Guest Artist Jodi Melnick in NY Times

Dear Colleagues:

In the Sunday New York Times, January 24, 2010, Jodi Melnick, our current TrDA DanceWorks guest artist, was featured in a story about a new work she will be performing for choreographer, Jon Kinzel, at the Kitchen this weekend. The Kitchen is a dance space usually involving new media and technology with dance.

We are so delighted with the residency of Jodi. She is such a brilliant performer, an inspiring choreographer, and an accessible person. I met Jodi in Russia in 2005 where I was in residence creating Thresholds Crossed and she was teaching an amazing class for the TsEKh Summer School. We are so delighted with her work for nine of our dancers.

Best regards,

Maida

DanceWorks Concert Director, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/arts/24weekahead.html

DanceMotion USA

This past Friday, January 22, the Department of Theatre & Dance hosted a Showcase Event, DanceMotion USASM, presented by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).

DanceMotion USASM is a cultural exchange program designed to reach out to international audiences by sharing and exploring the contemporary dance experience. Welcome and introductory remarks were made by Dana Tai Soon Burgess, Department Chair, and Peg Barratt, Dean of the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, followed by Karen Brooks Hopkins, President of BAM, Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer, and Maura M. Pally, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Professional and Cultural Exchanges Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for the U.S. Department of State.

The program featured presentations and repertory excerpts by three inaugural DanceMotion USASM companies, URBAN BUSH WOMEN, ODC/DANCE, and EVICENCE, A DANCE COMPANY.

A Q&A moderated by Dana Tai Soon Burgess followed the presentation.

DanceMotion USAsm

Driving in my car today, I heard “George Washington University” mentioned on the radio: it was an interview of the former President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg by Mark Plotkin, and he was being asked some serious questions like “why did you deserve such a large salary?” “why is the students’ tuition so expensive?” “how do you respond to the rankings of schools in the U.S. News & World Report ‘Best Colleges’ issue?” and my favorite “I’ve heard that GWU was called a ‘lackluster’ school decades ago. Is this true?”

Study Dance in Peru This Summer

TRDA 195. 10
Study Dance in Peru This Summer Professor: D.T.S. Burgess
This is a summer immersion course in Lima, Peru where students learn about the culture and history of Peru from the Incas to present day through dance! No Spanish required, but a sincere interest in travel and the arts are a must.
To apply contact: Dana Tai Soon Burgess, Chair Theatre and Dance Department
dtsb@gwu.edu
202-994-1660
(on Campus: 5/17-5/23 & abroad: 5/25-5/31)