Emory Dance Company Choreographer Dafi Altabeb

Photo of Dafi Altabeb by Nini Moshe

By Raven Crosby, Emory Dance Program Office Assistant

We are thrilled to have Israeli artist in residence Dafi Altabeb choreograph a new work for the Emory Dance Company this semester. Read on for more about Altabeb’s background and her new piece for the company!

Israeli Institute visiting artist Dafi Altabeb is the artistic director of Dafi Dance Group and works collaboratively with Nini Moshe, her life partner. Altabeb graduated from the Kibutzim College of Education with a BEd and a Teaching Diploma specializing in composition and EW Movement Notation. Altabeb is the recipient of the 2012, 2013, and 2016 Excellence Award for young choreographers from the Israeli Ministry of Culture, and received the Israeli Ministry of Culture performance award for 2018 ensemble for the piece It’s Now. It’s Never. She received the 2014 Rozenblum Award for Excellence from the Municipality of Tel-Aviv.

Photo of It’s Not a Pipe by Lori Teague

Altabeb’s newest work set on the Emory Dance Company is inspired by the famous surrealist painting of a pipe by René Magritte. It’s Not a Pipe explores collaboratively with her dancers “the gentle line between the global and the personal, the political and human issues that concern us all.”

Altabeb is an Israel Institute visiting artist at Emory University for fall 2019, and her residency is also supported by Emory’s Donna and Marvin Schwartz Artist-in-Residence Program.

Emory Dance Company performs November 21-23, 2019 in the dance studio of the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased below using the link below.

Buy Tickets Here!: https://tickets.arts.emory.edu/single/PSDetail.aspx?psn=123308

Emory Dance Company Choreographer Lori Teague

Photo of the optimistic body by Lori Teague 

By Raven Crosby, Emory Dance Program Office Assistant

We are excited to have Emory Dance Director Lori Teague choreograph a new work for the Emory Dance Company this semester. Read on for more about Teague’s background and her new piece for the company, the optimistic body!

Lori Teague is the director of the Emory Dance Program. Her study of contemporary movement blends together contact improvisation, improvisational performance, and the understanding of movement via somatic practices. Teague earned an MFA from The Ohio State University and a certification in Laban Movement Studies. Her choreographic research focus emerges from the social and psychological features of human behavior. Teague’s work has been presented throughout the southeast as well as Scotland and Russia, including twenty commissions. Teague currently co-directs the Dancing Flowers for Peace, trains teachers for outreach settings, and serves as the program chair for Moving in the Spirit, a youth development program.

Photo of the optimistic body by Lori Teague

In her newest work for the Emory Dance Company, the optimistic body, Teague investigates “the relationship of optimism with realism.” The large group of thirteen dancers are guided by improvisation scores, which help Teague develop movement that is full of volume, resiliency, and recovery. Teague plays and improvises with risk, loss, continuity, power, and vulnerability throughout the optimistic body.

Emory Dance Company performs November 21-23, 2019 in the dance studio of the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased below using the link below.

Buy Tickets Here!: https://tickets.arts.emory.edu/single/PSDetail.aspx?psn=123308

Photo of the optimistic body by Lori Teague

Emory Dance Company Choreographer Julio Medina

Photo of Medina by Gigi Mercandetti.

By Raven Crosby, Emory Dance Program Office Assistant

We are excited to have Emory Dance assistant professor Julio Medina choreograph a new work for the Emory Dance Company this semester. Read on for more about Medina’s background and his new piece for the company, form & fragment!

Photo of Medina by Gigi Mercandetti.

Medina, who is an Emory alum, graduated in 2013 with majors in dance and anthropology, and continued on to obtain an MFA at UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance in 2016. Medina is currently a member of David Rousseve|REALITY, a dance company created by David Rousseve based in Los Angeles. Medina who has been a member of the company since 2016, has toured the company’s latest work, Halfway to Dawn, at venues such as Roy & Edna Disney Cal Arts Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Jacob’s Pillow. He has also showcased his work “I Gotta” at CONDERDance Festival 2018, the American Dance Festival Alumni Weekend Concert 2018, and the Dance Studies Association 2018 Conference at the University of Malta.


Medina’s newest work set on the Emory Dance Company debuts November 21-23 in the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts dance studio. His piece form & fragment 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. The movement draws from contemporary modern dance, hip-hop, House, boxing and workaday pedestrian movement.

