Website: Tucker Boatwright Festival–Dancing Histories: This Ground

2019-2020 Tucker-Boatwright Festival
of Literature and the Arts

Dancing Histories: This Ground

The University of Richmond’s 2019-2020 Tucker-Boatwright Festival of Literature and the Arts will be hosted by the Department of Theatre & Dance, in collaboration with the Modlin Center for the Arts. This year’s events will focus on the theme “Dancing Histories: This Ground.” The festival will present performances, lectures, panel discussions, and residencies by artists whose works reflect a unique engagement with contemporary politics and the interplay between history and memory.

All performances and events are free.

Festival Events

Camille A. Brown & Dancers
September 27, 7:30 pm
Alice Jepson Theatre, Modlin Center for the Arts
In residence September 19-27

As Artistic Director of Camille A. Brown & Dancers, dancer/choreographer Camille Brown excavates ancestral stories to connect history and contemporary culture through the lens of a modern black woman. She has received Ford Foundation Art of Change, Guggenheim, United States Artists, and TED fellowships and been honored with Jacob’s Pillow Dance, Doris Duke Artist and Bessie awards, as well as four Princess Grace Awards. Brown and her company Camille A. Brown & Dancers will offer a performance and, in addition, restage a work by Ms. Brown for the University Dancers 35th Anniversary Dance Concert.

Brother General Gabriel
October 10, 6pm & 7pm
Richmond City Gallows Historical Site, Shockoe Bottom
A free shuttle to the venue will be available to UR students, faculty, and staff

Produced by Untold RVA
Choreographed by MK Abadoo
Co-Directed by Historical Strategist Free Egunfemi

Choreographer MK Abadoo and Untold RVA’s Historical Strategist Free Egunfemi hold space for Commemorative Justice with the world premiere of their site-based dance work, transforming the previously unmarked gallows at the African Ancestral Burial Ground at Shockoe Bottom by calling forth the reemergence of young Gabriel’s invisible army from the year 1800. This exciting project amplifies the deliberately submerged legacy of Richmond’s audacious warriors for Black Freedom, as the narrative continues to inspire new generations toward self- determination, intersectionality, and resistance.

CROSS CURRENTS
November 16, 8pm
American Civil War Museum-Historic Tredegar
A free shuttle to the venue will be available to UR students, faculty, and staff

Produced by NOW-ID
Choreographed by Charlotte Boye-Christensen for members of NOW-ID and select members of University Dancers.
Lighting design by Cole Adams
Supported by NOW-ID Executive Director and Architect Nathan Webster

CROSS CURRENTS is a 50-minute site-specific, contemporary dance performance that looks at a powerfully storied place—the James River shoreline in Richmond—to reflect and generate a present-day physical power that is at once grounded in the chosen site and connected to past and future.

Charlotte Boye-Christensen, Artistic Director and choreographer for NOW-ID, trained in London and NYC. She has created new work for national and international companies and conservatories: Danish Dance Theatre, The Bauhaus in Germany, European Dance Development Center in the Netherlands, Ballet West, Milwaukee Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, and others. Charlotte co-founded NOW-ID in 2013 and is also head of dance at Texas Tech University.

Charlotte Boye-Christensen and NOW-ID will be in residence November 3-17

Jennifer Tipton
Lighting Designer
Artist Talk
October 23, 7:30pm
Cousins Studio Theatre, Modlin Center for the Arts

Jennifer Tipton is well known for her lighting design for theatre, opera, and dance. Her recent work in theater includes To Kill A Mockingbird on Broadway, in opera David Lang’s The Loser at the Los Angeles Opera, and in dance Justin Peck’s Principia for New York City Ballet. She teaches lighting at the Yale School of Drama. In 2008 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. Tipton will speak about her work as an award-winning lighting designer for dance, theatre, and opera.

Sean Aaron Carmon
Dancer/Choreographer
In residence October 27 – November 3

Dancer/choreographer Sean Aaron Carmon graduated from the Ailey/Fordham BFA in Dance program and subsequently danced with the Ailey company for seven years before joining the North American tour of Disney’s The Lion King. Broadway credits include La Cage aux Folles (originating the role of “Phaedra”) and The Phantom of the Opera. He has also performed as a guest artist with companies including Cape Dance Company in South Africa and Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY. Carmon will create an original work for the University Dancers 35th Anniversary Dance Concert.

University Dancers 35^th Anniversary Concert
February 28-29, 7:30pm
March 1, 2pm
Alice Jepson Theatre, Modlin Center for the Arts

Lío Villahermosa
Interdisciplinary Artist
March 28, 7:30pm
Cousins Studio Theatre, Modlin Center for the Arts
In residence March 23-31

Lío Villahermosa is a Puerto Rican interdisciplinary artist. His work addresses themes of spirituality and identity framed in imagery that refers to the traditions and cultural syncretisms of the Caribbean. He was one of the emerging artists selected for the Puerto Rican Arts Initiative after Hurricane María. Villahermosa will present a new work exploring Caribbean identity through movement, voice, and visual media.

Welcome
April 3-4, 7:30p
Modlin Center for the Arts

Produced by Company Stefanie Batten Bland
Choreography by Stefanie Batten Bland
Sound design by Paul Damian Hogan
Original interactive installation created by Benjamin Heller
Performed by members of Company SBB and the Richmond community

An interdisciplinary performance originally commissioned for La MaMa’s 55th anniversary season, Bienvenue examines the construction of migratory spaces and the changes resulting from each new inclusion, addressing current global and local events, as well as the present obsession with borders and identity. With a focus on reconciliation, Bienvenue highlights the varied origins and circumstances of arrival of all who now belong to communities within the United States. It explores the experience of paranoia, terror, and exceptionalism that has influenced the prevailing attitude of exclusion.

Stefanie Batten Bland and Company SBB will be in residence March 22-April 4

FREE TICKETS AVAILABLE:

Online
By phone: (804) 289-8980
In person: Modlin Center Box Office