April is full of news for TDPS!
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April is always a busy month for TDPS, with the news and awards rolling in! We had two major features in UMD publications about undergraduate and graduate work—see the feature stories about sophomore Dance major
Miejo Dambita and our
Henson Awards Showcase below.
We have also just announced ARHU's new
Arts Leadership Minor, which will have its administrative home in TDPS. See details about the new minor below.
Our second annual
MadDASH Festival is coming up on April 12-17, featuring dance master classes and discussions with prominent guest artists from a variety of genres. Check out the list of artists and schedule and registration information below.
Finally, we are excited to announce recent grants, publications, presentations, and awards for our students, faculty, and staff. See the News section below for details.
Keep up the amazing work, TDPS!
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In this newsletter:
- Upcoming Events
- Other Events
- Feature Stories
- News
- Opportunities
Want to share your news with the TDPS family? Have a story you want featured? Have suggestions to improve the TDPS newsletter and communications?
Tell us about the creative, collaborative, innovative, and entrepreneurial work you're doing!
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Are you a TDPS student, faculty member, or staff member? Show us what a week in your life at TDPS looks like!
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IPCCR Report: "Open Borders: The United Kingdom, Inclusive Dance, and the Absent Gatekeepers"
By Christine Hands
Thursday, April 11, 3:30pm
The Clarice, Room 1809
MFA Dance candidate Christine Hands discusses her recent trip to the United Kingdom to research inclusive dance and dance organizations working with disabled dancers.
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Second Season presents "I've Been a Woman"
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By Jordan Ealey
April 12, 2019 7:30pm
April 13, 2019 2pm & 7pm
Cafritz Foundation Theatre
This original theater piece follows two souls who are repeatedly reincarnated in Black women’s bodies during feminist movements of the past, present and future. As these embodied souls reconnect with one another across three distinct time periods, they struggle to reconcile the realities of their race, gender and sexuality within societies that seek to deny their humanity.
Information and tickets
here.
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MadDASH Festival 2019
April 12-17
The MadDASH Festival is five days of FREE dance master classes and discussions. The following guest artists will be present:
- Monica Bill Barnes
- Alexandra Beller
- Robert Een
- Sekou Heru
- Christopher K. Morgan
- Angie Pittman
- Toyin Sogunro
- Janet Schroeder
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Wednesday, April 17, 7:30PM
Thursday, April 18, 7:30PM
Cafritz Foundation Theatre
By Clare Barron
Somewhere in America, an army of pre-teen competitive dancers plots to take over the world. Clare Barron’s raucous pageant of ambition and ferocity, these young dancers have more than choreography on their minds, because every plié and jeté is a step toward finding themselves, and a fight to unleash their power.
Tickets and information
here. Free, no tickets required.
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First Fridays (dance showings)
Friday, May 3, 5:30PM
Dance Studio 2
First Fridays are held each month as an informal forum for
anyone to show work in progress or any talent they would like to showcase. Dance, Music, or stand up comedy. Watch or perform—the event is FREE!
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UMoves 2018; photo credit: Geoff Sheil
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The Muses: Original Works Project
Sunday, May 12, 3:00PM
Cafritz Foundation Theatre
The Muses proudly present their
Original Works Projects, a memorable night of short plays created and produced by students. More information
here.
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120 Project and Heart Stück Bernie at Dance Place
Sarah Beth Oppenheim (MFA Dance '17) and
Oliver Mertz are showing the
120 Project Documentary at Dance Place on Monday, April 15 at 8PM. Undergraduate Dance major
Sydney Lemelin is performing in this project as well. This is a free event and there will be snacks!

"120 Project and Heart Stück Bernie are thrilled to share a documentary about the inspiring stories and good work of citizen artists from across the country. This film bears witness to a spirit of fortitude, fight, and innovative approach to social justice and arts activism."
More information and the trailer can be found
here.
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Sophomore Dance major Miejo Dambita on her Honors Humanities project, "Encountering Vulnerability"
Photo credit: David Andrews
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Vulnerability in the Arts: Sophomore Dance major Miejo Dambita explores how the arts create empathy
“I want people to understand that there’s agency in vulnerability.”
Miejo Dambita ’21 explores how vulnerability in the arts encourages empathy in her Honors Humanities Keystone project.
That question is at the heart of her project. To answer it, Dambita drew on her passion for the arts and the communication and research skills she honed in Honors Humanities seminars. In addition to researching vulnerability in art, Dambita conducted interviews with acquaintances, friends and family to learn how they experience vulnerability in their lives. Do they cry often? When is the last time they cried, and why?
Read the full story
here.
