Afgahni vocalist and celebrity, Mozhdah Jamalzadah, visits GW

Mozhdah Jamalzadah.

Mozhdah Jamalzadah is the most famous female vocalist in Afghanistan and Thursday, after she sang for President Obama at the White House, she visited the Dance and Community Settings class to talk about the power of art and its ability to help women in Afghanistan. She launches her new nationally televised talk show this year from Kabul. The students asked sophisticated questions regarding global politics and the place of art as a transformative medium. She finished her question and answer session by singing to the class in Farsi. She was phenomenal and we look forward to following her show and videos on YouTube and on her website!

Website: www.mozhdahmusic.com

Much thanks to Jill Staggs and the State Department for arranging this wonderful moment at GWU! Dana

UNEVENLANE AT THE KENNEDY CENTER Mary Lane Director

October 28 and 29, 2010 - 6:00pm

Mary Lane, Director of Unevenlane, has been selected selected for the John
F. Kennedy Center 10th Annual Local Dance Commissioning Project Award. The
Kennedy Center created the Local Dance Commissioning Project (LDCP) in 2001
to foster new dance works by local artists, and present these artists to the
widest possible audience via the Millennium Stage and the internet
web-casts. A select number of Washington, D.C. metro area choreographers are
chosen each year from a pool of more than 50 applicants. The project
provides funds for each artist to create a new piece, a venue to premiere
the work, as well as rehearsal space and technical assistance. Past LDCP
recipients have included Nejla Yatkin, Jason Hartley, Ed Tyler, Boris
Willis, Meisha Bosma, Ludovic Jolivet, Helanius J. Wilkins, Aysha Upchurch,
Gesel Mason, Karen Reedy, Vincent Thomas, and Cassie Meador.

ATTN: TIME CHANGE: The South Africa Project, Feb 5th at 12:00 pm

Created under the Apartheid regime in the early 1950's, and situated about 30 miles northwest of Pretoria, the sprawling rural township of Winterveldt, South Africa (population of over 700,000) is plagued with the challenges of extreme poverty, including a 50% unemployment rate and 25% HIV/AIDS infection rate; family violence; teen pregnancy; lack of education and opportunity. Yet despite these problems, the community is actively working to heal and restore its population, with contributions from various civic and religious organizations and private individuals. One of the most effective community organizations, the Bokamoso Youth Center, works with at-risk youth to bring focus and hope to their lives, and to get them into school and training programs. Since 2003, Professor Leslie Jacobson and colleague Roy Barber from St. Andrews Episcopal School, often accompanied by several GW students on undergraduate fellowships, have worked with the youth from Bokamoso in Winterveldt, S.A. Each summer, they have developed plays and songs that address social problems in their community. Since 2004, youth from the Bokamoso Youth Center have traveled to the U.S., staying with GW students for three to four days, attending classes, and performing at the Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre of the George Washington University, to benefit the Center's Scholarship Fund. This past summer, three GW students, Elizabeth Acevedo, Caroline O'Grady, and Scout Seide, partially funded by Gamow and Luther Rice Undergraduate Fellowships, accompanied Prof. Jacobson to Winterveldt. Together with Roy Barber and the youth of Bokamoso, they created a new play about the meaning of success, Halfway to Somewhere. The Feb. 5th performance features this play, followed by the performance of traditional African song and dance, and a guest appearance by the GW Troubadours.

Sponsers:

GW Department of Theatre and Dance, with the support of the Department of Music, Africana Studies, Women's Studies, and the Multi-Cultural Students Association; and by St. Andrew's Episcopal School and The Seekers Church.

Where:

The George Washington University
Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre
Marvin Center 1st Floor
800 21st Street, NW, Washington, D.C.
(Foggy Bottom-GWU Metro Station, Blue and Orange lines)

When:

Friday, February 5, 2010 at 12:00 p.m.

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)