Theatre & Dance

A day at the circus (with a remote-controlled glove)

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 21:31:32 +0000

A day at the circus (with a remote-controlled glove) Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/31/2023 - 15:31

Rachel Sauer

CU �鶹ӰԺ theater instructor Jordan Feeler learned how to troubleshoot sparkly homages to Michael Jackson and illuminated magician props while working with Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas

A memorable day in Jordan Feeler’s career as a props technician and props maintenance lead for Cirque Du Soleil: Michael Jackson ONE was when he approached the staff at a machine shop in Las Vegas.

The bulk of the shop’s business was producing parts for the aerospace industry, but Feeler figured it couldn’t hurt to ask: “Hey, I designed this thing to make a remote-controlled, sparkly, sequined Michael Jackson glove drive around a stage. Can you machine parts for it?”

Fortunately, they said yes and were excited about the challenge, and Feeler got a much-improved mobile glove. It was a memorable but by no means extraordinary day in props for one of the most well-known shows in not only Las Vegas, but worldwide thanks to touring productions.

At the top of the page: Cirque du Soleil: Kooza, which is in Denver until Aug. 13, includes a wide variety of props and performances. Above: Jordan Feeler, an instructor in the Department of Theatre and Dance, gained broad experience in props while working with Cirque du Soleil: Michael Jackson ONE in Las Vegas.

Feeler, an instructor in the �鶹ӰԺ Department of Theatre and Dance, teaches courses in props, hand drafting, advanced woodworking, stage machinery and others—skills that he honed over six years with Cirque du Soleil and more than 15 years in theatrical production.

The touring Cirque du Soleil: Kooza is at Denver’s Ball Arena through Aug. 13, and while certain props needs vary between touring and residency shows, like Michael Jackson ONE in Las Vegas, there are many fundamental similarities: The props must be sturdy and safe, they must meet performers’ needs, they must hew to the show’s initial designs, and they must be eye-catching but not distracting from the performance as a whole.

We recently spoke with Feeler about the world of props for a show as well-known and spectacular as Cirque du Soleil.

How did you get into props?

Feeler: I was never really interested in being onstage as a performer, but I always loved the technical aspects of theater—how it involves creativity and design and engineering skills, and then really practical things like sewing and carpentry.

So, I studied technical direction at Webster University Conservatory of Theatre Arts and kind of hopped around doing different jobs after I graduated. I was working as a scenic painter in St. Louis and then in Sacramento, and I figured I was already out that way, I might as well pop down to Las Vegas. I’d tried applying online, but I heard it was a lot easier to get your foot in the door if you’re actually there, so I just moved to Las Vegas and applied everywhere.

At one point, there were something like seven Cirque du Soleil shows in Vegas, so I applied to pretty much all of them and got hired on to Michael Jackson ONE in February 2013 before it opened in June that year.

Props is one of many teams in Cirque du Soleil; what was your team’s role as the show prepared to open?

Feeler: To start with, the director and directing team basically envisions the entire show—what they want it to look like, and they started at least a year in advance of when I came on. They went through and storyboarded the show, then different design teams, which were all based out of Montreal, started designing everything from props to costumes to rigging and lighting.

There was a props design team of three or four specialists who were heading that design work up and prototyping all the props, and then our Las Vegas props crew of about 10. The props design team were prototyping by October 2012, working with artists there in Montreal to figure out the needs of the performers, and then things began coming our way, a lot that weren’t finished.

For Michael Jackson ONE, there were a ton of props to build. There was a bench that had to light up and have a performer inside of it for some magic acts, there was a little remote-control car, there was a Michael Jackson sparkly glove that had to drive around stage and have its wrist lift and fingers actuate. It was so creative, things I’d never worked on before.

How are performers’ needs incorporated into prop design and construction?

Feeler: When you’re working with performers of that caliber—artists from all over the world who are so amazing at what they do—it’s so important to always be communicating with them to make sure that everything is just right for them. There was a magician in the show, and just the slightest thing would throw their performance off, so we were always checking in and making sure the props were doing exactly what they needed, making sure things were safe.

We were constantly getting input from not only performers, but other departments—rigging and lighting, carpentry, costumes. It’s all completely intertwined because you also have to be thinking that it needs to look seamless to the audience.

How did working in props with Cirque du Soleil differ from your previous theater work?

Feeler: I think probably the biggest difference was the depth we could get into and the time we had. For what we would call “normal” theater, the tech process can be as short as two days—you do a few rehearsals and within a week the show is up. In that situation, in props, you have to be so fast—you’re constantly thinking on the fly, just immediately problem-solving and sometimes with Band-Aid fixes. With Cirque du Soleil, that process happened over months, and then there was a month-long preview period before the show officially opened.

But there are certain similarities in props that you see across all theater. Where something like rigging is really specialized and more aligns with engineering and certain, specific skills, props is so broad. There’s sewing, painting, molding and casting, metalwork, electronics, there are all these different things, and you acquire skills in all of them as you go along.

Feeler worked with Cirque du Soleil: Michael Jackson ONE from the time before it opened in 2013 until 2019.

The nice thing about Cirque du Soleil was there were specialists in pretty much everything, so I could go to a lighting specialist and say, “I want to do this,” rather than having to figure it out myself. It’s pretty common in the industry to have that interdepartmental collaboration, but in Cirque it’s magnified by 10.

