Lauren RubensteinWesleyan's annual West African Drumming and Dance concert, which took place on the Center for the Arts Green, was recently featured by the Middletown Patch. The article, published on May 15, notes: "The exhilarating performance featured the work of Ghanian choreographer Iddi Saaka, Wesleyan world dance artist-in-residence; and master drummer Abraham Adzenyah, whose energetic and spirited students gave a sampling of what they've learned in West African dance courses this semester, accompanied by guest artists and drummers. " Read the article and see the video of the performance here.
Hari Krishnan, artist-in-residence in dance, received widespread media attention for his dance company's performance season in Canada. Positive reviews and articles appeared in the Toronto Standard, Toronto.com, Xtra!, To Live With Culture, Mooney on Theatre, and Fab Magazine. In other exciting news, Krishnan's dance company, inDANCE, was invited to present "Quicksand" and a new solo (commissioned for Jacob's Pillow) at the Canada Dance Festival, the country's most prestigious contemporary dance festival, on June 11.
Olivia Drake
David LowIn The Dance Claimed Me (Yale University Press), Peggy MALS ’77 and Murray Schwartz provide an intimate perspective on the life of Pearl Primus (1919–1994) who made her mark on the dance scene in 1943 with impressive works incorporating social and racial protest into their dance aesthetic. Friends and colleagues of the dancer, the authors explore her influences on American culture, dance, and education. The Schwartzes trace Primus’s journey from her childhood in Port of Spain, Trinidad, through her rise as an influential international dancer, an early member of the New Dance Group (whose motto was “Dance is a weapon"),…
Artist-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…