The Spring Faculty Dance Concert Storied Places was held on Saturday, April 16, 2016 in the CFA Theater.
Storied Places featured dance and spoken word by Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance Dante Brown ’09, Sydnie Liggett, Kellie Lynch, Rick Manayan ’17, and Annie Wang; and live music by the Jay Hoggard Harlem Hieroglyphs Ensemble including pianist and organist Warren Byrd, bassist Belden Bullock, Visiting Assistant Professor of Music and Private Lessons Teacher Pheeroan akLaff on drums, and Wesleyan graduate music student Sean Sonderegger on saxophone; plus members of the Cross Street A.M.E. Zion Church Choir.
Click here to view the full album on Flickr. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
Samantha Speis, Dancer and Associate Artistic Director of Urban Bush Women, taught a Master Class that explored diverse dance techniques on Saturday, March 5, 2016 in the Cross Street Dance Studio during DanceMasters Weekend. Click here to view the full album on Flickr. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
A Choreographers Conversation was held on Saturday, March 5, 2016 in the Woodhead Lounge with choreographers Brian Brooks, Ronald K. Brown, David Dorfman, Allison Orr, and Max Pollak. Moderated by Chair and Associate Professor of Dance, Associate Professor of African American Studies and Environmental Studies Nicole Stanton. Click here to view the full album on Flickr. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
Allysen Hooks, dancer at Gallim Dance, taught a Master Class on Gallim Dance’s movement language and Gallim Dance repertory on Saturday, March 5, 2016 in the Bessie Schönberg Dance Studio as part of DanceMasters Weekend. Click here to view the full album on Flickr. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
Choreographer Allison Orr, the Menakka and Essel Bailey ’66 Distinguished Visiting Scholar in the College of the Environment, conducted a special program with the children at the Green Street Teaching and Learning Center’s AfterSchool program on Monday March 7, 2016. Click here to view the full album on Flickr. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
The Shanghai Quartet—violinists Weigang Li and Yi-Wen Jiang, violist Honggang Li, and cellist Nicholas Tzavaras—returned to Wesleyan for their Connecticut debut with pipa (Chinese lute) virtuosa Wu Man to perform “A Night in Ancient and New China,” featuring Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 11, Op. 95; traditional folk songs; and the Connecticut premiere of the new quintet "Red Lantern" by eminent Chinese film composer Zhao Jiping (Raise the Red Lantern, To Live, and Farewell My Concubine) in collaboration with his son Zhao Lin. The concert was held on Friday April 1st in the Crowell Concert Hall. Click here to view the full album on Flickr. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
An opening reception was held to view the talents of the seniors in the Art Studio Program of Wesleyan’s Department of Art and Art History. Works featured by Milo Farley, Molly Grund, Nathan Harris, Caroline MacNeille, and Evan Ortiz were on display in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery from Tuesday, March 29 through Sunday, April 3, 2016. Click here to view the full album on Flickr. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
Pamela Tatge, Director, Center for the Arts. Image by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
It is astonishing to me that Friday April 1 is my last day at Wesleyan University, after nearly seventeen years. I wanted to send you a note to thank you for being patrons of the Center for the Arts. There is simply no way we can ever welcome artists to Wesleyan without the presence of an engaged and committed audience. You have no idea how wonderful it was for me to look out at you from the Crowell Concert Hall or CFA Theater stage, or to see you at an opening in the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery. I knew that you were there to join me in celebrating what the arts can tell us about other cultures and other worlds; how they can help us to make sense of the world in which we live; and how they can make us feel both the exhilaration and the sadness of what it means to be alive. I want to thank you, in particular, for the times you bought a ticket to a performance by an artist whom you didn’t know but, because we at the CFA felt it was an important artist or group, you took the risk.
In these last days at my desk overlooking the CFA Courtyard, I am reflecting on so many great moments when we shared such joy and excitement not only for visiting and faculty artists, but also when we marveled together at the virtuosity and creative power of Wesleyan students and all that they have to offer us.
I will miss my Wesleyan and Middletown families greatly, but as an alum and parent of a member of the class of 2016, I know that I will return often and continue to experience the arts as only Wesleyan can present them. I also want to take the opportunity to introduce Laura Paul, Interim Director of the Center for the Arts, who will lead the CFA in its next chapter. Together we have been planning a 2016–17 season of performances and exhibitions that I know you will enjoy.
If, by any chance, you are free this Friday, April 1, I will be in Crowell Concert Hall at 8pm to introduce the great Wu Man and the Shanghai Quartet. I would love the chance to say goodbye and thank you in person; if not, I hope you will come to visit me this summer at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts (if you missed the announcement in January, I’m going there to be their new Executive Director)!
Thank you again for your generous support of the Center for the Arts.
A children’s concert by the Wesleyan University Orchestra under the direction of Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music Nadya Potemkina followed by a multi-station instrument petting zoo was held on Saturday, February 27, 2016 in the Crowell Concert Hall.
Click here to view the full album on Flickr. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
“We Chat” exhibition Guest Curator Barbara Pollack moderated a panel discussion about issues facing the post-Mao generation in China on Saturday, February 27, 2016 in the Ring Family Performing Arts Hall.
Click here to view the full album on Flickr. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.