Another thing that was nice about Cirque du Soleil was time was certainly on our side. We had months to develop and test things, we had a lot of time to think things through. We were able to create a binder full of contingency plans where we asked, “If this happens, how do we respond?” We had time to sit down and play out every little distinct scenario that could go wrong.

When I made the shift to props maintenance, there was even more opportunity to go through and play with things and experiment and replicate what was going wrong when something happened. The crew would give us notes from the previous night’s show, and then we could make the adjustments and changes, or in some cases redesign a prop entirely and make it more functional. With a show like Michael Jackson ONE, which just hit its 10-year anniversary in Las Vegas, we were thinking about what would make the props more durable and consistent with the original designs.

Once the show opened, then we focused on maintaining functionality and appearance while incorporating notes from performers and stage managers. That became the fun part. For example, there was this mechanical hand, this Michael Jackson glove, that was designed and built by a brilliant engineer. It has so much going on in such a small package, but it kept malfunctioning where it would be driving down and then spinning out, which wasn’t supposed to happen. We weren’t sure what was going on, but I was able to figure out that the frame was sort of tweaked and if we could go through and reinforce frame, that would fix it.

So, during what we call darks, which is a week out of year when they shut the show down and everyone does maintenance, my boss was like, “Hey, you’re going to redesign this.” So, I did, and then found a machine shop that mostly made aerospace parts, but they were excited to do it. Who doesn’t want to make weird stuff for the circus?

What advice do you give students interested in pursuing a theater career in props?

Feeler: One of the most important things I can tell students is to approach people, ask questions and then listen. If you’re a decent person and you’re a hard worker, if you have some skills, you’ll find work and you can make a good living.

With my students, it seems that everybody wants to learn how to weld, there are a lot who enjoy carpentry and painting, and the more tools you have in your tool bag, the more marketable you are in this industry. I tell them to always be learning new skills.

I mean, I’m horrible at sewing but I can do it if I have to. I spend way too much time on YouTube just learning about how things are made, which is a really fun aspect of this field—it’s challenging, but it’s something new every day. There’s not really a book that can tell me how to make an 8-foot-tall Poseidon head that moves and its eyes blink. That’s something I just had to figure out.

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CU �鶹ӰԺ theater instructor Jordan Feeler learned how to troubleshoot sparkly homages to Michael Jackson and illuminated magician props while working with Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas.

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Reducing violence, with help from The Bard

Anonymous — Tue, 23 May 2023 16:55:16 +0000

Reducing violence, with help from The Bard Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/23/2023 - 10:55

Sarah Kuta

Colorado Shakespeare Festival staffers share Shakespeare & Violence Prevention program with scholars and practitioners in England, including at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre

Scientists largely understand what contributes to violence in schools and communities—and how to stop it. But actually putting that research into practice can be challenging.

Live theater can help.

That was the message the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s Amanda Giguere and Heidi Schmidt shared with an array of Shakespeare scholars and practitioners during a weeklong outreach tour in England in early May.

During their trip across the pond—funded by grants from the Office for Outreach and Engagement and the Center for Humanities & the Arts—Giguere and Schmidt met with experts at Shakespeare's Globe, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Shakespeare Institute and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

They gave presentations on CU �鶹ӰԺ’s innovative Shakespeare & Violence Prevention program in hopes that other theater companies and related organizations might one day implement similar initiatives to help prevent bullying, mistreatment, self-harm and violence in schools.

Amanda Giguere (left) and Heidi Schmidt (right) outside Shakespeare’s Globe.

“We have the research, but the science alone is not enough,” says Giguere, the festival’s director of outreach. “We really need engaging, human-focused storytelling and art to solve the problem of violence.”

Becoming an ‘upstander’

Founded in 2011, the Shakespeare & Violence Prevention program aims to help students recognize harmful or potentially unsafe situations and take steps to intervene. This interdisciplinary initiative is a collaboration between the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.

Through the program, actors visit various Colorado elementary, middle and high schools to perform abridged versions of Shakespeare plays. (During the most recent school year, they performed The Tempest and The Merchant of Venice, and next year they’ll be touring and presenting Romeo and Juliet and The Comedy of Errors.)

Afterward, the actors invite students to role-play moments of conflict or violence from the play and ask them to propose an alternative strategy to help reduce or prevent some of the harm.

“This is all rooted in the power and efficacy of the ‘upstander,’ also known as an ally or active bystander,” says Giguere. “It can be extremely effective when one person decides to take action if someone is being bullied or if they are aware of planned violence, rather than passively sitting by. Sometimes all it takes is one person to say, ‘Hey, that’s not cool,’ and usually the mistreatment stops right away.”

Giguere and Schmidt along with the staff of Globe Education.

To help conceptualize violence, researchers often use the metaphor of an iceberg. Although really big acts, such as school shootings, are the ones that make the news, they are just the tip of the iceberg, says Giguere. Those acts are typically rooted in a broader culture that tolerates and even perpetuates bullying, microaggressions and general mistreatment. The violence iceberg also includes self-harm and suicide.

In the long run, the program’s organizers hope that cultivating a robust community of upstanders among students will help reduce small acts of violence and, ultimately, will help foster more positive, supportive school climates. Together, those changes should, in turn, help prevent even larger, more devastating incidents in the future.

And just as rehearsing helps actors polish a performance, practicing can help students become more comfortable and familiar with an array of upstander strategies.