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MFA Design candidate Kristen P Ahern shows her puppet, created entirely with sustainable materials.
Photo credit: Stephanie S.Cordle
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They’ve Got the World on a String—or a Rod:
Henson Awards Showcase Featured in
Maryland Today
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Our Henson Awards Showcase was featured in last week's
Maryland Today!
Puppetry is “a part of both dance’s history and theater’s history. It’s a great part of Maryland’s history as well because of Jim Henson’s legacy.” —
Maura Keefe, interim director of TDPS
Congratulations to all involved, especially the awardees:
Kristen P Ahern, Olivia Brann, Chris Brusberg, and Stacey Carlson!
Read the full story
here.
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A "modern dance-meets-ballet-meets-pantomime piece" created by Assistant Professor Adriane Fang
Photo credit: David Andrews
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"Opera, dance performance, fairy tale and dystopian nightmare all in one—that’s what’s on the docket now at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center through an unusual double bill pairing two rarely seen pieces by a German-American composer best known for 'Mack the Knife.'”
"Featuring singers from the School of Music's Maryland Opera Studio and undergraduate dancers from the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies in a piece choreographed by Assistant Professor
Adriane Fang, the performance is part of the School of Music’s Kurt Weill Festival, a yearlong celebration of the life of Weill that is a component of the university’s Year of Immigration."
The production was also designed by TDPS graduate students: scenic designer
Ryan Fox, lighting designer
Chris Brusberg, costume designer
Benjamin Weigel, and projections designer
Paul Deziel.
Congratulations to Adriane Fang, our undergraduate dancers, and our graduate designers on this beautiful production!
Read the full story
here.
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ARHU announces the new Arts Leadership Minor
TDPS will be the administrative home for the College of Arts and Humanities' new Arts Leadership Minor. The minor will have the following requirements:
- ARHU240 - Cultural Institutions in the United States, Offered Fall 2019 (3 credits)
- ARHU340 - Financial Entrepreneurship for the Arts Leader, Offered Spring 2020 (3 credits)
- ARHU386A - Arts Leadership Professional Internship (3 credits)
- ENGL398A - Writing for the Arts (3 credits)
- ARHU440 - Arts Leadership Seminar (3 credits)
See
attached for more details. Enroll now to reserve your spot in this exciting new minor!
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Theatre major Erin Valade in keynote playwright Sheila Callaghan's
So Um Thank You
at the Fearless New Play Festival
Photo credit: David Andrews
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- Last month’s Fearless New Play Festival was featured in the UMD Writer’s Bloc Congratulations again to all involved!
- PhD candidate LaRonika Thomas has been accepted into this summer’s Mellon School of Theatre and Performance Research two-week program at Harvard University. This year’s session will focus on migration—specifically, the role that the performing arts can play in a future in which migration will likely increase. This summer, she will also present at conferences of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) and Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), as well as participate in a civic practices workshop in Chicago.
- MFA Design candidates Peter Leibold and Chris Brusberg recently attended the annual Hemsley Portfolio Review in New York City. The lighting design-specific event gave graduate students from across the country the opportunity to present their portfolios and receive feedback from prominent designers. This is an important networking event that can create lasting connections for students in the professional theatre scene.
- UMD’s University Libraries has been awarded $313,753 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to digitize videos of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. In 2004, the Dance Exchange gave its archive to the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library and library curators have a longstanding partnership with Lerman and the company. Read about the project in Maryland Today. Congratulations to our friends in the Performing Arts Library!
- The following graduate students, faculty, and staff will be presenting at next week’s Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCA/ACA) conference in Washington, DC: MFA Dance candidate Christine Hands (“Choreographing Access: The Choreography and Performance of Audience Accessibility at a Dance Concert”), MFA Dance candidate Stacey Carlson (“Cultural Norms in Circus and Dance”), MFA Dance candidate Heidi McFall (“(Re)Animating (Re)Rosas: A Dancer’s Look at Intellectual Property, Copyright in the Age of the Internet, and the Life Cycle of a Dance”), PhD student Gianina Lockley (“Examining Issues of Social Justice through Movement and Dance: A Case Study of students at the University of Ghana and University of Maryland, College Park”), Kate Spanos (“A dance of resistance from Recife, Brazil: carnivalesque improvisation in frevo”), Assistant Professor Crystal U. Davis (“Dancing While Black: Recovering Darkness through Ethnographic Study of Indian Dance Forms”), and Associate Professor Maura Keefe (“On the Sidelines and the Endzone: The Choreography and Performance of Protest and Celebration in Football”). For more details and the full schedule, visit the PCA/ACA website.
