October 2017 College News

DANCE Dance Studies, Per formance & Choreography, Single Teaching Certif ication, & Dual Teaching Certif ications FACULTY ACCOLADES Ana Baer presented TerraBlue selected by Frosbite Online Film Festival in Colorado in September. Terra Blue was also selected to be presented at the Women in Dance Conference in New York City. [ 1 ] The screendance WECreate Ice was presented at the Site- Specific Screendance at the Brakhage Centre. Ana co-produced the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema and premiered Wild-er-ness at the Charlotte York Irey Theatre in Boulder. Wild-er-ness is a collaboration with Michelle Nance and Heike Salzer (dancers), Richard Hall (composer and live music), and Ana Baer (video). Directed and produced by Ana Baer and Heike Salzer , WECreate Productions. Dance Instructor and Director of the Texas State Strutters Tammy Fife wrote an online textbook entitled Teaching Dance in Public School . It was published through Kendal Hunt Publishing. Brandon Gonzalez performed at Texas Dance Improvisation Festival (TDIF) at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth and accompanied a group of Texas State students. He also performed and choreographed The Shape of our Shapes , an installation/ performance with Pat Stone at the Texas State Art and Design FL3X Gallery. Michelle Nance performed in WILD-er-ness , a dance with video projection, directed by Ana Baer and Heike Salzer , with music by Richard Hall , at the San Souci Festival of Dance Cinema in Boulder, Colorado on September 22 and 23. [ 2 ] Christa Oliver is playing Olga Mara in Zach Theatre’s Singin’ in the Rain . LeAnne Smith hosted the North American International Body Mind Centering Association conference, The Fluid Body, A Somatic Journey. Over Ana Baer’s Screendance TerraBlue Michelle Nance in Ana Baer’s WILD-er-ness Merge Dancer, Sierra Anderson teaches at San Marcos High School 10 | October | College News 1 2 3 120 participants from the Americas, Europe, Asia, Scandinavia, and Canada attended the conference. The conference, which ran from July 24-30, hosted internationally renowned somatic scholars and practitioners who presented research, taught master classes, and performed creative work in the river and on the stage. LeAnne presented her dance video collaboration, Immersion . Filmed by Misti Galvan and edited by Ana Baer , the piece delves into the kinesthesia of sacred space. Pat Stone choreographed and performed the work The Shape of our Shapes , an installation/performance with Brandon Gonzalez at the Texas State Art and Design FL3X Gallery. Scott Vandenberg designed lighting for The Turn of The Screw in the Patti Strickel Harrison Theatre. This was his sixth design for Texas State Opera Theatre. Nicole Wesley took 13 dance students to present and perform at the Bi-annual Arts Practice Research Conference at Texas Tech University. Nicole presented “To Wipe All Tears from Our Eyes: Devised Pedagogy and Practice-Based Research in a Music and Dance Immersive/Intensive Experience” at the American Musicological Society, Southwest Chapter Meeting on October 7th at Texas Tech University. She received a Common Experience Event Grant for her upcoming devised work “The JUSTICE Project: San Marcos 2017” premiering in the Opening Door Dance Theatre’s concert in December. Nicole was also accepted to the Inaugural International Symposium on Practice- as-Research (ISPaR) to be held at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, December 4-6, for her work entitled “To Wipe All Tears from Our Eyes: Conceptualizing Pedagogy and Practice-as-Research in an Extended Narrative Work of Music and Dance” co- authored with Dr. Chris Smith of Texas Tech University. STUDENT ACCOLADES Misti Galvan is currently a graduate student through Wilson College’s low-residency MFA program. This program is unique as it puts visual artists and choreographers together for an interdisciplinary experience. Misti’s work is focused on how dance relates to its environment (people, places, and things) and video dance, which she originally started studying with Ana Baer . She will graduate in May 2019. Lindsey Gerson was invited to attend the XIV Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she took graduate level courses and assisted with the production of the festival. Current dance students Lindsey Gerson , Nan Simms , Brittany McKinney , Alyssa Canas , Lyssa Rumsey , Destiny King , Tate Navarro , Sarah Gutierrez , Anais Gutierrez , Dana Mosbey , Amber Cantu and Alyssa Whitaker attended the 2017 Texas Dance Improvisation Festival (TDIF) in Fort Worth in October. Merge Dance Company gave two free master classes at Miller Middle School and San Marcos High School under the direction of Lecturer Christa Oliver . [ 3] Associate Artistic Director of Dance Exchange and Texas State Alumnus Matthew Cumbie held auditions for current students to dance in Opening Door Dance Theatre’s In Search of Mercy . Eight students were selected for the main cast with six receiving supporting roles. #INSEARCHOFMERCY College of Fine Arts and Communication | 11