Author Archives: twebb1

Lecture with Emily Wilcox (3/31 @ 4:30PM, Kohlberg 226)

LECTURE: “Dancing Against Euro-American Imperialism: Socialist Culture, Third World Leftism, and the Making of a Chinese Body”

When: Monday, March 31, 2014, 4:30-6:00pm

Where: Kohlberg 226

Emily Wilcox, PhD, will speak on the common misperception that dance in Mao-era China was dominated by the importation and adaptation of Soviet ballet. The lecture will include an examination of historical sources in corroboration with Chinese-language dance scholarship suggesting that China’s pre-Cultural Revolution socialist period (1949-1966) witnessed Chinese dance artists’ widespread efforts to create Chinese dance styles that would serve as alternatives to foreign dance forms.

Emily Wilcox is assistant professor of modern Chinese studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. She received her PhD in 2011 from the Anthropology Department at the University of California, Berkeley. Her essays and articles have appeared in Asian Theatre Journal, Journal of the Anthropological Study of Human Movement, TDR: The Drama Review, and other venues. She is currently writing a book on dance and the construction of a national culture in the People’s Republic of China.

Tamagawa Taiko is back again for the Cherry Blossom Festival! (4/6 @7PM)

TaikoTama2014This event is FREE, but seating is first come, first served! Please arrive early to secure a seat.

The world-touring Tamagawa Taiko Drum and Dance troupe return to Philadelphia for a week of awe-inspiring performances as part of the 2014 Philadelphia Cherry Blossom Festival. This group is guaranteed to thrill and amaze with their energetic shows of Japanese folk tradition. Expect to see thundering drums, intricate dances, and beautiful costumes. It’ll be sure to be an evening of heart-pounding entertainment and fun for all!

When: April 6, 2014 at 7PM

Where: Lang Concert Hall, Swarthmore College

 

Susan Marshall & Company brings PLAY/PAUSE (2/14 @ 8PM)

Susan Marshall brings one of her new and exciting dance-theater pieces to Swarthmore this February.

Play/Pause

LPAC Pearson-Hall Theater (Mainstage)

8PM, Friday, February 14, 2014
Free and Open to the Public

About
In an electric guitar-fueled evening of postmodern dance-theater, Susan Marshall couples her intimate, structured choreography with the seductiveness of pop culture to explore our complex relationship to the media we consume. This evening-length piece for six dancers features a commissioned score by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang, performed live by members of electric guitar quartet Dither and Mantra Percussion. Play/Pause premiered in Chicago in September 2013.

Here’s a little preview: www.vimeo.com/sumac/stop

The company will offer a Master Class with the dancers on Thursday 2/13 in the Troy Dance Lab at 4:30PM.

Dance Class Showing – 12/9/13 @ 5PM

Take a break from exam prepping and join us in the Troy Dance Studio on December 9th at 5PM.

The pointe and variations class will be presenting an excerpt from Balanchine’s CONCERTO BAROCCO and the “Dance of theDolls” from Balanchine’s THE NUTCRACKER. The Dance Lab class will show a piece inspired by water and the ocean. And finally, we’ll look at a piece featuring explorations of dance, identity and drag. Come by and support the hard work of our student dancers!

Fall 2013 Student Dance Concert

Fall 2013 Poster

The Dance Program of the Department of Music and Dance sends a warm invitation to all to join us for the 2013 Fall Student Dance Concert. Dance and music performances will include West African, Brazilian, Tap, Ballet and Taiko. Please join us in celebrating the creativity and hard work of our student, faculty, and staff. Families with children are especially welcome to attend.

Out and About: Pallabi Chakravorty lecture at Emory University (10/17 @7PM)

If you’re in the Atlanta area, join Pallabi Chakravorty at Emory University on Thursday, October 17th at 7PM for a guest lecture/performance “Beyond the Body: Emotions in Kathak Dance” (Sponsored by the Department of Religion and the Department of Middle East and South Asian Studies, Emory University).

This presentation will use live performance and scholarly explorations to identify the ‘Kathak dancer’ as the seeker of love, pleasure, and devotion, both on the physical and the metaphysical realms. It will use musical genres such as thumri and tala stuctures (metrical scales from the north Indian tradition) to elucidate the idea of the dancer as seeker.

WOTW: Cardell Dance Theater (October 6, 2013 @ 4PM, Boyer Studio)

The Swarthmore Project and the Department of Music and Dance presents

SUPPERSUPPER, people on the move

(work in progress)

Supper is a site specific performance that poses semantic questions on the experience of displacement and migration in the current social and financial climate.

Supper consists of layers of images and actions inspired in real stories of a group of recent migrants that the dancers and I interviewed during the research process. Papers, pictures, small personal items, table sets were collected and selected throughout the rehearsal period that are part of the narrative of shared stories creating the performance.

Director/Choreographer: Silvana Cardell

Visual Artist: Jennifer Baker

Prologue: Allan Irving and Pablo Meninato

Performers: Bethany Formica, Leanne Grieger, William Robinson, Adrian Pascencia, Maria Urrutia

Company Intern: Jazmine Brooks

 

Gamelan Semara Santi is looking for dancers!

Swarthmore’s classical Indonesian percussion orchestra (Gamelan Semara Santi) is looking for new student dancers this year!   No prior experience with Balinese dance is assumed, but students should have some prior dance training.  We’ve got some unusual stuff in the works!  We will be performing Kecak – the so-called Balinese ‘Monkey Chant’.  This is a performance genre in which musicians accompany the dancers by chanting interlocking rhythms.  We will also perform a traditional Balinese greeting dance and the dancers will be accompanied by the usual orchestral percussion.

Balinese dance is taught by Latifah lsegaf and I Nyoman Suadin.

The commitment is:
Sunday October 27th, 2-5 PM, Boyer Studio
Sunday November 10th, 2-5 PM, Boyer Studio
Sunday November 24th, 2-5 PM, Boyer Studio
with a final Fall Concert: Sunday December 8th: 10 AM rehearsal; concert at 3 PM

If you are interested in participating please email Tom Whitman in the Music and Dance Department at twhitma1.