Emory Dance Program goes to American College Dance Association (ACDA)

Emory Dance Company performs form and f r a g m e n t
Photo by Lori Teague

By Raven Crosby, Emory Dance Program Office Assistant

The American College Dance Association (ACDA) is a national festival held each year to recognize and encourage excellence in performance and choreography in higher education. This is achieved through regional conferences that have movement classes, master workshops, seminars, adjudicated performances, and informal showings. This year, the Emory Dance Program will attend the Southeast conference. During this time, faculty member Julio Medina’s piece actants and dance major Maria McNiece’s honor thesis project Very Unpromising Material will be adjudicated. Also, excerpts from faculty member Kristin O’Neal’s piece Sweet Suite will be shown in an informal concert. At the Emory Dance Program, we are excited for our students to have the opportunity to perform at a higher level and implement what they learn to further their dance careers. Below are brief descriptions about each piece for the Emory Dance Program being shown at ACDA this year. 

Emory Dance Company performs form and f r a g m e n tPhoto by Lori Teague

Julio Medina is a dance artist and educator at the Emory Dance Program. Medina’s work form and f r a g m e n t, which was previously set on the Emory Dance Company, debuted in November. His piece was inspired by the French Philosopher Bruno Latour’s expression “actant,” which is “a source of action that can be human or nonhuman.” With this in mind, the dancers aim to synergize the material/non-material space with their personalities, presence, and moving bodies. Medina also explored “the energy of the room, the presence that each dancer has and how these personalities work together.” The movement draws from contemporary modern dance, hip-hop, House, boxing and workaday pedestrian movement.

Very Unpromising Material; photo by Christina Massad

Senior Maria McNiece is a double major in dance and movement studies and business, with a concentration in arts management. McNiece is in the process of completing her interdisciplinary honors thesis, Very Unpromising Material,a 30-minute performance piece rooted in modern dance that amalgamates her findings from the Emory departments of English, visual arts, and theater studies. Very Unpromising Material centers on the 20th-century absurdist play Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.McNiece’s research focuses on the ways in which movement artists codify methodologies of translating text into choreography. McNiece analyzed historical examples, including Maguy Marin’s May B (1981) and Crystal Pite’s The Tempest Replica (2011).  She applied her research to construct a physical reimagining of Waiting for Godot through modern dance. She will show an excerpt from her piece at ACDA.

Emory Dance Company dancers perform Kristin O'Neal's
Sweet Suite; photo by Lori Teague

Kristin O’Neal is a performer, teacher, and choreographer. O’Neal was one of three guest artists who set a piece on the Emory Dance Company in the fall. Her restaged work Sweet Suite was originally created over the span of a decade. This work, as described by O’Neal, “shares a glimpse into the inner life of seven women—where the sweet meets the bittersweet through moments of elation, despair, humor, heartbreak and determination.”