College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

Mason Artist-in-Residence Small Island Big Song Leads Events Across Campus and Community

Zoe Harr — Fri, 29 Mar 2024 20:41:10 +0000

Mason Artist-in-Residence Small Island Big Song Leads Events Across Campus and Community Zoe Harr Fri, 03/29/2024 - 16:41

In This Story

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Learn About Mason's Artist-in-Residence Program

Mason Artist-in-Residence Small Island Big Song will perform at the Center on April 20. Photo taken by Gelée Lai, Tony Tsai, Samra Teague, and Kimmi Cranes.

Right before Earth Day, Small Island Big Song presents a "jaw-dropping" (Billboard) concert experience at the Center for the Arts on April 20, combining music, spoken word, and stunning projections to showcase unique oceanic grooves and soulful island ballads, while shining a light on the devastating effects of climate crisis on our world’s oceans. Indigenous artists from Pacific and Indian Ocean island nations mix their diverse styles to establish a contemporary musical dialogue between cultures as far afield as Madagascar, Taiwan, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, Tahiti, and Indonesia.

Co-Founder BaoBao Chen joins Small Island Big Song at the Center on April 20.

“For us, the goal of Small Island Big Song is to bring the audiences to some places that we might not have the courage of going alone, to celebrate, to confront, to inspire, to mourn, to feel hopeful. Our performance goes to all these emotions and shares the stories of ‘Our Island’, but ultimately, ‘Our Island’ is the one we all share,” notes BaoBao Chen, co-founder of Small Island Big Song.

Want to learn more about Small Island Big Song? Read more on the official website.

As a Mason Artist-in-Residence, Small Island Big Song will also deeply engage with the community through a series of education and engagement programs, detailed below:

Open-to-the-Public Residency Events

Climate Change: Our Response as Artivists on April 18 will explore ways in which artists can use their voices to expand global conversation on political, economic, social, and cultural questions at the root of the climate crisis. This event is co-presented with the Inclusive Collaborative Arts at Mason (ICAM) project with panelists BaoBao Chen, Co-Founder and Producer of Small Island Big Song; Mark Cooley, Associate Professor and Director of New Media Arts, Mason School of Art; founder of Green Studio; Moderated by Edward Maibach, distinguished professor at George Mason University and director of Mason’s Center for Climate Change Communication; and is a part of the Artist-Activist Speaker Series, an initiative of the Inclusive Collaborative Arts at Mason (ICAM) project. This event is free, but registration is required.
Small Island Big Song artist Sammy from Madagascar hosts "Trash to Music" on April 20.
On April 19, Small Island Big Song invites local students to experience a schooltime performance that includes participatory dance and rhythmic activities, as well as an open Q&A with students. This performance is free, but registration is required.
Also on April 19 and in collaboration with Mason Dining, Small Island Big Song artists will introduce Mason community members to a traditional island dish, fish curry. Led by Emlyn from Mauritius, the Cooking a Traditional Meal with Local Twists workshop will include food samples and musical accompaniment. The event is free to Mason students, faculty, and staff, but registration is required.
Led by Small Island Big Song artist Sammy and hosted by UpCycle Creative Reuse Center, Trash to Music on April 20 is an inspiring hands-on workshop demonstrating how to make musical instruments from trash, commonly recycled, and/or reused materials. Participants will be making a Malagasy-style berimbau and shaker. Recommended for ages 10 and up, minors must be accompanied by an adult. Limit of 20 participants with waitlist to notify if spots become available.

Additional Residency Activities for Mason and Local Community

Co-presented by the City of Fairfax and Center for the Arts, Small Island Big Song hosted a Friends of the Center for the Arts Artists in Conversation event, Our Shared Seafaring Heritage, Alive in Rhythm and Song, on April 2 at the Stacey C. Sherwood Community Center in Fairfax, VA. This lecture-demonstration provided geographical and historical background about the great oceanic migrations that affected the featured island nations of Small Island Big Song, and included musical demonstrations and an interactive Q&A.
Small Island Big Song artists Sammy, Yuma, Mathieu, and Small Island Big Song Co-Founder Tim Cole will visit Mason’s Dewberry School of Music program’s “Music History in Society III” course taught by Professor Greg Robinson.
In this Dancing Mauritian Sega workshop, approximately 100 second grade students from Hunters Woods Elementary School are invited to learn the Sega dance from Mauritius, led by Mathieu Joseph (Mauritius) with support from Sam Roem (West Papua).
Small Island Big Song artists and co-founders BaoBao Chen and Tim Cole will lead a discussion on the topic of “Artivism in Action - Managing Cultural Initiatives” with students of Mason’s Arts Management and Folklore programs’ “Folklore and Festival Management” course.