Photo from Medina's piece for the Emory Dance Company by Lori Teague 

Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased using the link below.

Buy Tickets Here!: https://tickets.arts.emory.edu/single/PSDetail.aspx?psn=123308

Photo from Medina's piece for the Emory Dance Company by Lori Teague 

Emory Dance Company Choreographer Kristin O'Neal

Image by Paige McFall

By Raven Crosby, Emory Dance Program Office Assistant

We are delighted to have choreographer Kristin O’Neal restage one of her many original works for the Emory Dance Company this semester. Read on for more about Kristin’s background and her piece, Sweet Suite!

Kristin O’Neal is a performer, teacher, and choreographer residing in Atlanta, GA where she also works as Rehearsal Director for Core Dance and teaches for the Emory Dance Program. She received her MFA in dance from Hollins University/ADF and taught at the University of Florida, where she continued her research of solo performance and character creation. Her character investigations led to a series of solos inspired by the lives of her grandmothers as well as her aunts and great aunts. Many of these solos live in the repertoire of Sarasota Contemporary Dance in Florida.

Kristin’s restaged work set on the Emory Dance Company debuts November 21-23 in the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts dance studio. Sweet Suite was originally created over the span of a decade and O’Neal says that the piece “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.”

Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased below using the link below. 

Buy Tickets Here!: https://tickets.arts.emory.edu/single/PSDetail.aspx?psn=123308

Dancers from Sarasota Contemporary Dance perform a duet from Sweet Suite. Image by Sorcha Augustine

Dancers from Sarasota Contemporary Dance perform a duet from Sweet Suite. Image by Sorcha Augustine

Dancers from Sarasota Contemporary Dance perform a duet from Sweet Suite. Image by Sorcha Augustine

Emory Dance Company Guest Choreographer Jessica Bertram

 
By Raven Crosby, Emory Dance Program Office Assistant

We are pleased to have Emory Dance alumna Jessica Bertram choreograph a new work for the Emory Dance Company this semester. Read on for more about Bertram’s background and her new piece for the company!

Jessica Bertram is an Atlanta-based movement artist driven by storytelling, research, and ultimately, play. Bertram, an Emory alumna, is a driven member of Atlanta’s dance community and has had the opportunity to perform with staibdance, Emily Cargill + Dancers, ImmerseATL, Kristel Tedesco, Dana Sokolowski, Lindsay Renea, the Mediums Collective, and Catellier Dance Projects. As a choreographer, she has had her solo works performed and awarded at the American College Dance Association, Emory University, Inman Park Festival, 7 Stages Theatre, Dance Canvas 2019 Choreographers Initiative, Atlanta Dance Collective's FEMMEfest, and the staibdance Summer Intensive in Sorrento, Italy. In addition, Bertram is a teaching artist for Moving in the Spirit and Assistant Director of the Move/Dance! Program of the National Black Arts Festival. 

Bertram’s newest work set on the Emory Dance Company debuts November 21-23 in the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts dance studio. In After Love, Bertram investigates the human desire for closure through duets and movements that demonstrate “moments of frustration and tenderness, oppositional force and support.” She asked her dancers to journal and reflect on love lost in their own lives, and to draw upon those personal experiences while performing the piece.

Tickets for the Emory Dance Company's fall showcase are on sale now and can be purchased below. 

Buy Tickets Here!: https://tickets.arts.emory.edu/single/PSDetail.aspx?psn=123308

Image from Bertram's Dance Canvas 2019 Choreographers Initiative piece. 

Special Topics: Ballet Culture: Pleasure and Pain

Special Topics: Ballet Culture: Pleasure and Pain

By Raven Crosby, Emory Dance Program Office Assistant

Note: Mara Mandradjieff’s quotes have been incorporated into this story and have been edited for length and clarity.

As spring 2020 registration quickly approaches, if you are a student looking for an interdisciplinary, discussion-based course that combines dance and film, then look no further, “Ballet Culture: Pleasure and Pain,” taught by dance professor Mara Mandradjieff, might be the course for you.

