Category Archives: Dance

Dance Faculty Members in performance!

Jumatatu Poe will be performing as a member of the choreographer series 8 at the Live Arts – Fringe Festival on September 7th and 8th and September 11th and 12th.

C. Kemal Nance is also performing at the Live Arts – Fringe Festival on September 9th and September 12th.  Kemal will also be part of the PhD concert at Temple on October 30th and 31st at 2PM on Saturday, and 7:30PM on both Saturday and Sunday.

Meredith Rainey will be performing with Danse4Nia September 11th and 12th at the Freedom Theatre.  Meredith is teaching the Ballet Repertory class this semester and will be featured in our Fall Student Dance Concert in December.  He will also be part of an event on November 13th along with Kate Watson Wallace at the Montgomery Community College.

Jeanine Osayande will be performing with Flyground on September 17th and 18th as part of the Live Arts – Fringe Festival.

Leah Stein will be performing as part of a Japanese-US cultural exchange at the Japan House, September 9th, 10th and 11th, for the Live Arts – Fringe Festival.

A dance film created by Kim Arrow will be shown as part of the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema in Boulder, CO.

Pallabi Chakravorty will be performing with her company, the Courtyard Dancers, on October 8th and 9th at 7:30PM as part of an event with the Asian Arts Initiative.  Check her website or here for more information closer to the dates.  Pallabi will also be participating  in a performance and workshop at Indiana University as part of the India Studies Program on October 23rd.

Click on the above links for more information and check our News updates frequently!

Swarthmore artists at the LiveArts-Philly Fringe 2010!

Swarthmore theater and dance alumni, faculty, and staff are again strongly represented in this year’s Philadelphia LiveArts-Fringe Festival, running September 3-18, 2010.

Those participating include:

Telephone Bronco Theater Company makes their collective debut with the world premiere of CARTOGORAPHASIA, created by the company on campus this summer with the support of the Swarthmore Project in Theater.  Company members include Nell Bang-Jensen ’11, Jessica Bear ’08, Emma Ferguson ’10, Sam Goodman ’10, Eric Holzhauer ’10, Louis Jargow ’10, and Isa St. Clair ’11.

Performances at Circle of Hope, 1125 S. Broad Street.

September 3, 4, 10, 11. (Fringe Festival).

The Groudswell Players will make their collective debut with the world premiere of HOW TO SOLVE A BEAR.  The company includes Jesse Paulsen ’09 and Emma Ferguson ’10.

Performed at the Mainstage at the Adrienne Theatre, 2030 Sansom Street.

September 4, 6, 9, 12, 17 (Fringe Festival).

Director and digital media designer Lars Jan ’00 is collaborating with choreographer Nichole Canuso on the world premiere of a dance-theater piece TAKES, by the Nichole Canuso Dance Company.  Performing in the piece is Dito van Reigersberg ’94 (of Pig Iron Theatre Company).  Technical and lighting direction by LPAC Staff Office member Dave Todaro.  TAKES was supported in part by the Swarthmore Project in Theater.

Performances at Theater West at The Hub, (SW corner of 5th Street and Fairmount Avenue in Northern Liberties).

September 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 17, 18  (LiveArts Festival).

Playwright and actor Adriano Shaplin (part-time instructor of playwriting in the Department of Theater) performs in the world premiere of his latest play FREEDOM CLUB, a collaboration between his company The Riot Group and Philadelphia’s New Paradise Laboratories.

Performances at the Arts Bank, 601 S. Broad Street (corner of South Street).

September 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11 (LiveArts Festival).

Pig Iron Theatre Company is presenting the world premiere of their latest production, CANKERBLOSSOM, directed by Dan Rothenberg ’95.

Performances at Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American Street (near 2nd & Market Streets).

September 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 (LiveArts Festival).

Dance faculty member and choreographer Jumatatu Poe ’04 is presenting the world premiere of his piece UNSTUCK on a double bill with choreographer Eun Jung Choi.

Performances at the Live Arts Studio, 919 N. 5th Street (at Poplar Street in Northern Liberties).

September 11, 12 (Live Arts Festival).