In addition to these special residency events, a pre-performance discussion with Small Island Big Song Co-Founders BaoBao Chen and Tim Cole will take place in Monson Grand Tier prior to the performance on April 20. The discussion will be moderated by Center for the Arts Programming and Engagement Manager Vic Adebusola.

Buy tickets to Small Island Big Song on April 20 and be transported to the musical islands that are just around the corner.

This engagement of Small Island Big Song is made possible through the ArtsCONNECT program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Mason Artist-in-Residence program is supported in part by the Wendy Frieman and David Johnson Fund.

The Small Island Big Song residency is supported in part by Eloise Stinger.

Thank you to the City of Fairfax Parks and Recreation Everybody Plays Grant program for making free tickets possible for the schooltime matinee program. This grant was funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

Topics

CFA

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) Arts Management Program

folklore

Center for the Arts

Friends of the Center for the Arts

Mason Artists-in-Residence

Mason Dining

Campus News

Sustainability

Get to Know Shá Norman, CVPA’s Director of Diversity

Emily Schneider — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 20:40:43 +0000

Get to Know Shá Norman, CVPA’s Director of Diversity Emily Schneider Fri, 02/04/2022 - 15:40

Shá Norman (They/She) joins George Mason University with over ten years of experience in program administration in education non-profits and higher education institutions.

While teaching students performing arts and creative writing across the Chicagoland area, they became deeply aware of the inequities students with marginalized backgrounds faced in education systems. This led to their passion for not only the work of advocacy for equity in education but also administering the programs and supports that insulate marginalized students and educational opportunities that support the professional development of administrators, faculty, staff, and program instructors.

To help the CVPA community get to know Shá, we asked them about their goals at Mason, their art, and the best advice they have received. Read on to learn more and help us offer Shá a warm welcome!

Shá Norman (They/She), the Director of Diversity for the College of Visual and Performing Arts, joins Mason as of February 7, 2022.

What attracted you to Mason and this role within Mason in particular?

As a creative and educator, the opportunity to dialogue and be in community with creatives and educators through the implementation of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility supports and resources can only be described as purposeful for me. I was drawn to the position because it marries my passion for DEIA in higher education with my passion for the arts and working with artists/creatives. While going through the interview process, my awareness deepened of how special the GMU CVPA community is and how committed CVPA is to diversity, equity, and inclusion. I am very excited to begin this collaborative adventure with each of you.

Who has influenced you most when it comes to how you approach your work?

bell hooks. My understanding of myself and my place and purpose in society flows from the wisdom of bell hooks. Much of my methodology toward DEIA comes from bell hooks offerings such as Teaching to Transgress and Teaching Community to name a couple.

What’s the biggest misconception people have about your position?

A good amount of my past experiences in equity work is ‘fixer’ or reacting to harm internal and external to the organization/institution through education interventions, programs, and initiatives. I’ve noticed an absence of proactive dialogue and intentionality in responding to harm. I believe more dialogue centering how to be in community with one another through the lens of our experiential knowledge can assist in creating a culture of inclusion and belonging that uplifts us all. I believe each of us holds a piece of the answer to our collective institutional and societal challenges, and it is our social responsibility to work toward inclusive freedom through inclusive practices.

What’s the best advice you were ever given? Who was it from?

I think of advice as insights. The best insight I’ve been given is the insight of interconnectedness from Thich Nhat Hahn. If you have a conversation with me long enough you will most likely hear me talk about interconnectedness. It’s very easy to ‘other’ in our society. We ‘other’ difference whether that difference is identity, ideology, cultural norms, etc. However, when we understand that all things are interconnected, we can see difference through the lens of appreciation and extended wisdom; then those differences become more valuable to us as a collective community.

