Extraordinary Athens

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Extraordinary Athens Open House & Project Launch
Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009
5:30-7 PM
ICE, Lamar Dodd School of Art Room S160

Extraordinary Athens is an exploration of the remarkable people in Athens, Georgia whose inspiring stories are translated into artistic interpretations. Submissions can be contributed and viewed on the continuously evolving Web-based project: http://www.extraordinaryathens.com.

Stop by the Open House to find out more about this new project, meet the creators, and find out how you can get involved.

“Victor Hugo in America”

Victor Hugo in America
Poetry Reading with O.B.Bassler
ICE, Lamar Dodd School of Art Room S160
Thursday 17 September 2009 5:30PM

Old world modulated into new. High fliers and low liers. Major prosody and little feet. An hour in which poems will be read aloud. Come as you are, leave as you will be. All are welcome tho but few attend. No cover. No bar. No hat check. With special guest appearance by Tom Cruise.

Opening Moves

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Opening Moves
Thursday, September 10
4-6 PM
Lamar Dodd School of Art Courtyard

A cross-campus movement experience with all invited to attend!

Brazilian choreographer and arts leader Regina Miranda, CEO and arts and culture director of the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in New York City, will serve as the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts Visiting Artist on the University of Georgia campus Sept. 8–11.

Miranda is an internationally known choreographer, dance curator and author, as well as former artistic director of the Choreographic Centre in Rio de Janeiro and a former member of the Brazil Council for the Arts. She is the author of Expressive Movement, Body/Space, and Laban Lead: Leadership as Art.

The Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies is a non-profit organization that has been training movement observers, teachers and coaches for more than 30 years. Centered in New York City, its international network includes more than a thousand certified movement analysts who apply movement analysis to help change the way people perform, communicate, observe, learn and negotiate. The institute works with students in such fields as health care, the performing arts, sports, education, diplomacy, leadership studies and communications.

“It is such a pleasure to introduce to UGA such a leading international figure of arts, dance and the Laban Movement Analysis world. Ms. Miranda is tri-lingual, multifaceted and lives in three cities [Rio de Janeiro, New York City and San Francisco] with multiple activities going on at all times,” said Bala Sarasvati, artistic director, choreographer and Jane Willson Professor in Arts in the department of dance at UGA.

Sponsored by the Willson Center for Humanties and Arts at UGA.

ICE collaboration opportunity

Call for Interest: Collaborative project to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall

Ideas for Creative Exploration (ICE) and the department of German and Slavic Studies seek participants for a collaborative project to mark the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The goal is to form a project that will combine approaches from multiple disciplines and result in the creation of a work of art, performance, or combination of works to be presented during the week of November 9, 2009.

Matt Kent Lecture

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“Making Art through Collaborative Play”
Matt Kent
Creative director, teacher and former dance captain of Pilobolus Dance Theatre and artistic director of Pickleshoes
Thursday, September 3, 2009 2:00 – 3:15
New Dance Theatre, Department of Dance

Matt Kent, distinguished international dancer and teacher, joined Pilobolus Dance Theatre in 1996 and has received countless citations, positive reviews and international acclaim. At fourteen he began studying the Japanese martial art Ninjitsu in which he now holds a fourth degree black belt. He acting in high school and began studying the string bass. While pursuing a music therapy degree at the University of Georgia, Matt began integrating martial arts movement and dance with UGA CORE Concert Dance Company. In 1996, Matt joined Pilobolus Dance Theatre and he has since toured internationally and served as their Dance Captain performing throughout the world, including countries in Asia, Europe, South America and the Middle East. Dance Magazine described Matt’s contribution to Pilobolus as “priceless.” Mr Kent currently serves as project manager and creative director, choreographing new work for Pilobolus Creative Services. Most recently he has choreographed for the launch of Bystolic in San Francisco, and for Japanese Fuji TV. He has been seen on Live with Regis and Kelly, the Today Show, 60 Minutes, the 2007 Academy Awards, a full-length documentary entitled “Last Dance”, numerous international commercials, including recent ones for the National Football League.

Matt’s experience as a musician proved a boon in many of the collaborations with Pilobolus and other musicians such as the Saint Lawrence String Quartet, Maria Schneider’s Jazz Orchestra, the Klezmatics, Paul Sullivan, former Kodo Taiko drummer and composer. In 2003, he co-founded with his wife UGA Dance alum Emily Milam Kent, PickleShoes. Collaborating with composer/conductor Rob Kapilow, of NPR’s “What Makes It Great?” they have created two Family Musik Programs, which tour the U.S. and Canada, “Peter and the Wolf” and “Fairy Tales.” Both shows have played Lincoln Center’s Great Performers Series in NYC.

Sponsored by the Willson Center for the Humanities and Arts at UGA.

Girls Personal Development Project

Hunter Parker, ICE graduate assistant and MFA Candidate in Dramatic Media, traveled to Ukerewe, Tanzania, to conduct the Girls Personal Development (GPD) project May 29–June 10. Parker and Rachel Hagues, coordinator in the Vinson Institute’s Child and Family Policy Initiative (CFPI), worked with girls 11–18 years old in activities meant to empower them and encourage their continued education and development.

The goal was to get the girls to view themselves as valuable contributors in their communities. Though Tanzania’s law makes primary school compulsory, girls in Ukerewe are often taken out of school at a young age to stay home and help with chores, while boys are more likely to be able to pursue their education. Parker and Hagues hope that this program will convey to the girls and their families that the girls’ education and development is beneficial to the community as a whole.

Parker and Hagues primarily used drama techniques known as Theatre of the Oppressed to engage the Tanzanian girls and help them interact with each other. Women leaders from the community participated in the activities as well, in hopes that they would continue to use them after the project’s completion. The Theatre of the Oppressed method seeks to empower participants as they act out or observe scenes of oppression that they experience regularly in their lives. Girls were asked to develop skits that portrayed challenges they faced in their lives and ways of overcoming and finding solutions to those challenges.

The project is part of the UGA-Gertrude Mongella Partnership, established in 2005 between the university and Gertrude Mongella, a member of the Tanzanian parliament, past-president of the African Union Parliament, and an Ukerewe native. The partnership strives to design strategies and implement programs that encourage sustainable growth in the Ukerewe community. The Girls Personal Development project was funded by an International Scholarship of Engagement Grant from the UGA Office of International Public Service and Outreach.