inventor/scientist Nikola Tesla (1856-1943). Tesla Place was created in collaboration with Marcela Oteiza, adjunct assistant professor of theater and faculty fellow; Paul Boylan; Sal Privitera, audio-visual technician; Adam Tinkle; graduate student Rod O'Connor; Dante Brown '09; Brittany Delany '09; Aaron Freedman '10; Spencer Garrod '09; Shayna Keller '09; and Samantha Sherman '09.…
The dance and music departments of Wesleyan hosted the West African Drumming and Dance Spring Concert showcasing the vibrancy of West African cultures through their music and dance forms. In West Africa, dance is life embodied in rhythm and movement. It celebrates and reinforces life and its various cycles. Right from conception to death, people in West Africa are called upon to honor and celebrate the different stages, achievements and successes of life, as well as to mourn and remember bitter experiences and losses, through music and dances. (Photos by Alexandra Portis '09)