What are some topics or conversation starters you love that will help people get to know you?

My answer may be a bit polarizing; on one hand, I enjoy a good philosophical conversation about life, love, and all the in-between, while on the other hand I also really enjoy a good conversation dissecting the latest episode of Real Housewives of Potomac and other such reality tv shows.

What kind of relationship do you have with the arts? What are you looking forward to exploring about the arts within CVPA?

Being a creative is a salient identity for me and much of how I approach life, through the lens of curiosity. As a practitioner, I am a percussionist and writer. I was absolutely a choir, theater kid. I’ve had the opportunity to do some improv and acting across Chicago, primarily through working with Playmakers Laboratory Theatre. In my everyday life, creativity is how I approach my work and grounds my ability to be flexible and adaptable. I also really enjoy cooking and cultivating a good food experience.

I am most excited to experience the artistic work of CVPA faculty, staff, and students. I’ll be on the lookout for those galleries, theater, and concert invitations.

Do you have any hidden talents or hobbies?

I love humor and I’ve been told I’m funny. It’s also worth knowing that I laugh at 100% of my own jokes. Additionally, during the pandemic, I discovered my deep joy for puzzles.

Topics

diversity equity and inclusion DEI

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

College of Visual and Performing Arts

Director of Diversity

Introduction

CVPA's Young Alumni Commissioning Project Begins a Fourth Round

Emily Schneider — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 15:01:37 +0000

CVPA's Young Alumni Commissioning Project Begins a Fourth Round Emily Schneider Tue, 12/07/2021 - 10:01

Learn More About the YACP Award

George Mason University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) released today a request for proposals for the Young Alumni Commissioning Project, which provides crucial support for the artistic development of recent alumni.

This is the fourth year of the program, which will award up to five grants to CVPA alumni for the creation of original work that will be presented by the College at a Mason venue during the 2022-23 season. The deadline to apply is 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, February 11, 2022. The recipients will be announced in May 2022.

“The Young Alumni Commissioning Project is bearing fruit so beautifully after our first three rounds, adding new work to the world's store of artistic creation and helping advance the careers of Mason’s outstanding arts alumni,” shares Rick Davis, Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. “As we enter cycle four, I am excited to see what our community of artists brings forward for consideration. Each cycle represents and reflects a moment in time for both the artists and the world we work in, and I know that our alumni are busy doing what artists do: seeing, feeling, and thinking deeply about their world, and transforming those perceptions into significant work.”

All potential applicants are invited to participate in an online grant writing workshop designed and executed by CVPA staff, taking place on Wednesday, January 26 from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Individual applicants can also reserve time to speak with CVPA staff about their project and the application process during scheduled office hours, offered during the week of January 31 and February 7.

Jada Salter, 2021 recipient of the Young Alumni Commissioning Project Award

During the 2020/2021 award cycle, Jada Salter (’20) received the Young Alumni Commissioning Project Award and $5,000 in support for Just the Two of Us, a documentary about multi-Grammy award-winning musician and her grandfather William “Bill” Salter. Nicole Daniell (Dance ‘17), Nicholas Horner (Theater ’18, MFA Candidate ‘21), Cristian Perez (Music ‘12), and Katherine Thompson (Visual Art ‘15) were awarded Young Alumni Creative Development Awards and each received $2,500 in commissioning support.

The Young Alumni Commissioning Project is made possible by a generous bequest from the estate of Linda E. Gramlich for the support of young artists, and by donors to Mason’s Giving Day, including Shugoll Research. Young Alumni Commissioning Project recipients may receive up to $5,000 in commissioning funds; as well as venue, production, and marketing support for a public showing of the work.

To be eligible, applicants must be a graduate of the College of Visual and Performing Arts from the class of 2011 and after. Proposals should be for original new work in any art form suitable for performance, exhibition, or screening in a Mason venue. The size, length, duration, magnitude, and content are at the artist’s discretion. Potential venues include Mason’s traditional theater spaces, galleries, and cinemas, but proposals for non-traditional venues will also be considered.