“We’re using Shakespeare’s plays to give the kids a fictional metaphor they can step into and practice their own upstander strategies,” says Giguere. “We practice so many things in this world that we want to get better at—we practice tying our shoes, we practice CPR, we practice active shooter drills. All of those things don’t come easily, and they take practice. The same goes for upstander behavior.”

Borrowing from The Bard

Shakespeare’s plays—particularly the tragedies and history plays—are brimming with conflict. And while the words may be more than 400 years old, the themes remain relevant today.

“Many of these stories are rooted in a lot of what still shapes violence today, which is deep pain, deep trauma, deep division, deep disconnection,” says Giguere. “As I’ve been investigating these plays over the years, I really do think Shakespeare was trying to figure out something about why humans are so violent with each other.”

His plays also contain multiple perspectives—sometimes even within the same character—which helps students think about the complexity and messiness of the human experience. People are not all bad or all good, but some mix of both.

Schmidt (left) and Giguere (right) seated inside Shakespeare’s Globe.

Role-playing also helps students develop empathy because it encourages them to step into a character’s shoes and consider the scene from their point of view, Giguere says. That’s a useful skill for responding calmly and compassionately during a heated moment, rather than reacting with additional anger or violence.

“Taking time to pause, take a breath, think about the world from another person’s perspective is one of the key building blocks of a safer community,” Giguere says.

The power of interdisciplinary collaboration

During the past 12 years, the program has reached 126,000 students across the Front Range, with a goal of spreading into other parts of the state in the near future. Collaborating with other university departments has been a major driver behind that success, says Giguere.

In addition to drawing on evidence-based research from the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, the program has collaborated with numerous other partners, including the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance, the School of Education and the Department of Theatre & Dance.

As the program has demonstrated, bringing together experts from across campus—then sharing that combined knowledge with the public—can produce powerful results.

“Synthesis of knowledge across disciplines and fields is one way that such knowledge becomes more meaningful and more connected to social practice and everyday life,” says David Meens, director of the Office for Outreach and Engagement.

To learn more or support the Shakespeare & Violence Prevention program, follow this link.

Colorado Shakespeare Festival staffers share Shakespeare & Violence Prevention program with scholars and practitioners in England, including at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre.

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Research & Innovation Office names newest Faculty Fellow cohort

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 18:13:09 +0000

Research & Innovation Office names newest Faculty Fellow cohort Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/09/2022 - 11:13

The Research and Innovation Office has announced the 2023 RIO Faculty Fellows cohort, which includes 17 faculty members from departments and research institutes spanning the campus.

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Dancers move for social change

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 17:42:57 +0000

Dancers move for social change Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/09/2022 - 10:42

Cay Leytham-Powell

CU �鶹ӰԺ, Old Dominion dance professors to discuss dance’s role in social change on Dec. 15

What role does dance play in social change and repair?

That’s the question that award-winning choreographer and �鶹ӰԺ Assistant Professor of Dance Helanius J. Wilkins and Kate Mattingly, a nationally recognized scholar and assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Theatre Arts at Old Dominion University, will discuss on Thursday, Dec. 15, at the Mi Chantli Art and Movement Sanctuary.

At the top of the page and above: �鶹ӰԺ Assistant Professor of Dance Helanius J. Wilkins performing on stage.

Doors for the event, titled Walking and Tracing Creative Portals: Activating Archives for Belonging and Equity, will open at 6:45 p.m., and the program starts at 7 p.m. Seating is limited for this free event, and reservations are strongly encouraged. Light refreshments will be available.

Additionally, Wilkins will discuss his latest and most ambitious national work to date, a multi-year venture: The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging. This performance focuses on an interracial, male duet that explores the “value of bodies coexisting—sharing weight and responsibility, dancing to become better ancestors.”

As the dancers “travel” to make and share this work, they stitch together a “dance-quilt” to broaden people’s understandings of what it means to be American and to “sew ourselves together anew.”

Wilkins’ Conversation Series will feature new choreographies, a documentary film and a digital archive of the process and performance. This event also will include the first screening of a new documentary short (see trailer) that highlights Wilkins’ process for working with communities through this work, plus a Q&A with the audience.

Wilkins’ project brings together artists, humanitarians, social justice activists, diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice consultants, and members of diverse, intergenerational communities nationwide.

A native of Lafayette, Louisiana, Wilkins has choreographed and directed more than 60 works. From 2001 to 2014, he was the founder and director of the EDGEWORKS Dance Theater in Washington, D.C., an all-male dance company of predominantly African American men.

He won the 2008 Pola Nirenska Award for Contemporary Achievement in Dance, the highest honor given by the Washington Performing Arts Society, as well as the 2002 and 2006 Millennium Stage Kennedy Center Local Dance Commissioning Project Award.

Earlier this year, Wilkins won a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for a choreographed duet intended to “heal and unite” and to reflect “re-bodying belonging to become better ancestors.”

This event is co-sponsored by the �鶹ӰԺ Office for Outreach and Engagement and the �鶹ӰԺ County Arts Alliance.

CU �鶹ӰԺ, Old Dominion dance professors to discuss dance’s role in social change on Dec. 15.

