Emory Dance Program Fall 2023 Newsletter

EMORY DANCE PROGRAM NEWSLETTER

IN THIS ISSUE Letter from our Director: Sally Radell Emory Dance Company Fall Concert Featuring Inventive New Work Faculty Concert: ARARAT by staibdance Annalee Traylor Selected as Inaugural Arts Fellow Lori Teague Selected as Arts & Social Justice Fellow Alumni Profiles: Where are they now?

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A LETTER FROM OUR DIRECTOR

Our students’ faces and bodies are filled with satisfied exhaustion as they wind up their semester with final projects and much work to finish. It has been a semester filled with deep somatic, intellectual, and creative exploration that fully ignites our students as only the power of dance can.

As teachers of the form this is always a delight and joy to witness.

Last month the Emory Dance Company presented four sold out performances filled with virtuosic dancing and deep choreographic investigations. The concert was rich and full of new work by international movement/text artist Celeste Miller, our first Arts Fellow Annalee Traylor, and faculty members Gregory Catellier, George Staib, and Lori Teague. This concert was preceded in October by George Staib's new evening-length multi-media production, ARARAT, which examined the history and resiliency of the Armenian people following a 1.5 million-person genocide.

The semester closed with the awarding of three Emory Friends of Dance mini grants to dance majors Selah Curran-Blakely, Emma Macmanus, and Sophia Shahin to attend winter dance intensives in Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles. The spring semester will soon be upon us with many events including an interactive workshop on racial equity in dance, our honors thesis concert, the Emory Dance Company spring concert featuring the choreography of our talented students and an evening of new work by Annalee Traylor. We hope you will come join us!

- SALLY RADELL DANCE PROGRAM DIRECTOR AND DIRECTOR OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES

The Emory Dance Company (EDC) fall concert this past November featured five new works choreographed by 2023-24 Emory Arts FellowThe Annalee Traylor, guest artist Emory Dance Company (EDC) fall concert this past Celeste Miller, and Emory dance faculty by November featured five new works choreographed Gregory Catellier, George Staib,Traylor, andguest Lori 2023-24 Emory Arts Fellow Annalee artist Teague. Celeste Miller, and Emory dance faculty Gregory Catellier, George Staib, and Lori Teague.

The works that premiered explored a wide range of topics including chaos The works that premieredpolyphonic explored a wide range of topics sounds, the cyclical nature of repair innature the of including polyphonic chaos sounds, the cyclical repairphysical in the body and the physical manifestaiton body and the manifestaiton ofof expressivity. Learn more about each choreographer’s work expressivity. on our blog!

Learn more about the choreographers!

FACULTY CONCERT: ARARAT This past October, faculty member George Staib and his company staibdance presented ARARAT at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts.

This work is the full and final version of ARARAT, the beginning which was presented in January 2023.

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-Cynthia Bon dP err y

Beautiful, fragmented — at times jarring and at others bewildering — ARARAT is a sobering stunner that confronts genocide, acknowledges it and shows us more fully the preciousness of life and the value of new beginnings.

ANNALEE TRAYLOR SELECTED AS INAUGURAL ARTS FELLOW For the 2023-24 academic year, Annalee Traylor was selected as our inaugural Arts Fellow! The Emory Arts Fellows Program seeks to cultivate artistic talent while helping fellows, faculty, and students reimagine the influence of art on the world around them.

This past fall Annalee taught our Modern IV course and choreographed a work for the Emory Dance Company. In the spring she will co-teach a course entitled “Laboratory for New Music & Choreography” with Arts Fellow in the Music, Theodosia Roussos, and present a new evening-length work featuring Atlanta dancers.

Learn more about Annalee!

LORI TEAGUE SELECTED AS ARTS & SOCIAL JUSTICE FELLOW Faculty member Lori Teague was selected to be a 2023 Emory Arts & Social Justice Fellow! The ASJ program is an opportunity for faculty members to work alongside partnered ASJ Fellows to embed creative projects that reflect on social inequities into existing courses.

Throughout the semester, fellows learn about each other’s work, and exchange ideas across the university about the arts and social justice. The semester concludes with a public unveiling and citywide conversation to consider collectively the completed project and the questions they raise.

Learn more about ASJ!

ALUMNI PROFILES: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Dr. Kathryn Tapper(06C) “I'm a family medicine physician as well as a chronic kidney disease patient who recently transitioned from working in the primary care clinic to starting a virtual holistic health and wellness coaching company. My mission is to help women who feel trapped and inhibited by their diagnosis to break free and dominate their diagnosis in order to truly live their destiny.

Find me on IG @drktap.”

Catherine Messina (18C) “I run a dance company in New York called rogue wave, and I dance for Yoshito Sakuraba and One Day Dance. I have created affordable class series and outdoor dance festivals in NYC and Atlanta, most notably one called the Fall for Fall Dance Festival. When I'm not dancing, I work as a Child Life Specialist in a pediatric hospital!”

Willis Hao (20C) “I’m currently living in Los Angeles as a music producer and a dance fitness trainer! I still dance very regularly but music is my main passion. I just released an EP this week under my musician name “the boyfriend”! If Listen to it here!”

Carly Wynans (22C) “I'm a new member of ALA Dance, and am performing with Patton White and Beacon Dance in a performance at the B-Complex (October 1315 at 8pm). The cast also includes Emory alumni Andre Lumpkin!”

ALUMNI PROFILES: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Sophie Slesinger (09C) “I welcomed my son, Agostino Louis Saunders ("Auggie") in July 2022"

Jillian Lepera (11C) “I am currently working in a private practice as a mental health counselor. When I am not working, I am playing with my son, Jonah, who is 1 year and 8 months!”

Leo Briggs (19C) “I am currently pursuing my MFA in Dance & Social Justice at the University of Texas Austin!”

Kathleen Wessel (03C) “I choreographed Nosferatu, a large-scale immersive theater and dance show for the Renaissance Theatre Company in Orlando. The production, now in its third year, runs from September to November and features 30 local performers.”

Laura Swanstrom Reece (95C) “While Im no longer actively dancing, I just took my first ballet class in 20 years - this time with my 15 year old daughter who's following in my footsteps.

Looking forward to touring colleges and having her visit Emory's Dance Program.”

Thank you to all who shared their story with us. If you’re an alum, we want to celebrate you! Fill out this survey to let us know what you’ve been up to.

UPCOMING EVENTS This spring features an exciting lineup of events! Check them out below and follow us on Instagram and Facebook for the latest updates.

Friends of Dance Lecture with Gerald Casel: Dancing Around Race— Cultivating Racial Equity and Absolute Belonging February 13 at 7:30pm Honors Thesis Concerts March 22-23, 2023, 7:30pm Emory Dance Company Spring Concert April 18-20, 7:30pm and April 20, 2:00pm Emory Dance Arts Fellow Showing: Annalee Traylor April 26-27, 7:30pm

CONTACT US Follow us on Facebook & Instagram Email: dance@emory.edu | Website: dance.emory.edu Phone: 404-727-7266 To contact individual faculty members, please visit our faculty page.

Dance Program Director and Director of Undergraduate Studies: Sally Radell, sradell@emory.edu Program Coordinator: Anne Walker, awalker@emory.edu Physical Address: 1602 Fishburne Drive Rich Building, Suite 115 Atlanta, GA 30322

Photography by: Shannel J. Resto, Christina Massad, John Ramspott, Leighann Kowalsky & Owen Scarlett Newsletter Created by: Communications Coordinator Patsy Collins