Topics

Young Alumni Commissioning Project. alumni support

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

College of Visual and Performing Arts School of Dance

computer game design news

Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music

College of Visual and Performing Arts School of Theater

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) Arts Management Program

Art and poetry exhibition invites all voices

Colleen Rich — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 15:01:48 +0000

Art and poetry exhibition invites all voices Colleen Rich Mon, 11/22/2021 - 10:01

Mason alum and artist Joseph McCloskey-Caballero’s Creation in Ores (left) and Bailando Bacchanal (right) explore common actions taken to connect to the less mundane self in collaboration with theater major Alex Berrios, whose poems “Mirror Talks” and “Laugh Some More” accompany the work. Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications

Sharing art with art lovers at the intersection of the literary and visual arts is something Jordan McRae thinks is truly innovative. He’s one of many artists featured in Conjuring Presence, an exhibition of visual art and poetry featuring George Mason University students, faculty, and alumni at the Fenwick Gallery in Fenwick Library on the Fairfax Campus.

“My inspiration for creative writing––in particular, poetry–– has returned to me. It had been a while since I wrote creatively, let alone for something that would be publicly shown,” said McRae, a graduate student in the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ Arts Management Program. “I wanted to challenge myself to start writing again, and this exhibition was the perfect opportunity.”

“Conjuring Presence” features work from nine pairs of artists and poets that speaks to ideas of presence, absence, erasure, and creation. Curator and Mason alum Jessica Kallista, MFA Creative Writing ’02, asked each participant to consider the possibilities and manifestations of presence: “What does it mean to become mindful of the presence of others and the need to work against erasure? Who decides whether some people are or are not allowed to be present to occupy spaces in the arts and academia? How do we acknowledge the past, work for a just future, and still ground ourselves in the present?”

School of Theater faculty member and visual artist Deb Sivigny created the sculptures Caught, Aloft, and Pause (detail above) in collaboration with Mason alum and poet Holly Mason Badra, whose poem “An Aubade with Grain, Gold, and Feather” accompanies the work. Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications

The pairs responded with works including sculpture, textiles, poetry, video performances, and artificial intelligence (AI) “metahumans” that speak with the voices of many. Among the participants are current students and alumni from Mason’s School of Art, Creative Writing program, and Arts Management program, as well as faculty in poetry, game design, theater, and visual art.

“So much of the history of art exhibitions, and academia, is problematically notable for who is excluded,” said Kallista, who teaches in Mason’s School of Art. “I worked consciously as a curator of this exhibition to conjure the future we want to see, a future that is diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible to all.”

Kallista said that the exhibit is an intentional effort to pivot toward an inclusive future that invites, elevates, appreciates, and applauds previously excluded voices. “The exhibition is exciting, and the collaborations are phenomenal, demonstrating that diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility are the secret so many of us have been shouting: We can do much more amazing work when all voices that believe in equity are invited to the table.”

Jax Ohashi, MFA sculpture major, was paired with poet and third-year MFA student Simonne Francis.

Mason MFA student and poet KS Keeney's poems “Midnight” and “Portrait of a Lover” accompanied videos by experimental multidisciplinary artist StrangeLens whose “Goatface La La Land” is pictured above. Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications

“The piece I made for this show, which fittingly takes place in a university library, resembles the form of a book,” Ohashi said. “The ties for the accordion pages reference the form of butterflies, a universal symbol of hope, travel, and change.”

Fenwick Gallery Manager Stephanie Grimm, art and art history librarian, said that this year’s works are engaging with AI and game-based technologies, like Mason alum Boris Willis and Vivek Narayanan’s Encounters, which features “metahumans” narrating a series of texts by the artists.

Angela Terry, an MFA graphic design student, produced an image, a school photo of herself in grade school. “I thought the innocence of youth would be a great offset of something hidden that should have a presence. The pink polka dots are there for decoration, to create a distraction. The white text stating, ‘i am here,’ conjures presence by letting the viewer know something is there,” Terry said.

McRae worked with Terry to develop a co-created project. In this project, Terry produced a visual arts piece, and McRae produced a poem.

“I wanted to center this poem on my meditation practice and how I came to meditation,” McRae said. “Radical Honesty aims to show my internal progression with my mindfulness journey. “

Many of the works can be viewed online through Mason Exhibitions, and the full exhibit can be seen in Fenwick Gallery through Dec. 11.