Mandradjieff first discovered the relationship between film and dance at an early age, when her ballet teachers encouraged her to watch ballet-centered films, such as The Red Shoes, Children of Theatre Street, The Turning Point, and White Nights. She also recalled trying to sneak on set with a friend to be a part of the filming of Center Stage. During her undergraduate education, Mandradjieff began to research the connection between dance and film. This research was developed further once she read Adrienne McLean’s Dying Swans and Madmen: Ballet, the Body, and Narrative Cinema. This text from McLean, a graduate of Emory’s Film and Media Ph.D. Program, led Mandradjieff to create her first scholarly journal article on The Red Shoes in 2016. 

Mandradjieff’s course “Ballet Culture: Pleasure and Pain,” strives to depict the emotions of pleasure and pain not as binary opposites, but instead considers ways the two sensations may intersect. This continuing writing course encourages students to refine their critical analysis skills and gain confidence in their own voices and ideas. Some of the many topics discussed in this course include the body (looking at eating disorders, gender, and sexuality), film theory, pointe shoes, and probably most surprising, BDSM, which all can be seen in ballet films and ballet itself. 

Mandradjieff says that “Ballet Culture: Pleasure and Pain,” was inspired by the way media portrays ballet culture, and subsequently, how ballet students (and the public at large) absorb and reconstitute these constructed images. As a result of this, Mandradjieff designed and created this course in order to engage students with these ideas and further her own research into the topic, which she hopes to turn into a future book.

Julio Medina: From Graduate to Faculty

Julio Medina: From Graduate to Faculty

By Raven Crosby, Emory Dance Program Office Assistant

Note: Julio Medina’s quotes have been incorporated into this story and have been edited for length and clarity.

I recently had the opportunity to interview the Emory Dance Program’s newest faculty member, Assistant Professor of Dance Julio Medina. Medina is an Emory alum who graduated in 2013 with majors in dance and anthropology and continued on to obtain an MFA at UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance in 2016. Medina is currently a member of David Rousseve|REALITY, a dance company created by David Rousseve and based in Los Angeles. He has also showcased his work “I Gotta” at CONDERDance Festival 2018, the American Dance Festival Alumni Weekend Concert 2018, and the Dance Studies Association 2018 Conference at the University of Malta in Valletta, Malta.

Medina began his teaching career at Cal State Long Beach. When I asked Medina how it felt to return to his alma mater, he replied “It feels fantastic to return to Emory as a full-time professor. It also feels quite surreal. I cannot believe it, but it also feels meant to be. I love that I do not have to worry about where things are or who people are; it’s like I have a deeper understanding of Emory as a place, its history, and memory.” Since Medina is a graduate of the Emory Dance Program, returning to this program in a new position presented no difficulties. Medina described the transition in terms of his relationship to his former professors as follows: “I love that I get to work with my previous professors as colleagues now. They still remain mentors to me, each and every one, but now they are mentoring me as a peer and not as a pupil.” 

When it comes to choreographing works, Medina described his inspiration for movement as follows: “My greatest inspirations flow mainly from two main streams: my life experiences and music. Normally I am moved by the transformations I am undergoing as a human being (loss, vulnerability, empowerment, a sense of community) or I will listen to a song over and over again, sometimes for years until the vision is finally physicalized.” He believes that “Not every piece has a deeper meaning. Some do, and some just are.” Medina said that this ideology can be seen in his upcoming Emory Dance Company piece that he is currently in the process of choreographing. 

Medina’s Emory Dance Company piece will debut on November 21-23. When asked what the audience can expect to see, Medina stated “The audience can expect to see a piece that has no visible storyline or through-line. They can expect to see a group of dancers on stage playing and working with each other, responding to the music and molding elements of time and energy with their movement/personalities. In that sense, it is more of a movement composition than a story.” In terms of Medina’s movement quality, he believes that it can be described as “an amalgamation of skills and movement practices.” He goes on to state that “[The movement] is sort of round yet angular, driven by the clashes of flow and strength.” Medina tends to combine elements from his hip-hop, modern, and ballet training, alongside humor. 

In addition to Medina’s Emory Dance Company piece, he is also a pioneer in creating the first hip-hop course offered by the Emory Dance Program. Since he was an undergraduate student, Medina has strived to implement hip-hop techniques into the curriculum of dance programs. The first institution in which he created a hip-hop technique course was at California State University--Long Beach and now he has transferred this curriculum to Emory University. Medina sees the benefit of having hip-hop taught in the program because of his own personal training, in which he noticed “...these movement practices made me draw so many connections about how the body can move. I wanted to share this opportunity with others.”