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Five staffers are named A&S employees of the year

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 16:25:03 +0000

Five staffers are named A&S employees of the year Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/30/2022 - 10:25

Asuka Morley, Stacy Norwood, Lia Pileggi, Michael Shernick and Alicia Turchette recognized for going well above and far beyond the call of duty

Five outstanding staff members have been named employees of the year by the College of Arts and Sciences at the �鶹ӰԺ.

The honorees are:

Asuka Morley, administrative assistant and graduate program assistant in the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations.
Stacy Norwood, program coordinator at the Department of Theatre and Dance.
Lia Pileggi, digital imaging and technology coordinator in the Department of Art and Art History.
Michael Shernick, program coordinator in the Stories and Societies Residential Academic Program.
Alicia Turchette, program manager for the Department of Women and Gender Studies.

Colleagues nominated each of the awardees, bestowing high praise in all cases.

Asuka Morley

Morley joined Asian languages and civilizations in December 2017. R. Keller Kimbrough, professor of Japanese and chair of the department, says she is the “eminently professional, all-knowing and ever-kind face of our graduate program.”

Kimbrough added that Morley has consistently exhibited outstanding performance in all areas of her position, whether it be course scheduling, classroom assignments, maintaining the department’s webpage, consulting with faculty and students about rules and procedures, keeping track of students’ required courses and paperwork, meeting with visitors and prospective students, organizing and overseeing graduation ceremonies and other departmental events, “and even carrying books and boxes when faculty need help with an office move.”

Jackie Coombs, program assistant in the department, concurred, adding that Morley is “instrumental in fostering an environment of exceptional support to enhance student learning and the mission of the university.”

Coombs added: “She has demonstrated leadership and innovation in an abnormally strenuous time that has delivered obstacle after obstacle due to the challenges of the pandemic. Asuka truly is a rare find and our department would not be what it is today without her contributions.”

Stacy Norwood

Norwood came to the department after a career as a professional stage manager, and that experience as “the person responsible for everything” is evident in her current role, said Bruce Bergner, interim chair of theatre and dance.

Bergner went on to quote colleagues who praised Norwod in many ways, including these:

"She goes beyond the call of duty, creating a nurturing and proactive atmosphere in the front office—her office door is filled with encouraging quotes and tear-off words of encouragement should anyone need a bit of a lift. She is inspirational."

"In our regular meetings, (Norwood) is the glue that holds our committees together—almost like a sage guide."

Lia Pileggi

"Stacy was the safe harbor during the storm of COVID, keeping the office running when we were scattered all over Colorado, always facilitating working communication channels."

Pileggi joined art and art history in 2015 and has in recent years gone “truly above and beyond to help the department and its members thrive,” said Jeanne Quinn, professor and chair of the department.

Quinn noted that Pileggi stepped in to fill a critical need: Students needed to photograph their work, but there was no system of helping students. “Lia took it on, acquiring backdrops, lights and other necessary equipment, found space, fitted it properly and began working with faculty to integrate the teaching of this skill as part of our undergraduate program,” Quinn said, adding, “It has paid great dividends for our students and is a much-used and appreciated facility.”

Last year, Quinn added, Pileggi served on the department’s diversity committee, which worked “as never before to address issues that had been brought to the committee by concerned students and alumni.”

The committee met 22 times over the course of the year, conducting multiple “listening sessions” to hear and record the experiences of students, staff and faculty regarding DEI issues. “Lia scheduled the meetings, kept records of the meetings and listening sessions, and essentially kept the committee moving forward,” Quinn said.

Michael Shernick

Shernick is a longtime staff member whose service to residential academic programs is “broad, deep and multi-faceted,” said Eric Stade, professor of mathematics and director of the Stories and Societies Residential Academic Program (RAP).

Stade included a dozen bullet points highlighting instances in which Shernick provided key contributions. More generally, Stade noted, Shernick’s genuine affinity “for helping people and for making them feel like they belong helps to instill a spirit of inclusivity in our RAP and Sewall Hall.”

Additionally, Shernick has frequently helped English-language learners among the housekeeping staff read, interpret and respond to various documents written in English, Stade said.

Stade added: “Just this week, a student in SRAP/Sewall Hall, unfortunately, experienced a traumatic event. The student immediately came looking, not for me or the hall director or an RA, but for Michael. And of course, Michael was there. That’s who he is.”

Alicia Turchette

Turchette has been with women and gender studies for 13 years and is the “glue that has held the department together” through staff changes and the pandemic, noted Julie Carr, chair of the department and a professor of English and creative writing.

Even during turbulent times, Carr said, “Turchette is unfailingly thorough in her work: managing the finances of the department; handling course scheduling; understanding and responding to pedagogic needs; communicating with students and staff about events and updates from campus, the college and the department; administrating the LGBTQ certificate program; administrating the (department’s graduate) certificate program; and helping me to understand the department by-laws and ongoing projects while keeping me on track for all administrative deadlines.”

“She is somehow able to do the job of two (or three) people at once, though indeed she never should have had to,” Carr said. “She takes on this extra labor without a hitch, as she cares deeply about all aspects of our department. She is a joy to work with: thoughtful, careful and considerate of others’ feelings. She takes authority for what she knows (which is often more than anyone else in the room) and openly offers clear advice.”

Asuka Morley, Stacy Norwood, Lia Pileggi, Michael Shernick and Alicia Turchette recognized for going well above and far beyond the call of duty.