Topics

Students

University Libraries

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

creative writing

Arts Management News

School of Art

College of Visual and Performing Arts School of Theater

Podcast on the arts at Mason with Dean Rick Davis

Pam Muirheid — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 20:08:10 +0000

Podcast on the arts at Mason with Dean Rick Davis Pam Muirheid Wed, 09/15/2021 - 16:08

In This Story

Rick Davis

Christopher d'Amboise

Dean Rick Davis

The Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at George Mason University (GMU) Rick Davis joined us for a very interesting chat about educational programs and careers in the arts. Find out about the many diverse arts programs available to students at GMU, why their School of Arts is an amazing success story, why the arts are so important, and his insight and advice about the benefits of an arts education. Also get all the details on the upcoming productions at the Hylton Performing Arts Center and the opening of a GMU gallery in the Latitudes building in Virginia Square.

Listen to the show here.

This story first appeared in Embracing Arlington Arts.

Topics

Rick Davis

Hylton Center

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

You’re Invited to Arts Emerging!

Stacey Schwartz — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 17:15:20 +0000

You’re Invited to Arts Emerging! Stacey Schwartz Fri, 09/03/2021 - 13:15

BUY TICKETS

Join us for Arts Emerging on September 25 and enjoy food truck fare, like these patrons did during a Center for the Arts event in 2017.

This fall, Mason’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) celebrates the return of even more students back in our classrooms and studios as well as the joy of having audiences back for in-person performances. We are also commemorating the 20th anniversary of the College! To mark this occasion, the Center for the Arts and surrounding spaces will come alive with Arts Emerging: A Celebration of Renewal on Saturday, September 25, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The entire community is invited to partake in this indoor and outdoor, family-friendly event that showcases current student and alumni performances, visual art exhibits, interactive gaming activities, an artist marketplace, and more! Food trucks from local eateries, including The Roaming Coyote, The Big Cheese, and East Coast Creamery, will be on hand to feed guests as they participate in a lively schedule of performing and visual arts events occurring outside on Holton Plaza and nearby in Buchanan Hall.

“Arts Emerging is a celebration of the power of the arts to create community,” shares Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts Rick Davis. “With work across our many art forms as well as activities for all ages, we will offer safe, festive, and meaningful reasons to gather and share the energy of our great students and alumni. The arts have become one of Mason’s signature tools for the University to engage with its community, and Arts Emerging is a powerful example of that in action."

The festive evening leads up to the 8 p.m. presentation in the Center for the Arts featuring videos, guest appearances from alumni, remarks by George Mason University President Gregory Washington, and performances by current students and alumni. In addition, School of Dance alumna Sasha Henninger (’09), who made her Broadway debut in Hamilton as #thebullet, will present a special scholarship to a current student, followed by an interactive Fund-A-Student drive.

Proceeds support student scholarships in Mason’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, the Mason Community Arts Academy, Green Machine Ensembles, and the Great Performances at Mason season at the Center for the Arts.

The event is co-chaired by Arts at Mason Board members Steven Golsch (Vice President, People and Culture at NowSecure) and Annie Bolger (Corporate and Client Service Manager and Bank Officer at Sandy Spring Bank).

In regards to working on the event Bolger adds, “Steven and I continue to be thrilled at the opportunity to represent the College and introduce this wonderful and festive event. At a time when things are so unsorted in our world, it’s the arts that refreshes, brings truth, and helps to keep things whole.”

Tickets are $10 and are available to purchase on the Center for the Arts’ website. Tickets for Mason students are free, and sponsorship opportunities are also available.

View the full schedule for Arts Emerging: A Celebration of Renewal here.

Topics

CFA

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

Behind the Premiere: The Making of the Black Voices Screening Project

Emily Schneider — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 15:34:39 +0000

Behind the Premiere: The Making of the Black Voices Screening Project Emily Schneider Tue, 07/13/2021 - 11:34

In This Story

Carmella Taitt

Brianna Dawkins

Olivia McCall

Students in the College of Visual and Performing Arts are empowered to share their stories through the arts. In April 2021, three students from the School of Dance partnered with world-renowned choreographer Rafael Palacios to explore, express, and share their experiences as Black women through movement.

