April & May 2020 College News

1 Chrisa Oliver's students participating in a Zoom Q&A session featuring reknown guest artist, Rennie Harris (top left) 2 Chrisa Oliver (bottom left) and her students participating in a Zoom Q&A session featuring Stephanie Powell (top left) 3 Alumna Nina Padilla and her son in her screendance that was made during quarantine 8 | April & May | College News DANCE Dance Studies, Per formance & Choreography, Single Teaching Certif ication, & Dual Teaching Certif ications FACULTY ACCOLADES Ana Baer’s WECreate Spaces: InBetweenness was selected by the Indi Festival Frosbite in April, and was awarded “Best Original Sound." Festival de Danza CDMX screened the award winning screendance Wild-er-ness as part of their Catalogo FIVideodanza Plataforma on line in April. Ana’s Screendance La Sabina was selected by Mexican Dance Company Contradanza to stream on their online platform on April 3. Her screendance Turbulence screened at Screendance Stockholm online event, and was chosen as a "selected video." Imagenes de una Realidad was selected for virtual screening at Marbella International Film Festival. Kaysie Seitz Brown's outreach dance company, CIM TEYA was preparing to travel and perform guest artist Toni Bravo's La Verita della Parola at the American College Dance Association South Central Conference which was to be held at the University of Texas El Paso.Unfortunately, the conference was canceled due to the developing concerns of COVID-19. Additionally in May, CIM TEYA was scheduled to perform their program STREAM in Motion 6.0 at two more schools, Fuentes Elementary in Kyle and Berkman Elementary in Round Rock, and sadly these performances were canceled as well but with plans to collaborate again in the future. Inspired by a challenge from Christine Bergeron (Director of Dance at Texas A & M) to stay connected with students via dance, as well as a global call by the United Nations to creatives for art that informs about the virus, Kaysie and CIM TEYA created a video dance with things to consider such as "physical distancing", "personal hygiene", and "kindness contagion", edited by CIM TEYA member Tristan Fournier . Kaysie was invited to facilitate a Zoom Creative Movement lesson with Girl Scout Troop 806. She guided the girls to create a dance about sacrifce and hope inspired by Te Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tommie dePaola. Te girls titled the dance Blossoming Bluebonnets . Tammy Fife oversaw 2 online auditions for the Texas State Strutters; 82 dancers auditioned March 28 - April 1, and 105 dancers auditioned April 17 - 21. Misti Galvan was to perform at {Re}Happening 2020, on April 11 but the event was cancelled due to COVID-19. Te interactive piece is a response to the 100th anniversary of the ratifcation of the 19th Amendment and explores the history, the challenges, and the innovative spirit of women who keep moving and persevere. Misti planned and curated the frst annual Student Dance Concert featuring the work of 13 student choreographers and dozens of student performers at Texas State. Te concert was unfortunately cancelled due to COVID-19. Misti Galvan , LeAnne Smith , and Scott Vandenberg gathered student choreography to present a Celebration Showcase during COVID-19. On May 9, choreography was presented in a virtual showcase where Dance faculty had the opportunity to view and congratulate students on their work. Brandon Gonzalez facilitated Sunset Dance, a virtual community dance experience that guided participants through the use of electronic dance music and movement instruction. Using Zoom, over 40 participants were able to hear the same sound and virtually dance with one another. Michelle Nance’s newest work, ToMAYto/ToMAHto , created in collaboration with Catherine Solaas and Lecturer Richard D. Hall was selected for presentation in the curated Austin Dance Festival April 4. Te festival was cancelled due to COVID-19. Christa Oliver hosted internationally reknown guest artists via Zoom for her classes. Maria Khoreva, frst soloist with the Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia, sent a message of hope and motivation to the students. For students in her ballet, hip hop, and jazz classes, Christa hosted virtual Q&A sessions featuring industry professionals Genevieve Carson, Rennie Harris [ 1 ] , Stephanie Powell [ 2 ] , and Jamal Story. Nicole Wesley was commissioned from Texas Tech University’s School of Music for Te Justice Project in April. She has continued to ofer Teaching Observations for her Teaching Dance course through collaborations with Pivotal Academy of Dance owned by alumna Jade Greenough , San Marcos School of Dance and Heather Stolle’s School of Dance of San Antonio by utilizing their Zoom curriculum. She is currently flming Dance Days for the Physical Education programs at WISD. STUDENT ACCOLADES Tate Donovan got accepted into the MFA Dance program at Texas Woman’s University. He also created a new video dance entitled “Rivers and Roads”, investigating the topic of separation. Dance majors Mark Gonzales and Lydia Dawkins were selected to perform at the American College Dance Association South Central Conference at the University of Texas El Paso, March 12 - 14. Te festival was cancelled due to COVID-19. ALUMNI ACCOLADES Crystal Brock has been hired as head coach for the competitive coed cheer and dance teams at Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU). Bonnie Cox has been named the new Director of Dance at St. Stevens Episcopal School in Austin. Jade Devault created a video dance on her yoga mat in response to COVID19. Te dance was screened on social media and gained a sizable following. Cali-Michelle Martin was accepted into Virginia Commonwealth University’s Doctorate of Physical Terapy program. Nina Padilla channeled her quarantine creativity into making a screendance with her son. [ 3] She posted this on Facebook and developed the idea to ofer private Zoom Creative Movement classes for children. She was then featured on the Dance Professors Online Transition Group as an example of how to adapt the dancer's life to the quarantine at home with family life. College of Fine Arts and Communication | 9