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CU dance prof wins $10k NEA grant to ‘heal and unite’

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 20:21:51 +0000

CU dance prof wins $10k NEA grant to ‘heal and unite’ Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/07/2022 - 14:21

Helanius J. Wilkins’ project aims to reflect ‘re-bodying belonging to become better ancestors’

Helanius J. Wilkins, assistant professor of dance at the �鶹ӰԺ, has won a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for a choreographed duet intended to “heal and unite” and to reflect “re-bodying belonging to become better ancestors.”

Wilkins’ initiative is among 1,125 projects across America totaling more than $26.6 million that were selected during a second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2022 funding, the NEA announced recently.

With the NEA’s support—and that of the College of Arts and Sciences, which matched the NEA grant with another $10,000 in funding— Wilkins’ and the CU dance division will collaborate with several touring, commissioning presenter-partners, including Basin Arts and Acadiana Center for the Arts in Louisiana and Keshet Center for the Arts in New Mexico.

At the top of the page: Dance Assistant Professor Helanius J. Wilkins, left, and CU alumnus Avery Ryder Turner perform in The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging. Above: With the grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Wilkins and the CU dance division will collaborate with several touring partners. Photo courtesy Christopher Michael Carruth.

The work is called The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging and is described as a multi-year, multi-outcome work that is “an ongoing and always shifting dance-quilt, confronting and celebrating heritage, resiliency, justice and hope.”

The work will benefit the participating dance artists, university students, faculty and broad and diverse audiences in Colorado, Louisiana and New Mexico, the NEA states, adding that the intended outcome is to support artistic activities and traditions “to strengthen the nation's cultural infrastructure.”

“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts and cultural organizations throughout the nation with these grants,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson.

“The arts contribute to our individual well-being, the well-being of our communities, and to our local economies. The arts are also crucial to helping us make sense of our circumstances from different perspectives as we emerge from the pandemic and plan for a shared new normal informed by our examined experience.”

Wilkins said he was grateful for and humbled by the award. “This support is huge and one I do not take for granted, especially given that significant national arts funding is super competitive and limited,” Wilkins said.

The award affords Wilkins and his collaborators the resources to continue creative research and work that centers art and social change, and it encourages national visibility “which can be instrumental for cultivating new relationships and constructing new pathways for the continuation of the work more broadly,” he said.

Discussing his work, Wilkins said that his creative research is rooted in the interconnections of American contemporary performance, cultural history and identities of Black men.

“To this end, as I move through the world as a human and as an artist, I am anchored in my truth—my identity—and by my experiences as an American who is Black, male and queer. This anchoring in turn anchors my creative research and projects in questions about gaps in an America that (miss)sees the marginalized,” Wilkins said, adding:

“My projects examine the raced dancing body and ways ritual can access knowledge. My work—an intentionally decolonizing process that centralizes systems for care and repair and practice over ‘final product’—emphasizes how our actions generate sensory engagements that reconfigure our relationships to ourselves (and each other) and environments around us.”

To this end, as I move through the world as a human and as an artist, I am anchored in my truth—my identity—and by my experiences as an American who is Black, male and queer. This anchoring in turn anchors my creative research and projects in questions about gaps in an America that (miss)sees the marginalized.”

Wilkins said his work blurs the lines between art and social justice, adding that an aspect of how he uses dance to heal and unite is “to first ground myself, and those who join me, by creating brave and courageous environments built upon embracing that there is no social justice without the body. Dance, for me, is care work.”

Wilkins says to "re-body" a work is to give new body or a new orientation to “who belongs.” He added:

“I am anchored by an aspect of my upbringing where I was taught to understand that our ’American’ identity is one that is shaped by hybridity, resilience and co-existence. In a time of extreme political and social divisiveness, I am metaphorically ‘stitching’ us back together by drawing attention away from difference as a means to divide/separate but rather to heal and unite.”

Specific to The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging, Wilkins said his current work requires that he engage communities, with his duet-partner and co-facilitator, A. Ryder Turner (MFA in Dance, CU alum '21), in a series of community-engagements (Systems for Care & Repair) that consist of embodied workshops and community conversation gatherings about belonging.

He added: “Through the Systems for Care & Repair, dance becomes a vessel/portal for communities to engage in collective recalling/remembering, sharing lesser known and/or erased stories, actively dreaming and doing.”

The work will yield new choreographies, a documentary film, digital archive, and a diversity, equity, inclusion & social justice “toykit,” he said. “When traveling to each state, experiences in and with community becomes the source material for generating these outcomes.”

For more information on other projects included in the Arts Endowment grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

Helanius J. Wilkins’ project aims to reflect ‘re-bodying belonging to become better ancestors.’

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Students and pros make climate change a joke, seriously

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 19:49:36 +0000

Students and pros make climate change a joke, seriously Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/07/2022 - 13:49

Clint Talbott

Annual Stand up for Climate Change Comedy event set for April 15 on campus, with professional, other acts premiering on YouTube one week later, on Earth Day

Climate change is no joking matter, but it should be, �鶹ӰԺ professors Beth Osnes and Max Boykoff contend. Humor, they say, could help a sharply divided nation find common ground, yielding less stagnation and more progress.

Osnes, a theatre and dance professor, and Boykoff, an environmental studies professor, teach a course on this topic, called Creative Climate Communications, and their students this semester have helped professional comedians in New York and Los Angeles craft comedy-themed stand-up routines, which the pros will perform on the coasts in coming days, along with “citizen-comedy” acts throughout the country.