The collaboration resulted in three world premiere dance-films presented as part of Mason Arts at Home. View the three films here:

The project was born from a desire to sustain connections during the isolation of lockdown in 2020 when Palacios reached out to the dancers from his Colombian-based company, Sankofa Danzafro. He asked them to write letters about “their stories, their experiences, things that they felt they have been silenced for.” Founded by Palacios in 1997, the company’s work centers on rewriting the history of Black communities through the eyes of those who are directly involved, the Afro-descendants, in Colombia and around the world. Shortly after the dancers began to document their stories, a call for creative works that could be presented online came from their government. Palacios asked his dancers if they would be willing to “translate those letters into movements” and the company then created 26 videos of individual dances, including one from Palacios himself.

Inspired, Rafael decided to bring the Black Voices project to other communities to explore this idea of expression and release, first in Boston (billed as Black Voices Boston) and most recently through the Mason Arts at Home. Palacios sent an open call into the Mason community for students who identified as Black, African American, Afro Caribbean, Continental African, Afro European, Afro Latino, Afro Hispanic, Afro Asian, Afro Australian, or Mixed race with one parent who identifies as Black to apply. The only requirement was that participants be willing to write letters and share their own stories through movement or other art forms, and School of Dance majors Brianna Dawkins (Class of 2024), Carmella Taitt (Class of 2022) and Olivia McCall (Class of 2021) seized the opportunity.

The dancers each investigated deeply personal encounters in the letters that would become their dances. Speaking during a live post-premiere conversation Taitt reflected on the process, “I asked myself questions that I wanted to ask society, about why do they view Black people the way that they do, and so through those questions …I started to come up with my own answers for them.”

Given the travel complications caused by the pandemic, Palacios had to participate in the rehearsals and creation process remotely via Zoom. This coupled with the incredibly personal and vulnerable nature of the work meant that everyone involved in the project was determined to construct both a technologically equipped and emotionally protected space.

“It was paramount that we as a team recognized the gift that our students were offering,” shared Haley Smyser, Programming and Engagement Manager for the Center for the Arts and the College of Visual and Performing Arts. “We were absolutely intentional about who was allowed to be in the room so that there was no pressure to feel censored or criticized by people who could not relate to the experiences these dancers were tapping into.”

Smyser added that, as Mason continues our work towards anti-racism and inclusive excellence, “We can further enrich the experiences and learning environments for our students by considering the depth of the connections that are possible and made available with these professional artists, in addition to the width of their impact when they share their work with our audiences both on and off-campus.”

At the end of the rehearsal process, conducted over Zoom using The LIVE Center Window Wall technology developed at Mason, each student choreographed their full piece in collaboration with Rafael. Acting as their own creative directors, the dancers selected the spaces on campus where they would perform and record their works, then directed the editing of the raw footage into the films that premiered on May 7 on Mason Arts at Home. Taitt edited her own work, and Dawkins and McCall were supported by alumni and student editors from Mason’s Film and Video Studies program.

“The hardest part about the entire process was coming to terms [with the idea] that it was a collaborative process,” confided Dawkins. “Instead of the choreographer telling me what to do, because as dancers that is what we’re used to.”

McCall concurred, saying that her biggest challenge in the process was setting choreography [on herself]. She shared, “When you’re dancing by yourself, it’s easy to improvise or just do what you want to do in the moment, because it’s just you, you don’t have to worry about anyone else.”

Faculty mentor Setarra Kennedy, Assistant Director of the Arts Management program and adjunct professor in the School of Dance, wore many hats during the rehearsal and production process, from company manager to sounding board, coach, and videographer. While in the rehearsal room, Kennedy kept to the background, recording notes and feedback as Palacios, his translator, Monica Delgado, and each dancer worked together to develop the movements of their pieces.

“At the end of the day, we would review those notes together, with me asking, ‘this is what I understood as the elements that need work, do you agree? Does that feel right to you?” Kennedy said. “The idea was always to be in conversation, because these dances are not only based on personal stories, the students are making these dances on their own bodies, which was also a new experience. I concentrated on encouraging them to lean into their own creative voice, reminding them that anything they want to explore is possible, as long as it feels authentic and real to them.”

The resulting dances are eye-opening, powerful, and courageous, a testament to the willingness of these students to explore their personal lives through their professional art. The emotional power of these performers is clearly evident in each of their works: “Becoming,” “On View,” and “Hear Me As I Am".