- PhD student Jared Strange has received a Goldhaber Travel Grant from the UMD College of Arts & Humanities to present at Northwestern University. He will present his paper, “Between the Rainbow Nation and the Melting Pot: The Fall and South African Theatre as American Commentary,” at the 2019 AfriSem Conference, a graduate conference sponsored by Northwestern University’s African Studies program.
- Postdoctoral fellow Tabitha Chester’s article, “Movement for Black Love: The Building of Critical Communities Through the Relational Geography of Movement Spaces,” has been published in Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly. The article explores “the journey of friendships and relationships that are created in movement spaces.” Congratulations, Tabitha!
- PhD student Gianina Lockley was awarded a James F. Harris Visionary Scholarship from the UMD College of Arts & Humanities for the 2018-2019 academic year. Congratulations, Gianina!
- Check out this article by Kim Peter Kovac about voicing identity, intersectionality and empathy in Theatre for Young Audiences, including a shout-out to UMD TDPS and our participation with the Kennedy Center's New Visions/New Voices festival in 2016.
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Have news you want to share?
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- NEW New Dances is a dance concert sponsored by dance fraternity Delta Chi Xi. The performance takes place in the Dance Theatre and anyone is welcome to submit dance pieces. (You do not have to be a major!) This is a great opportunity to create and perform a piece in a low-pressure but formal environment. Application is due Friday, April 12 at 5PM; find the submission form here. Performance will take place on Thursday, April 25 at 7:3PM; tech rehearsal will be on Wednesday, April 24. Email dcx.umd@gmail.com with any questions.
- NEW CCA/Creative Cultural Alliance is launching their inaugural Summer Program. The program will provide week long intensives with Jan Fabre's and Anne Bogart's Companies. There is also a 20% tuition discount for a limited amount of applicants. For more information, visit the CCA Facebook page here.
- NEW Ally Theatre Company is seeking an actor and a 1930's/40's era jukebox for their production of “Welcome to Sis's” by Doug Robinson, running from May 3-5 at Joe's Movement Emporium. For any suggestions or offers of jukebox options or for interest in the role, please contact Artistic Director Ty Hallmark at ty@allytheatrecompany.org.
- NEW Chesapeake Shakespeare Company (CSC) is accepting applications for summer internships in a variety of areas. More information here.
- NEW Join the Washington Area Certified Movement Analysts (WACMA) for a workshop on the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System (LBMS) on Saturday, May 18. The workshop will provide an introduction for curious newcomers and a review/update for those with some LBMS background. Open to all, no experience required. Register here and check out the flyer for more details. Also visit the Facebook event here and email info@wacma.net for more information.
- Andrew Schneider’s performances push theater into new experiences that defy easy categorization. With AFTER, Schneider and his recurring collaborators will present part two of a trilogy about what it means to be alive in the world today. AFTER is a mind-bending performance examination of what constitutes a single life and the endless possible outcomes at the precise moment of death. With their trademark combination of hyper-precise sound, light and physicality, this NYC-based team manipulates theatrical conventions to deliver a poignant evening of shared consciousness about perceiving where we are, how we got here, and what comes AFTER. For Andrew Schneider’s upcoming performance at The Clarice on May 10 & 11, they are seeking 9 HYPERCUT “Principals” to handle the bulk of the scenes. More information about this opportunity can be found in the call.
- Folger Shakespeare Library is seeking a production assistant and assistant stage manager for its 2019/2020 season. Interested candidates should submit a cover letter and resume on their website.
- The Shakespeare Theatre Company seeks qualified Teaching Artist candidates and qualified Camp Assistants for Camp Shakespeare 2019, a summer education program from June 17 to August 17. For more information about Camp Shakespeare, check here, apply on their website, or send a cover letter, resume and references to employment@shakespearetheatre.org.
- Totem Pole Playhouse in Fayetteville, PA, is looking to fill several positions for their 2019 summer stock season. For information, see the flyer.
- Wildwood Summer Theatre is looking for staff members and designers for their 2019 summer season team. Rehearsals start early June. Positions are unpaid but provide great working relationships and opportunities. Send resumes and covers letters to chairman@wst.org or producer@wst.org. More information is available on their website.
- Capital Fringe is looking for staff and interns for a variety of positions for the 2019 Capital Fringe Festival from July 9-28. For more information, visit their website and check out their flyer.
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Have an opportunity you want to share?
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Do you have news to share with the TDPS community?
The School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
advances and transforms the research and practice of the performing arts
through a commitment to excellence and innovative education.
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Kate Spanos, Coordinator of Marketing & Communications
Renee Gerardo, Graduate Assistant
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