DANCE PROGRAM

What's New?

Newsletter

Read the latest news from the dance program.

• More>>

Alumni Update

Paloma McGregor

Do you recall when you determined that dancing with UBW was a personal goal and what motivated that? Did this coincide with your interests in 'returning to dance' as a professional pursuit or to the decision to do the MFA?

Twelve years ago, in my final year of undergrad at Florida A&M University, I interviewed Jawole for an article in the Talahassee Democrat, where I was an intern. I had long since given up any notion of dancing professionally, but the work she described - telling undertold stories through dance - sounded a lot like the fusion of two things I loved: reporting and dance.

Though I became a journalist anyway, her vision of dance stuck with me. When I got a chance to dance "on the side" as a founding member of Cleveland Contemporary Dance Theatre, there was no turning back. After 5 years as a journalist, I decided to go back to school and dance full time. The summer after my first year, Jawole let me sit in on company class and watch them develop a new work. The next year, the company came to Cleveland on tour. I knew that the year I graduated, the company's 20th anniversary season, they would be doing work honoring dance pioneer Pearl Primus. I told myself I had to try to be a part of that, to have the honor of dancing that legacy.

What are you enjoying about working with Jawolle?  How much does the company perform and where - i.e. touring?  Are there particular dances/roles that you find extremely fulfilling or wish to comment on?

We have a new company (I'm now a senior member, if you can beleive that) so we're rehearsing full time into January. Then we leave on a 6-week tour, and a smaller tour in April. We'll be going all over - Cincinnati and Athens, OH, San Diego and L.A., Washington D.C. The company is also developing a new work with a 7-member men's company from Senegal, Jant-bi. That work will premiere in the BAM Next Wave Festival in 2008. I believe Dance Cleveland secured some of the money to support the collab. UBW will likely go to Senegal next Fall for a few weeks as part of the process.

I am loving the creative process, the challenge to push my boundaries, both technically and as a performer. The work has strong theatrical and emotional underpinnings, as well as song and text. The movement is in one moment western contemporary, then West African in the next. It demands a lot, so you really have to be available to grow and be aware in each moment in order to fulfill the work. That is a great journey to be on.

After moving to NY and prior to getting into the company, what were some of the things you did to realize your goals?

Within my first month in New York, I joined INSPIRIT, a dance company, which is run by a former member of Urban Bush Women, Christal Brown. I met Christal at the Urbasn Bush Women Summer Institute earlier that year. I went on to teach and choreograph with the company, which is now a resident company of Tribeca Performing Arts Center. I performed a work by another former Urban Bush Woman, Wanjiru Kamuyu (and wound up with that photo in the NYT), as well as performing with Germaul Barnes, a former dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane. In Spring 05, I became an apprentice with UBW, and traveled with them to Tallahassee when they began developing a new work in honor of Pearl Primus: "Walking with Pearl: Southern Diaries"

In November 05, more than 100 women showed up to audition for one job with the company. After 5 full days of learning rep, improv and singing, I got the job. One of the most exciting things about this was being able to fulfill the dream of dancing the two works in honor of Pearl Primus. Jawole won a Bessie Award for Southern Diaries this summer! What a blessing to be a part of that! ...And, I got to fly my mom up to see me dance at The Kennedy Center. That was so great. And some of my old journalism buddies who work at The Washington Post got to come as well.

In addition to dancing with the company, are you teaching/choreographing?  If yes, where/what?

The company just sent me to UC San Diego, where we are performing and doing a residency in Feb, to teach several choreography workshops to undergrads enrolled in an academic program that is based on UBW's Summer Insititute model. I have taught dance and creative movement in community, school and studio settings here. And last year I taught poetry to middle schoolers in the NY Public Schools.

I have choreographed a few new works since moving here - for CCDT, INSPIRIT and the UBW apprentices, and have performed By Definition. I am currently working on a new collaboration with a visual artist friend and my sister - who is now in her first year at Yale's MFA directing program.

Any other thoughts to contribute?

It's amazing what you can accomplish if you give yourself permission to follow your dreams, then follow it up with hard work.

Carisa Armstrong

Carisa (MFA, 2002) is a Lecturer in the Department of Health and Kinesiology at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas where she has taught Dance History and Creative Dance for Children as well as various technique classes. Since her hire, she co-founded Armstrong/Bergeron Dance, a company whose works have received critical acclaim from the Dallas Morning News and the Star Telegram for its “daring and exhilarating” choreography. They are currently working on a multi-media based work on trains and have traveled to Chicago and New York on filming trips.

Lucinda Lavelli 

After being the highly successful first Provost at the North Carolina School of the Arts for four years, Lucinda (MFA, 1977) became intrigued with the potential for new horizons afforded her in a different academic setting. She was appointed as the Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Florida at Gainesville, the fifth largest university in the US.

Kaysie Seitz Brown

Kaysie (MFA, 2001) joined the faculty at Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas, in the Department of Theatre and Dance as an Instructor in the fall of 2005. She teaches, beginning and intermediate classes in Modern, and Jazz, advanced Jazz and beginning Ballet. She also teaches Dance as an Art Form and Creative Movement for Children as well as Recreational dance She dances and works with Austin based companies, The Shay Ishii Dance Company with whom she presented her choreography, ‘Vista Vibrant’ and with Dance Associates, where she works with children. She recently presented at the Texas Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance in Ft. Worth, Texas, on Creative Movement for Children.