Green Chair Dance Group is performing in GRAVITY THEATER, a collaboration with InMovement Dance and Amanda Varone.  Green Chair Dance Group consists of Sarah Gladwin-Camp ’05, John Beauregard ’05, Greg Holt ’05, and Hannah de Keijzer ’06.

Performances at InMovement Studio, 737 S. 8th Street (South Philadelphia).

September 15, 16.

Greg Holt ’05 is performing in the world premiere of choreographer Brian Sanders’ SANCTUARY, presented by his company Junk.

Performances at Theater East at The Hub (SW corner of 5th Street and Fairmount Avenue in Northern Liberties).

September 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18 (LiveArts Festival)

Additional information about these and the many other performances in the LiveArts-Fringe program this year can be found in hard copies of the festival guide that are available in the LPAC Lower Lobby (outside the LPAC Staff Office) or by going to www.livearts-fringe.org.

Tickets can be bought any time on line by going to the festival website and selecting “Shows”.  The festival box office will be open starting August 23 at The Hub (at the SW corner of 5th and Fairmount Streets) in Northern Liberties.

COURTYARD DANCERS, directed by Prof. Pallabi Chakravorty, performs in Philadelphia on Sun, April 25

An evening of classical and contemporary Indian dance presented by the “Courtyard Dancers” www.courtyarddancers.org.

“Emo-Sketches” is a journey through the emotional landscapes of love, justice, humanism, and hope using Kathak dance, rhythm, poetry and gestures.

The concert will also feature Mohiniattam exponent from India Priyadarshini Ghosh Shome.

The performance showcase will culminate in a classical Indian dance workshop with the audience members. No prior knowledge of dance is necessary.

Date: April 25

Time: 7:00 PM

Venue: Mascher Studio, 155 Cecil B. Moore Ave., Philadelphia 19122.http://www.mascherdance.com

$10, $8 w/ Dance Pass, $5 for students

For more information about the performance contact diditimitra@gmail.com

About the company: Courtyard Dancers, a diverse body of performers, creates and stages contemporary Indian dance theater based on classical Indian and folk dance forms. Our mission is to explore through our works the interdependence between art, life, and labor. In this, we are interested in developing a socially engaged community of artists and audiences who experience art and culture both in political and aesthetics terms. We juxtapose the beauty of the classical forms with pedestrian movements, everyday gestures, utterances, and text to create our own collage of life. We draw on the expressive power of Indian dances to narrate stories of the under-represented and the marginal, the quotidian, and the mundane to evoke dramatic and powerful images of ordinary life. Through our dance theater, we strive for sustainable and pluralistic communities that can acknowledge and bridge differences.

Open Door Classes in the Dance Program April 14-16

Please join us for Open Door Classes in the Dance Program, Wednesday-Friday, April 14-16, in the dance studios on the ground floor of Lang Performing Arts Center.  These classes are meant to give current and prospective students a peak into Dance Program offerings.  Students and interested faculty and staff are welcome to take full classes, or stop by and watch for however long your schedule permits.  The schedule is as follows:

WEDNESDAY
11:30AM – 1PM,    Yoga,    LPAC 2,    K. Arrow *
11:30AM – 1PM,    Ballet III,    LPAC 3,    J. Sherman *
1:15- 4PM,    Anatomy for  Performers,    LPAC 2,    S. Hess **
4:30- 6PM,    Modern I, LPAC 3,     K. Arrow *
4:30- 6PM,    Modern II, LPAC 2,    J. Poe *
6 – 7PM,  Tap,  LPAC 3,     L. Davis *
7 – 8:30 PM,    African Dance I,     LPAC 2,    J. Osayande *
8:30 – 10PM,   African Dance II,  LPAC 2,    K. Nance *

THURSDAY
11:30AM – 1PM,    Ballet II,    LPAC 3,    J. Sherman *
11:30AM – 1PM,     Contact Improv,     LPAC 2,    L. Stein *
1:15 – 2:30PM,    Dancing Desire in Bollywood Films,    Lang Music Building 204,    P. Chakravorty **
3 – 4:30PM,     Ballet I,     LPAC 3,  J. Sherman *
4:30 – 6PM    ,    Kathak (Indian Dance),     LPAC 2,    P. Chakravorty *
4:30 – 6PM,    Modern III,     LPAC 3,    J. Poe *
6 – 9PM    ,    Kathak (Indian Dance) Repertory,     LPAC 2,    P. Chakravorty **

FRIDAY
12:30-2PM, Modern Rep Laboratory, LPAC 3, J. Poe    **

2:15 – 5PM, Taiko, LPAC 2,    K. Arrow    **

*Open for participation or observation
**Open for observation only
We look forward to seeing you in class!  If you are planning to participate in a class, please contact the instructor about appropriate attire.

