The Department of Music and Dance presents the Fall Student Dance Concert on Friday, December 5 at 4:30 pm and Saturday, December 6 at 8 pm in Pearson-Hall Theater, Lang Performing Arts Center. The concert features works choreographed by faculty and students in diverse dance genres including African dance, Japanese folk and classical dance, modern, and tap.

The Japanese Folk Dance repertory class, taught by Cornell Visiting Professor Isaburoh Hanayagi, will show a folk dance from Okinawa, along with a specially choreographed work that combines fundamental movements from Noh and Kabuki theater. The Dance & Drum Ensemble will perform a work set by guest artists Jeannine Osayande, Alex Shaw and Wesley Rast based on rhythms from Haiti. Dance Majors Tavia Odinak ’09 and Carmella Ollero ’09 premiere new contemporary works. Visiting artist Jumatatu Poe ’04 presents a choreographed work for eleven students that delves into the theme of youth identity.

The performances are free and open to the public without advance reservations. For more information call (610)328-8260 or email lclark1@swarthmore.edu.

Kim Arrow’s videography, Quasimodo in the Outback , will be screened on February 10th and 11th for the International Dance Film Festival, Attakkari India Biennial 2009 in Bangalore, India. Invited as a ‘delegate to Bangalore,’ he will participate in the week-long event.

Shot mostly in Australia, Quasimodo in the Outback is an allegorical journey–inspired by Australian Aboriginal imagery–whose ascent from within the earth, to the world, and return, seeks to find a relational space between subject, object, and place. Employing various modes of camera and production techniques, Quasimodo blurs the lines of subject embodiment in order to operate in a trans-cultural environment as a metaphor for sanctuary, warning, marginalization, and hope.

Arrow’s short ROOPER which premiered for Philadelphia’s international dance film festival Motion Pictures Festival-Shorts Blast Program last June, will screen November 22, 2008 for II São Carlos Videodance Festival, an international dance film festival in San Carlos, Brazil. ROOPER was shot in Australia in 2007 using power stilts and a mob of kangaroo.

Please join us as the Swarthmore College Department of Music and Dance and the William J. Cooper Foundation presents Shen Wei Dance Arts on Friday, October 24 at 8 pm in Pearson-Hall Theater, Lang Performing Arts Center.

Hailed by The New York Times as “startlingly imaginative,” Shen Wei Dance Arts invests in interdisciplinary, cross-cultural performance for forwardlooking audiences. Each work by Artistic Director Shen Wei develops an original dance vocabulary incorporating visual and storytelling elements from the theater, Chinese opera, Eastern philosophy, traditional and contemporary visual art, and sculpture. The result, which is at turns figurative and abstract, combines performance with strong scenic elements to create a “fascinating fantasy in movement” (Herald Sun). At Swarthmore, Shen Wei Dance Arts will perform two acclaimed works from their repertory: “Rite of Spring” and “RE- (Part One).”

This event is free and open to the public without advance reservations. For more info contact lclark1@swarthmore.edu or call 610-328-8260.

Shen Wei and dancers will also conduct a masterclass on Thursday, October 23, from 4:30 pm-6 pm in Troy Dance Lab, Lang Performing Arts Center. This event is open to the public with space priority given to students and Swarthmore faculty and staff. Please arrive early to reserve your space.

The Dance Program invites you to an informal meeting!

Wednesday, October 8, 12:15-1:15 pm

LPAC LOBBY

Refreshments will be served

Talk to faculty members, guest artists and students about:

• new courses and performance opportunities
• interdisciplinary and intercultural aspects of dance study
• collaboration and study abroad
• design and videography

Latika Young ’03 has won a Fulbright Fellowship for 2009. An honors dance major with a minor in environmental studies, Latika will teach English to students at the University of Banja Luka in Bosnia and Herzegovina and will advise on educational matters for the university and for outreach projects.

In addition, she will create a video documentary that explores how artistic practices connect across socio-political boundaries within the country. Having become interested in the post-socialist state while studying abroad with the Swarthmore program in Poland, her most recent research took her to Kosovo in the summer of 2007, where she produced a documentary about the divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica with students from around South East Europe.

Read more about the nine Swarthmore seniors and four alumni winners of Fulbright Fellowships for 2009.