CU �鶹ӰԺ students themselves will perform in the Stand up for Climate Change Comedy event on April 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the Old Main Chapel on campus. The event, which is free and open to the public, will feature live performances of student comedy performances, sketches, songs and winning entries from an international climate-comedy video competition.

At the top of the page:“Weathergirl Goes Rogue” skit was a winning video in the 2016 Stand up for Climate Change Comedy video competition. Above: Stand up for Climate Change Comedy features student performances, sketches, songs and winning entries from an international climate-comedy video competition.

All of that will be featured in the third-annual online Earth Day show, which will air on the Climate Comedy YouTube channel starting April 22. This year’s event has a broader scope than previous years, thanks to support from the Argosy Foundation.

Boykoff and Osnes are part of CU �鶹ӰԺ’s Inside the Greenhouse project, which strives to deepen understanding of how climate change issues can be effectively communicated “by creating artifacts through interactive theatre, film, fine art, performance art, television programming.”

Osnes and Boykoff note that some kinds of comedy, such as satire, can be off-putting. That’s why they offer up “good-natured comedy,” meaning comedy that is good for the environment and kind in intent, as another choice.

“Satire is popular, but satire often involves ridicule, which means people are targets of that ridicule,” Osnes says, adding: “What kind of behavior can we expect from people who have been made to feel ashamed or afraid of ridicule?”

While sharp satire might be satisfying and useful in some instances, “I don't know that we're achieving what we might want to be achieving when using satire on such a polarized issue as climate. We might be pushing people’s backs further up against walls.”

But Osnes and Boykoff are not humor police. Rather, they focus on “finding what unites us above what divides us, and we don't enforce this on our students,” she said, adding: “We teach it, and we talk about it, but we're not here to censor. We're not here to say this is how you have to do it.”

She notes that including professional comedians has energized, even electrified, the class.

“It's just so exciting. They're just such fun learning experiences, and students walk away from these experiences” having not only learned about the creative writing process in a socially relevant context, but also having had “just so much fun.”

Osnes notes that students have come to her and Boykoff and said things like this: “I'm an environmental studies senior, and you're the first professor who's acknowledged the emotional component to learning this much about our environmental situation.”

She adds that if students can associate positive emotions while thinking about climate change, “that can really help students start to process their negative emotions, which are overwhelmingly present: doom, guilt, fear.”

Theatre Professor Beth Osnes, left, and Environmental Studies Professor Max Boykoff teach a course called Creative Climate Communications.

Processing those negative emotions, Osnes adds, “helps them also sustain their engagement in the issue of climate change, so they're not going to burn out and disengage. And it also feeds constructive hope.”

“I don't just say ‘hope.’ I say ‘constructive hope,’ where you really can have a belief that your actions will make a difference.” Without constructive hope, she says, taking action doesn't make sense.

Laughter itself is a way to cope with feelings of fear and guilt. “I think laughter, the ability to laugh, is a measure of health,” she says.

Such laughter might be particularly healthful when it reflects “some kind of recognition of our shared human condition.”

“When we share good-natured comedy together, something about our shared humanity is expressed … it is so fundamental to our human experience.”

Such experiences, she says, can be “warming and uniting” in that, “We all got something together at the same moment, or we all noticed some kind of a double meaning together at the same time. And all those things, I think, contribute to our ability to process our ability to feel connected to each other and to have hope.”

Osnes views her work with students this way:

“This is not a dress rehearsal. You are citizens of this world today, and let's have a real impact with our work that we're doing in the classroom now. Let’s do it for real. That’s the idea behind it.”

Annual Stand up for Climate Change Comedy event set for April 15 on campus, with professional, other acts premiering on YouTube one week later, on Earth Day.

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‘She is gold’

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 21:43:22 +0000

‘She is gold’ Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 03/18/2022 - 15:43

Clay Bonnyman Evans

CU �鶹ӰԺ graduate Rose Ann Bershenyi’s ‘gifts are transformative’

The list of Rose Ann Bershenyi’s significant gifts to the �鶹ӰԺ is impressively long.

Bershenyi (Art’66; MFA’69), who grew up in �鶹ӰԺ and spent her career as an art teacher specializing in jewelry and metalsmithing at then-Baseline Junior High School, has focused her many gifts over the years at arts programs.

“I wanted to make a difference for programs that don’t always receive gifts and students who may have a hard time getting a scholarship. Too often moneys aren’t available to the arts and people in the arts,” says Bershenyi, whose mother was a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in �鶹ӰԺ.

Beyond art, Bershenyi has also given to Inside the Greenhouse Project, which works to deepen our understanding of how climate change-related issues are and can be communicated. The project does this by creatively communicating the complex topic through interactive theatre, film, fine art, performance art and television programming.

At the top of the page: Rose Ann Bershenyi meets with a few recipients of the many gifts she’s provided over the years at the College of Arts & Sciences Scholarship Brunch in 2018. Photo by Amber Story. Above: The Martyr, from the series Unofficial Portraits by Hung Liu, is part of the Sharkive, whose presence at CU �鶹ӰԺ was made possible in part through a gift by Rose Ann Bershenyi.

She has created endowed scholarships for students in art and art history, theatre and dance, the CU in D.C. program, and the Miramontes Arts & Sciences Program (MASP), which is an inclusive academic community for traditionally underrepresented and/or first-generation college students.

