Logo: Wesleyan University
  • Tools
    • WesPortal
    • Directory
    • Library
    • OneStop
    • WesConnect
    • Calendar
    • WesMaps
    • WFS
    • Moodle
    • EMS
    • GApps
  • About
  • Admission & Financial Aid
  • Academics
  • Campus
  • Athletics
  • Give
  • Students
  • Alumni
  • Parents

Center for the Arts

Behind-the-scenes notes about upcoming events at Wesleyan's Center for the Arts in Middletown, Connecticut

Feed on
Posts
Comments
« Center for the Arts Stories: Harold Sogard ’74
Center for the Arts Stories: Ann Dallas ’75 »

Spring Faculty Dance Event Feeds the Community (April 25 & 26)

Apr. 24, 2014 by Andrew Chatfield

CFA Arts Administration Intern Chloe Jones ’15 talks to Associate Professor of Dance Nicole Stanton about her commissioned work “Threshold Sites: Feast.” This Spring Faculty Dance Event will take place on Friday, April 25 at 7pm, and Saturday, April 26, 2014 at 2pm and 7pm in the new Cross Street Dance Studio, located at 160 Cross Street in Middletown.

Social media such as YouTube and Facebook have all but eliminated formerly unbridgeable distances between people and communities across the world.  We are more connected today than ever before.

Coupled with growing concern for the environment, our increased connectivity demands that we reconsider our understanding of community.  What does it mean to be part of a community?  How can we foster local communities in an increasingly globalized world?  How can human communities exist in harmony with nature?

The notion of community is central to this year’s Spring Faculty Dance Event. Created and directed by Associate Professor of Dance Nicole Stanton, Threshold Sites: Feast explores the relationships between bodies, communities, and environments through the lens of food.

“Something about the way you live in and experience your body is related to the way you live in and relate to your community and your environment,” says Ms. Stanton.

Food relates to it all.  We eat to nourish our bodies, come together to break bread, and depend on the earth for our food.  Food sustains every life, family, and community.

In recent years, food has become a hot topic of debate and conversation.

“There is so much controversy surrounding food production and food security right now,” says Stanton.  “So much talk about what diet is good for you and for the planet.”

Threshold Sites: Feast is the culmination of Ms. Stanton’s engagement in the College of the Environment’s 2013-2014 Think Tank: Re-Envisioning the Commons. Over the course of this school year, the Think Tank has made efforts to expand discourse between economists, scientists, ecologists, and ethicists by bringing the humanities and performing arts into the conversation.

Rehearsal of "Threshold Sites: Feast" on March 22, 2014 in the Cross Street Dance Studio. Photo by Sandy Aldieri.

Rehearsal of “Threshold Sites: Feast” on March 22, 2014 in the Cross Street Dance Studio. Photo by Sandy Aldieri.

Ms. Stanton will perform in the work alongside Rachel Boggia, Deborah Goffe, Nik Owens ’12, and Wesleyan Artist in Residence in West African Dance Iddi Saaka. They are a diverse group, with backgrounds in myriad dance forms and roots across the globe.

“It was an extremely collaborative process,” says Ms. Stanton.  “The question being how do all these different bodies come together in a process that feels full and rich and challenging to everyone.”

As part of the rehearsal process, Ms. Stanton prompted all of her dancers to reflect on their personal and shared experiences with food.  They collected stories about memorable meals and songs about feasting — weaving many voices together into one rich sound score that backgrounds the event.

Some of the foods discussed in the sound score, many of them cherished family recipes, will be served to the audience.  Yes, there will be literal feasting.

Ms. Stanton intends to source some of the food from Wesleyan’s own Long Lane Farm. Greg Foley ’16 has been collaborating with Ms. Stanton on a documentary, which parallels the rehearsal process for Threshold Sites: Feast with the process of getting the farm up and running.

Threshold Sites: Feast will be the first performance to take place in the Wesleyan Dance Department’s new studio on Cross Street. Formerly the A.M.E. Zion Church, the building has been remodeled into a beautiful dance studio that can also be converted into a black box theater.

Spring Faculty Dance Event
Threshold Sites: Feast
Friday, April 25, 2014 at 7pm
Saturday, April 26, 2014 at 2pm & 7pm
Cross Street Dance Studio
$3 Wesleyan students, $5 all others.

Supported by the Dance Department, the Center for the Arts’ Creative Campus Initiative with leadership funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the College of the Environment.

Tags: 40th Anniversary Season, Cross Street Dance Studio, Dance Department, Feet to the Fire

Posted in Dance

Comments are closed.

    • Center for the Arts

      • Center for the Arts – Blog
      • Center for the Arts – Box Office
      • Center for the Arts – Events
      • Center for the Arts – Facebook
      • Center for the Arts – Home
      • Center for the Arts – Twitter
    • Creative Campus

      • Creative Campus – About
      • Creative Campus – Blog
      • Creative Campus – Home
    • Media Sponsors

      • Hartford Courant – Behind The Curtain by Frank Rizzo
      • Hartford Courant – Art Smart: Museums & Art Galleries by Susan Dunne
    • Reblogged

      • Arts2Go.org
      • Middletown Patch
      • The Middletown Eye
    • Wesleyan University

      • Department of Dance Blog
      • Friends of the Davison Art Center Blog
      • Green Street Arts Center Blog
      • Special Collections and Archives Blog
      • The Writing Workshop Blog
      • THIS IS WHY
      • Wesconnect
      • WesLive – Wesleyan's Community Blog
      • Writing at Wesleyan Blog
  • About

     
    Center for the Arts
    Behind-the-scenes notes about upcoming events at Wesleyan's Center for the Arts in Middletown, Connecticut
    There are 441 Posts and 204 Comments so far.

  • Categories

    • Art & Art History
    • Dance
    • Music
    • Theater
    • Uncategorized
  • Recent Comments

    • William Braun on Letter from the Director
    • Betsy Crosswell on Letter from the Director
    • Joan Hedrick on Chloe Jones ’15 talks to singer-songwriter Omnia Hegazy (Mar. 27)
  • Archives

    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • October 2015
    • August 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • October 2013
    • September 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • October 2012
    • September 2012
    • August 2012
    • July 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • March 2012
    • February 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • April 2011
    • March 2011
    • February 2011
    • January 2011
    • December 2010
    • November 2010
    • October 2010
    • September 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • March 2010
    • February 2010
    • January 2010
    • December 2009
    • November 2009
    • October 2009
    • September 2009
  • Meta

    • Log in
    • Entries RSS
    • Comments RSS
    • WordPress.org

Center for the Arts © 2019 All Rights Reserved.


Wesleyan University

44 Wyllys Avenue
Middletown, CT 06451
60-111-1111

  • Contact Us
  • Copyright & Privacy

© 2014 Wesleyan University

Resources

  • Human Resouces
  • Library
  • ITS
  • Student Accounts
  • Residential Life
  • Career Center
  • Offices & Services

Find It

  • Employment
  • Directions
  • Give
  • Apply
  • Athletics
  • CFA
  • Events
  • Visit Wesleyan
  • WESU (radio)

Tools

  • Portfolio
  • Directory
  • Library
  • OneStop
  • Wesconnect
  • Calendar
  • WesMaps
  • WFS
  • Moodle
  • EMS
  • Gapps

Connect With Us

Facebook Twitter Flickr YouTube Tumblr Google Plus
iTunes U