January February 2018 College News

DIVISION ACCOLADES LeAnne Smith provided the artistic direction for In Search of Mercy , an evening flled with six collaborative performances exploring the themes of justice, mercy and compassion. Te evening started with a dance choreographed by alumnus Matthew Cumbie including script development from the student dancers exploring the hard road back from abuse. Next was a work conceived, written and performed by Teatre faculty Nadine Mozon with music composed and performed by Austin Artist Michael Stevens, directed by Teatre faculty Michael Rau with lighting and projection design by Scott Vandenberg and choreographic consultation with Christa Oliver taking the audience on a journey of reoccurring issues faced by African Americans throughout our nation’s history. Ten a visually stunning piece exploring women’s image issues conceived by Ana Baer with dancing and choreography by Nicole Wesley , Michelle Nance and Kaysie Seitz Brown , interweaving Ana Baer’s videography with live performance and scenic, lighting and projection design by Teatre Faculty Cheri Prough DeVol . Following that was a piece developed by Kaysie Seitz Brown and Nicole Wesley with the dancers of CIM TEYA (Creation In Motion Touring Ensemble for Young Audiences) exploring tolerance thru the removal of stereotypes, including video design by Ana Baer . Next saw a collaboration between choreographer and dancer Christa Oliver and School of Music vocal students McKenzie Bitz and Audrey Harris performing Pie Jesu as Christa Oliver performed her powerful dance of Hope and Survival. Te night was concluded with a performance of Te Justice Project , [3] a work conceived and directed by Nicole Wesley and Guest Artist Darla Johnson , choreographed, devised and performed by Merge Dance Company, exploring the individual injustices the dancers have experienced in their lives with live music and live digital video performed by School of Music faculty Richard Hall with costumes designed by dance student Lindsey Gerson and lighting designed by MFA Design graduate student Ethan Jones . Nicole Wesley was accepted into the French Association of American Studies Annual AFEA Conference at the University of Nice. Nicole will also be published in the upcoming online publication of Proceedings of the American Musicological Society Southwest Chapter, ISSN: 2330- 1309 for her abstract she co-authored with Professor Christopher Smith of Texas Tech University entitled “To Wipe All Tears from Our Eyes: Devised Pedagogy and Practice-Based Research in the Teaching of History.” In January, Nicole was invited to present the work Echoes of the Skin , [1] a dance work co-choreographed with Kaysie Seitz Brown , at the Our Counter-Life Herstories Conference at Texas State University in February. In December, Nicole and her dance collaborator Darla Johnson were interviewed for their work, Te Justice Project , by research column editor Sean Justice for the upcoming newsletter of the Arts & Learning Special Interest Group at the American Educational Research College of Fine Arts and Communication | 9 #ECHOESOFTHESKIN