Archive: Arts & Entertainment

Photo by Thomas Hoebbel Photography Video
The student dancers of the Cornell University Department of Performing and Media Arts' (PMA) annual Locally Grown Dance (March 5–7) are joined on stage this year by the work of guest artists in music, visual arts, and dance. Each of the four dance pieces incorporates the idea of transformation, literally, figuratively, or both.

PMA dance faculty Byron Suber, Nic Ceynowa, and Jumay Chu contribute choreography featuring student dancers. Through PMA's guest-artists-in-dance program, students have been mentored and guided by professional dancers Florian Lochner and Ayo Janeen Jackson, both of whom visited in the fall semester.

A third guest-artist-in-dance, Sharaf DarZaid, will perform his solo "To Be…" in the Locally Grown Dance concert. While at Cornell, DarZaid, a Palestinian artist in folkloric and contemporary dance, will teach technique classes February 26–March 5 and give a lecture, "Art under Conditions of Oppression," on March 2 at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. The classes and lecture are open to the public; see pma.cornell.edu for more details.

Nic Ceynowa describes his piece, "follow," as "an exploration of the transformation from follower to instigator and the destruction of everything that process touches." For "Tunneling," Byron Suber collaborated with Matt Gagnon '96, a graduate of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, for the construction of a tunnel that will appear on stage along with the dancers and Suber's videography. Jumay Chu's piece also incorporates video, featuring "Sao" by artist Tong Yang-Tze, the 2020 Wong Chai Lok Calligraphy Fellow at Cornell, with live accompaniment by Christopher J. Miller from the Department of Music.

An exhibition of Tong Yang-Tze's calligraphy, "Immortal at the River," is on display at the Johnson Museum of Art through June 7, 2020.

Locally Grown Dance is funded in part by a grant from the Cornell Council for the Arts. The guest-artist-in-dance program has been made possible through the generous gift of Cheryl Whaley and Eric Aboaf.

Performances of Locally Grown Dance are March 5–7, 2020, at 7:30 p.m. in the Kiplinger Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.

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