Reflecting on the experience, Palacios said, “I would just like to reiterate my deepest gratitude for amplifying and sharing my vision of the world through dance, a world that becomes smaller thanks to the mutual interest in knowing each other not as foreigners or strangers but rather as who we really are; diverse and valuable humans in distant and common lands at the same time.”

Dawkins shared that she’s “excited to continue choreographing” as part of her studies in the School of Dance, as she was a freshman during this project. Taitt, who will begin her senior year in Fall 2021, said that as a result of this experience, “I find it important to incorporate my Black voice into whatever I create so that I can fill spaces with my purpose and be able to represent my community.” McCall concurred, noting that as she moves into her professional career, “it’s important for me to also incorporate my own Black movement and voice into all the choreography that I do.”

Topics

Mason Arts at Home

College of Visual and Performing Arts School of Dance

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

A Juneteenth Message

Emily Schneider — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 14:45:57 +0000

A Juneteenth Message Emily Schneider Thu, 06/17/2021 - 10:45

In This Story

Rick Davis

This weekend we celebrate Juneteenth, commemorating June 19^th, 1865, when word of Emancipation finally reached the enslaved people of Galveston, Texas, marking a symbolic end to slavery in the United States. The Commonwealth of Virginia established Juneteenth as a state holiday last year, and the Senate (unanimously) and House (overwhelmingly) just voted to make it a national holiday going forward. President Biden is expected to sign it soon.

In the spirit of celebration and contemplation, I want to share a piece of good radio that I recently heard on NPR’s Morning Edition.

This is part of the “Rising Sun Music Project” series with pianist Lara Downes, on the contributions of Black musicians in the classical music space. This 5 minute piece features two treatments of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (1905) by James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson. “Lift Every Voice,” known as the Black National Anthem, is often heard at Juneteenth celebrations across the country as well as in church and other settings. The NPR piece also looks at (and listens to) two versions of Sam Cooke’s great Civil Rights song “A Change is Gonna Come” (1964).

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/16/1007047511/rising-sun-music-project-reveals-the-legacy-of-americas-black-concert-music

I am very glad that this important day in American history is finally getting broader, and more official, recognition. Freedom, equally available to all, is indeed something to celebrate – and to keep working toward. Let’s take time to both celebrate and contemplate this moment and this work on the occasion of Juneteenth.

Rick Davis
Dean, CVPA

Topics

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

Juneteenth

A Message from Our Dean

Pam Muirheid — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 14:17:27 +0000

A Message from Our Dean Pam Muirheid Thu, 03/19/2020 - 10:17

In CVPA we say that the arts create community. This isolating moment challenges and inspires us to find new ways to make that promise true. And the mission has never been so vital.

Rick Davis, Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts

We are the College of Visual and Performing Arts. We are a community of more than 2,000 students, faculty, and staff. We are seven academic units (on four campuses), two community academies, two performing arts centers, the nation's best pep band, and many galleries, theaters, and studios. Every one of us can play a vital role in this viral time.

Our visual artists can show us how to find and reveal hidden beauty in chaos or opacity, following the sculptor’s wisdom that the shape’s within the stone.

Our dancers can help us know what it is to balance and soar, first at a safely social distance and then, by design, joyously, together.

Our singers and players can teach us how to breathe with purpose and passion, to resonate together in harmony.

Our actors, who know that all the world’s a stage, can help us imagine what it’s like to be someone else; some call it empathy, they call it craft.

Our filmmakers can show us how to frame an image for maximum meaning, and to make stories out of seemingly disconnected moments.

Our game designers can lead us on quests through imaginary worlds to help us learn to navigate an ever-changing real one.

Our arts managers can help us understand the long-range strategies, the value propositions, and the hidden calculations that make everything possible.

Our academies can reach the youngest and the oldest among us, beginning and extending the artistic journey across the whole continuum of life.

Our Green Machine can prove how people from all points of the human compass come together and make inspiration a contagion.

Our venues will soon resound again with music, dance, and drama; our galleries will welcome back the curious whose eyes, minds, and hearts need nourishment; our studios and screening rooms will hum with the energy of invention. Absence will beget presence with renewed hunger, need, and urgency.