Bershenyi’s gifts have helped many individual students, as well as numerous institutions on campus.

Bershenyi has supported the CU Art Museum’s acquisition of artworks, including a quilt by Gina Adams and the Sharkive, an internationally important collection of prints created in the studio of Bud and Barbara Shark.

“Having (the Sharkive) materials on campus for class use, exhibition and research means that we can offer our visitors access to artwork by internationally known artists made in our own backyard,” says Hope Saska, curator for the CU Art Museum, noting just one example of Bershenyi’s legacy. “The acquisition offers numerous pedagogical opportunities, not only in the range of artists the Sharkive encompasses, but in the way the materials demonstrate artistic process.”

Bershenyi’s generosity was essential in making sure that two important funds reached endowment status: the Art and Art History Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Endowed Scholarship Fund to provide scholarships for students who help diversify the student body, and a fellowship in the dance program to provide support for MFA candidates.

She recently gave to the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies (CNAIS), and she helped to fully endow two funds that support students of dance.

“I’ve never had a donor like her,” says Amber Story, associate director of development in the Office of Advancement for the College of Arts and Sciences. “Her gifts are transformative. She doesn’t want it to be about her; she just wants to help. She loves CU, loves �鶹ӰԺ, and she trusts the university to do the right thing. She is gold.”

Bershenyi, who now lives in Aurora, is hesitant to put herself in the spotlight, preferring to let her gifts speak for themselves. She says she seeks guidance from Story and others to determine where her donations will have the most impact and expects to continue giving into the foreseeable future.

“I give when I’m inspired, where it’s needed the most, with guidance,” she says.

CU �鶹ӰԺ graduate Rose Ann Bershenyi’s ‘gifts are transformative.’

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Rigorous skill-building is just the first act for theatre and dance students

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 22:13:25 +0000

Rigorous skill-building is just the first act for theatre and dance students Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/17/2021 - 15:13

Kenna Bruner

Whether it’s utilizing the costume shop, scene shop or the movement studio, theatre and dance students are putting what they learn in the classroom to practice

Putting on a performance is more than just being on stage. It requires intricate preparation—which in turn, requires space.

Sciences such as physics, biology and chemistry depend on the classic type of laboratory for their experimental study and rigorous testing, but for students in the Department of Theatre and Dance, those spaces look a little different.

At the top of the page: Two students building a mannequin in a theatre shop (Patrick Campbell). Above: Ted Stark.

A recent walk through the halls of the University Theatre Building revealed students in classes building Adirondack chairs or making plaster masks in the scene shop, and painting cartoon images on silk in the costume shop.

In all these spaces, students take the theories they’re exposed to in classroom lectures and put them into practice during production season. Working on projects both big and small enables them to understand how practicality applies in the creation of art.

“Our classes use a different set of tools, and we have a different objective, but the research and effort that these students put into earning their degree is equivalent to what’s going on in all of the other departments,” said Ted Stark, senior instructor and director of undergraduate studies in theatre and dance, adding:

“We encompass all of the departments on campus. … If, for example, you are working as a costume designer or a scenic designer, sure you need to be able to paint and draw. But a scenic design, for example, also includes engineering skills, sophisticated physics and mathematics. It includes a lot of art history and sociological research on costumes. There’s a lot of psychological research, historical context and kinesthetic learning. These valuable teaching tool send students into the world with a well-rounded education.”

As students move through the personal and professional areas of their lives, they must take many different approaches they must take to individual and collective problems to success succeed—whether it’s maintaining a household or serving an employer.

“We’re not preparing students for a singular career path,” Stark said. “We’re giving them a lot of tools for their educational toolbox. In this day and age, it’s important to be able to pivot in their careers. The things students are learning for theatre can be applied to other areas of their lives.”

Student building a costume in the costume shop (Patrick Campbell).

Here are three of those students:

Emily Ray is a senior and will graduate in May with a double major in theatre and history with a minor in Nordic studies. She’s working on an independent study that includes a dye project and an honors thesis on textiles and women in medieval Iceland.

“I’m curious about how people made dyes before there were synthetic dyes,” she said. “I grew some plants in my garden over the summer, like woad that makes blue dye. Figuring out how to make dye from the plants and then using the dye on costumes was a practical application of my history honors thesis.”

Natalie Connelly is a junior with a double major in acting and psychology.

“I’m in an advanced movement class,” she said. “It focuses on physical movement and theatre. I chose CU because of the flexibility of the programs here. I was interested in both psychology and theatre, and a lot of theatre programs I was looking into at other colleges would only let me major in theatre, whereas here it’s flexible enough that I could do two different degrees at the same time.”

Nikky Haabestad is a sophomore, majoring in design technology management in the BFA program with a focus on props.

“I was mentored by a senior last year and took over the prop shop when that person graduated,” she said. “I organize the props we keep in our storage space, and I teach other people how to do props. I came here without a specific focus. I didn’t know what area I wanted to go into specifically. But I had a lot of skills from various other areas. I decided to try out props since it’s different all the time. On any given day I do woodworking, sewing, metals, fabrication, use lots of hot glue, casting and scrapbooking. It’s fun because you get to do something different all the time.”