For more information contact Liza Henty-Clark at lclark1@swarthmore.edu or (610) 328-8260.
For information about the Dance Program see our website: www.swarthmore.edu/dance.

MOCEAN, dance film by Prof. Kim Arrow, receives award from Earth Hour 2010 Film Festival

Kim Arrow’s videography MOCEAN received an award for the “Most Creative” category from films selected to be screened for Earth Hour 2010 on March 27th in Cairns, Australia.  Sponsors include World Wildlife Fund, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Cairns Regional Council, and Ergon Energy.
Earth Hour was a global effort involving an estimated one billion people who came together with recognition of climate change by turning off their lights for one hour.
The award winning entries are now available to view on YouTube via the Earth Hour FNQ channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/EarthHourFNQ

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Dance Faculty in the News March 2010: Kim Arrow and Jumatatu Poe

SWARTHMORE TAIKO PERFORMANCES

Kim Arrow, Director of Swarthmore Taiko, will perform with the group for the Morris Arboretum’s Cherry Blossom Festival, in North Philadelphia on April 17, 1PM.

Swarthmore Taiko will be the opening performance for the Haitian Benefit Concert in Lang Performing Arts Center, Swarthmore College, on April 1, 6:30 PM.

On March 19th, Swarthmore Taiko members Kim Arrow, Joe Small ’05, and Myles Dakan ’10 performed for the
Mayoral Press Conference for the Japan/America Society’s 2010 Cherry Blossom Festival, Fairmount Park, Phila.

AUSTRALIAN SCREENING OF DANCE VIDEO CREATED BY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR KIM ARROW

MOCEAN, a dance video created by Associate Professor Kim Arrow, will be screened for EARTH HOUR 2010, at The Pier at the Marina, Cairns, Australia, sponsored by Cairns Regional Council, World Wildlife Fund, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the Australian Government, on March 27.

DANCE ADVANCE GRANT AWARDED TO ASSISTANT PROFESSOR JUMATATU POE ’04

Dance Advance, a program of the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, awarded a grant in the amount of $20,000 to Asst. Professor Jumatatu Poe to rehearse and develop a new work, Flatland 2010. This highly competitive grant was awarded to 16 Philadelphia-based choreographers, companies and presenters.  To learn more about Prof. Poe’s work, we invite you to visit his company’s website: www.idiosyncrazyproductions.com.

To learn more about Dance Advance and the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage visit: www.pcah.us

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Trisha Brown Dance Company at Swarthmore this Thur-Fri!

Please join us as the William J. Cooper Foundation and the Department of Music and Dance present:
The Trisha Brown Dance Company
Friday, February 26, 8 pm
Pearson Hall Theatre
Lang Performing Arts Center

Master Class with Company Member Tamara Riewe
Thursday, February 25, 4:30 pm – 6 pm
Troy Dance Lab
Lang Performing Arts Center
The Trisha Brown Dance Company has presented the work of its legendary artistic director for more than 37 years. Founded in 1970, when Trisha Brown branched out from the experimental Judson Dance Theater to work with her own group of dancers, the company offered its first performances at alternative sites in Manhattan’s Soho. Today, it is regularly seen in the landmark opera houses of New York, Paris, London, and many other theaters around the world. The repertory has grown from solos and small group pieces to include major evening-length works and collaborations between Brown and renowned visual artists. The program presented at Swarthmore will include “You can see us” (’95), “Foray Foret” (’90) and the classic “Set and Reset” (’83). These dances showcase Brown’s frequent collaboration with artist Robert Rauschenberg.

This event is made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Cooper Series events are free and open to the public; there is no reserved seating. Event details may be subject to change without notice.