RWU’s Dance Program Takes It Outside!
BRISTOL, R.I. – RWU’s Dance and Performance Studies students are gearing up for two end of semester events that highlight their extraordinary dancing, choreography, and filmmaking:
Dance on Film Night!
- Friday, May 7, 8PM
Featuring dance films by RWU students and faculty, this screening will take place under the stars overlooking beautiful Mt. Hope Bay. The inaugural event celebrates the Dance Program’s new course Dance on Film, taught by Professor Andy Russ.
Professor Russ has an extensive background as an interdisciplinary designer, performer, and educator - one who often synthesizes dance, music, theatre, and film. His credentials include Music Supervisor for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and Artistic Coordinator for cellist Yo-Yo Ma's international music ensemble the Silk Road Project. Now making work under the name Passive Aggressive Novelty Company, Russ also partners with fellow RWU Dance professor Ali Kenner Brodsky as Co-Producer of Motion State Arts - a production company that presents both films and live performances by cutting-edge movement artists from around the world.
Audience members interested in our Dance on Film Night! can gather on the East Lawn of Global Heritage Hall without reservations. In case of rain, we will move to the College of Arts and Sciences building, Room 157, where it will be first come-first served, up to a 75-person capacity.
Take It Outside! A Site-Specific Dance Tour of Campus
- Saturday, May 8 / Rain Date: Sunday, May 9
Tour #1: 10-11:30 a.m. / Tour #2: 12-1:30 p.m. / Tour #3: 2-3:30 p.m. - Reserve your place on a tour by contacting Professor Cathy Nicoli at cnicoli@rwu.edu
Join the 33-member Dance Theatre company as they perform in the works of 5 student choreographers, 1 faculty, and 1 guest artist. Audience members will be led through a 9-site tour of RWU’s Bristol campus, to experience the fresh lens that site-specific choreography and dancing can bring to otherwise common spaces, places, and vantage points.
RWU’s Dance and Performance Studies Program is proud of its students for (again) tackling Covid-19 restrictions with their gusto, teamwork, and love of artmaking - in the process they have become more adaptable and resourceful, becoming stronger dancers and choreographers as they embrace the improvisor’s rule of: YES, and…!
Below is a glimpse of last semester’s student work, to give a taste of site-specific choreography and dancing:
*Please note that all audience members must be active participants in RWU's Covid-19 bi-weekly testing program. Masks and social distancing are required indoors and out.