Whether it’s utilizing the costume shop, scene shop or the movement studio, theatre and dance students are putting what they learn in the classroom to practice

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Teen birdwatchers turn research into performance art

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 16:34:12 +0000

Teen birdwatchers turn research into performance art Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/03/2021 - 10:34

Kenna Bruner

The Side by Side project teaches high school students about local birds’ ecosystems through performative arts and scientific observation

Barn swallows nesting under a bridge near CU �鶹ӰԺ’s East Campus swoop and dive for insects to feed their chicks, unconcerned by a group of high school students noting the birds’ movements in their arts and sciences field journals.

Through a grant provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF), this group of 11 high school students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) spent their summer days observing the birds interacting with the environment through the guided arts and sciences approach of the Side by Side project.

An outreach project, Side by Side was created by Beth Osnes, professor in theatre, and Rebecca Safran, professor in ecology and evolutionary biology, for underserved female-identifying or nonbinary students. Osnes and Safran hope that educating and empowering these students in STEM fields and in the arts will diversify approaches, perspectives and solutions to environmental challenges.

“We want young people to notice there are fascinating ecosystems even in the most ordinary spaces,” Osnes said. “At first glance, that underpass where the swallows’ nest seems unremarkable when you look at it from above. But when you get underneath and start spending time and engaging in scientific and artistic observation, a thriving ecosystem is revealed to us.”

At the top of the page: Ting Lester as Hummingbird. Photo by Bex Anderson. Above: Filming at South Mesa Trail. Photo by Bex Anderson

Sofie Wendell, one of the high school participants, describes the impact of this project on herself and our future: “Here, protected by tall pine trees, surrounded by strong mountains, and among such beautiful individuals, I feel as though I belong,” Wendell wrote.

“Here my ideas hold weight, they matter. Here I am not judged or overlooked. Here I am given the opportunity to connect not only with nature, but with new friends and unique ideas. Together we are building the bridge to an equitable, survivable and thrivable future through science, art and love. I know I belong because this feels like home.”

Here, protected by tall pine trees, surrounded by strong mountains, and among such beautiful individuals, I feel as though I belong.

Safran and Osnes developed Side by Side to enhance the strength of arts and sciences crosstalk and to merge storytelling with scientific data through the creation and performance of large-scale puppets of many local birds.

“Their enthusiasm, hard work and pure engagement speak volumes about how each individual student experienced this summer's iteration of Side by Side,” Safran said. “We saw a lot of personal pride associated with the work they did both individually and as part of the group. To witness each participant really stretching themselves to take flight was amazing.”

After weeks spent observing the barn swallows, each student was encouraged to choose a different type of bird within that same environment, such as great blue herons, red-winged blackbirds, or crows, to observe, research and embody through puppetry.

“I wanted them to feel like they had something in common with the birds,” Safran said, “so I asked them questions about their favorite colors, habitats and diet. It was a fun way to interact with each student and to help them find a bird species they could feel connected to.”

The youth partnered with scientists, artists and CU �鶹ӰԺ graduate students who guided them through observations of the natural world, especially the variety of birds in different habitats.

By combining science and art in their observations, Side by Side was intended to build confidence in young STEM scholars and provide opportunities for falling in love with, and thus wanting to save, the natural world.

The goal for the participants was an increased feeling of belonging in nature; as part of a local community engaged in action for climate solutions; and in the STEM and artistic community focusing on climate solutions.

Journal notes and sketches from their time spent in the field have been developed into a script for a public performance to be held Aug. 16 on �鶹ӰԺ’s Open Space Mountain Parks (OSMP).

This summer’s project continues one started in 2018 in partnership with Molly McDermott, now a PhD candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology, and Aaron Treher (MFAArt’18). Chelsea Hackett also partners with this project through SPEAK, an organization to support and celebrate the voices of young women and girls.

Side by Side is sponsored by the NSF, Inside the Greenhouse and NEST Studio for the Arts, and has previously partnered with the sculpture and post-studio practice area of the Department of Art and Art History, and the Art and Rural Environments Field School.

Osnes and Safran are also cofounders of Inside the Greenhouse, an initiative within the newly formed Center for Creative Climate Communication and Behavioral Change that focuses on developing creative, effective climate communication. They are trying to put into practice the best of the social sciences, grounding it in the physical and life sciences and then expressing it through the arts.

“It’s about inspiring young people to choose careers that matter and can make a difference and helping them realize they can do it from different perspectives,” Osnes said. “If you care about climate change, you don’t have to just be a scientist, you can also make a difference through performance and theatre.”

Two filmmakers have made films of this summer’s art hikes on open space that include the art and poems created by the youth. The art hikes were filmed at three OSMP hiking locations: South Mesa near Eldorado Springs, Sawhill Ponds east of �鶹ӰԺ and Artist Point on Flagstaff Mountain. The videos will be posted on the �鶹ӰԺ OSMP website and linked to QR codes posted at the trailheads.

“We need a new story to get us through this climate crisis and so we need new storytellers. This focus on barn swallows is serving as a portal to our larger relationship to the natural worlds as we claim our responsibility to heal the planetary ecological crisis (that) we all face,” Osnes said, adding:

“Artistic and science-based voices are underrepresented in authoring our cultural story of how we will approach this greatest challenge humanity has ever faced.”

For information on the performance, go to the City of �鶹ӰԺ’s Nature Hikes and Programs website.

The Side by Side project teaches high school students about local birds’ ecosystems through performative arts and scientific observation.

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