August 2015 – Center for the Arts

2015-16 Season Now On Sale! World, U.S., New England, CT Premieres

September 28, 2020August 18, 2015 by Andrew Chatfield

This year, we are looking forward to introducing you to artists who are asking important questions about our world today, questioning why things are the way they are, and helping us to envision how they might be.

Dorrance Dance make their Connecticut debut on September 25 and 26 as part of the Performing Arts Series.

Michelle Dorrance, described by the Chicago Tribune as “edgy, seductive and smart,” brings Dorrance Dance to the CFA Theater September 25 and 26. You’ll have the chance to see tap dancers push the boundaries of what tap dance looks and feels like: her company will dazzle you as they transform the stage into one sonic instrument.

At a time when our country is struggling to find its way in terms of race relations, we’ve invited writer/performer Daniel Beaty to campus for a residency that includes the October 9 performance of Mr. Joy, his highly acclaimed tour de force solo show about a community’s efforts to heal in order to dream again.

Composer, visual artist, and new media innovator R. Luke DuBois takes over the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery from September 16 through December 13 with his exhibition In Real Time, creating maps, scores, and videos that use real-time data flows and media footage to raise questions of artistic agency, privacy, and fair use. In time for the election season, the CFA has commissioned him to create a new work using research generated by the Wesleyan Media Project.

Dancer/choreographer Eiko Otake returns with a series of intimate performances in unlikely places, including a commissioned work in honor of the 100th-anniversary of Wesleyan’s Van Vleck Observatory.

This year’s Navaratri Festival of Indian music and dance features one of the world’s greatest veena players, Sri Rajhesh Vaidya, on October 10, and Bharatanatyam dancer Alarmél Valli on October 11.

All this shares the fall schedule with performances by faculty and students, including the final class performance by students of Adjunct Professor of Music Abraham Adzenyah, who is retiring after teaching Ghanaian drumming at Wesleyan for the past 45 years. You won’t want to miss that concert on December 4.

As always, we hope you will look to the CFA as a place of enlightenment and enjoyment in the months ahead.

Sincerely,

Pamela Tatge
Director
Center for the Arts

Spring Photos: Thesis Art Exhibition

August 19, 2015August 18, 2015 by jscribner

Zilkha Gallery showcased the work of the Class of 2015’s thesis students in the Department of Art and Art History’s Art Studio Program. Each student was invited to select a single work from their Senior Thesis Exhibition for this year-end showcase of drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, mixed media, and architecture curated by Professor of Art Tula Telfair P’13. Ms. Telfair talked about the exhibition on May 23, 2015 in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery. Co-sponsored by University Relations. Click here to view the full album on flickr. Images by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.

Spring Photos: Feet to the Fire – Riverfront Encounter

October 7, 2015August 18, 2015 by jscribner

This event celebrated the river as a source of cultural inspiration and creativity on May 9, 2015 at Harbor Park in Middletown. “Feet to the Fire: Riverfront Encounter” featured live music, visual art installations, plein air painters, a kids’ activity zone, environmental education exhibits, as well as a craft fair and farmer’s market–all designed to bring patrons closer to the rich culture, history, and science of the Connecticut River.

Click here to view the full album on flickr. Images by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.

Spring Photos: Talk by Quiara Alegría Hudes

October 7, 2015August 18, 2015 by jscribner

Quiara Alegría Hudes is the Shapiro Distinguished Professor of Writing and Theater at Wesleyan University. Her play Water by the Spoonful received the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Her other works include the book for the 2008 Tony Award-winning “Best Musical” In the Heights, and the plays Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue (2006) and The Happiest Song Plays Last (2013). Her younger cousin grew up in “the barrio,” graduated public school, enlisted at the age of seventeen, sustained a leg injury in Iraq, and became a veteran, all by the ripe age of eighteen. This talk on April 27, 2015 in Memorial Chapel told the true backstage story of what happened after Ms. Hudes turned her cousin’s life into a trilogy of plays. For him, opening night was only the beginning.

Click here to view the full album on flickr. Images by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.

Spring Photos: Noah Baerman Resonance Ensemble

August 19, 2015August 18, 2015 by jscribner

A pianist, composer, educator, author, and Artistic Director of Resonant Motion, “Noah Baerman is no stranger to aiming high” (David Adler, Village Voice). With a cast of instrumentalists and vocalists including alto saxophonist/flutist Kris Allen, vibraphonist Chris Dingman ’02, cellist and vocalist Melanie Hsu ’13, bassist Henry Lugo, Private Lessons Teacher and drummer Bill Carbone MA ’07, Ph.D. candidate, and vocalists Latanya Farrell, Claire Randall ’12, and Garth Taylor ’12, Mr. Baerman (on piano, synthesizer, and slide guitar) and his group presented the world premiere of his extended work The Rock and the Redemption on April 25, 2015 in Crowell Concert Hall.

Click here to view the full album on flickr. Images by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.

Spring Photos: Wayang Kulit – Javanese Puppet Play

August 19, 2015August 18, 2015 by jscribner

University Professor of Music and dhalang (puppet master) Sumarsam and the Wesleyan Gamelan Ensemble, directed by Artist in Residence I.M. Harjito, presented a Javanese wayang kulit, the puppet play employing intricately carved leather puppets, accompanied by an ensemble of tuned-gongs, metallophones, two-stringed fiddle, xylophone, flute, and vocalists on April 24, 2015 in the World Music Hall. Click here to view the full album on flickr. Images by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.

Spring Photos: Senior Talks in the History of Art

August 19, 2015August 18, 2015 by jscribner

Seniors in the Art History Program of Wesleyan’s Department of Art and Art History presented their talks: Alexa Burzinski, Brandon Eng, Rachel Pei Hirsch, Samuel Usdan, and Gavriella Wolf on April 20, 2015 at 41 Wyllys Ave in Room 112. Click here to view the full album on flickr. Images by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.

Spring Photos: In/Between – Pieces in Progress

August 19, 2015August 18, 2015 by jscribner

Lebanese American writer, performer, and teaching artist Leila Buck ’99 presented a work-in-progress sharing of a collaborative theatrical work commissioned by the Center for the Arts as part of Muslim Women’s Voices at Wesleyan on April 18, 2015 in the World Music Hall.
Through theatrical scenes, storytelling, and playful improvisations with the audience, this performance-in-process invited the audience to participate in an interactive exploration of how we know what we think we know, see what we don’t, view ourselves and each other, and engage in the spaces in between. Click here to view the full album on flickr. Images by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.

Spring Photos: Beyond The Veil

August 19, 2015August 18, 2015 by jscribner

Coordinated by the Muslim Coalition of Connecticut, this exhibition showcased photographs by regional artists that highlighted the daily lives of Muslim women in Connecticut and their contributions to society. The show explored the diversity and complexity of this community on April 14, 2015 at the Green Street Teaching and Learning Center at 51 Green Street in Middletown, CT. Click here to view the full album on flickr. Images by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.

Spring Photos: The Nile Project

August 19, 2015August 18, 2015 by jscribner

The Connecticut premiere of The Nile Project featured a dozen musicians performing collaboratively composed songs drawn from the diverse styles and instruments of the countries along the Nile Basin—including Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, and Uganda—intertwining these traditions into a unified sound that is “joyous and even raucous” (NPR Music) on April 10, 2015 in Crowell Concert Hall. Click here to view the full album on flickr. Images by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.