Faculty Fanfare
Dana Tai Soon Burgess: “This past May and June, my company completed a rare in-depth American modern dance teaching residency in the Middle East. Through the support of the U.S. State Department, company members Katia Chupashko, Sarah Halzack, Kelly Moss Southall, and I acted as ‘dancing ambassadors.’
The well-known Egyptian theatre director and actress Nora Amin designed the itinerary for our first leg, in Egypt. She was a wonderful guide and artistic inspiration during our journey, which began in Alexandria. Located directly on the Mediterranean coast, Alexandria is really a gorgeous city! We taught workshops and performed at the famed Library of Alexandria, as well as at an alternative theatre space called the ‘Garage.’ We were deeply impressed by our workshop participants' openness to new movement ideas and the growth they achieved in such a short period of time.
We then traveled to Cairo and worked with a variety of performers – dancers, theatre students, and even the folkloric dance company, Reda. We also performed for excited audiences at the Cairo Opera House Center. Of course, before leaving Egypt, we made sure to visit the Egyptian Museum, see the pyramids by day and night, and ride camels! Kelly and I even managed to squeeze in a Nile tour to see the temples of Luxor, Philae, and Karnak before embarking on the next leg of our journey in Israel and the West Bank.
Working with both Arab and Israeli communities, we reinforced the fact that the arts are an important way of communicating and working together. Through dance, we were able to bridge deep political, cultural, and religious divides---at least temporarily. The dancers there were very eager to learn, and we were deeply moved by our interactions with them. Visit www.dtsbco.com to read our blog and see photos from the trip. Also, the Kennedy Center's ArtsEdge program will highlight a video of our tour on its website this fall.
Inspired by our trip, I am now reworking a Middle Eastern-themed dance called Khaybet, which I originally created in 2003. I am so excited about its development, and I hope you will come see this, along with our new world premiere and much more on October 12 and 13 when we open the Kennedy Center modern dance season.”
my company opened the Kennedy Center modern dance season to sold out audiences. The company also completed a NY tour at Skirball Performing Arts Center in NY and performed in NY for the Conference on Research in Dance on a shared program with the Jose Limon Dance Co. A tour of India in Dec. and Jan. for the US State Dept is upcoming.
Alan Wade, professor of theatre, directed, and Carl Gudenius, associate professor of theatre, designed the sets for The Olney Theatre Center’s production of Of Mice and Men which performed late September to late October. Professor Wade also reprised his role of Dr. John Beale Davidge, founder of the University of Maryland Medical School (1807), for the annual meeting of the American Association of University Medical Schools.
Maida Withers’ DANCE CONSTRUCTION COMPANY PERFORMED WITH OTHER 2006 METRO DC DANCE AWARD WINNERS August 11, 2007 at 7:30 at the
CARTER BARRON AMPHITHEATRE.
Professor Withers is also performing in The Others -- improvised electronic music and dance, along with Kinesthesia, a performance/research company , NYC. – a benefit performance to support Wendell Cooper’s Study of Thai Massage in Thailand. This is part of her “Farewell” project which is supported in part by GWU’s office of The Executive Vice-President for Academic Affairs.Saturday, December 8th -- 7:30pm @ NLD space (Nicholas Leichter Dance) 263 9th Ave - #1B (West 26th Street and 9th Avenue) New York City, NY
