TDPS Dance MFA Mustapha Braimah choreography selected for ACDA Gala

March 24, 2016 School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies

Congratulations to TDPS Dance faculty and students who attended the American College Dance Association mid-Atlantic conference this past weekend at West Virginia University in Morgantown.

The conference included four days of performances, workshops, panels, and master classes taught by instructors from around the region and country, including TDPS faculty and undergraduate and graduate students.

"The focus, it's to promote and advocate for dance. It's to promote student work, faculty work, guest artists to as a dance community first of all, for us to be inspired by each other, to come together as a community, to share our information and our experience with one another and also with audiences. Our concerts are open and free to the public." - Yoav Kaddar, Director of West Virginia University's Dance program

Participants were given the opportunity to have their dance works adjudicated by a panel of nationally recognized dance professionals in an open and constructive forum. Out of 43 works, 12 were selected for the Gala Concert, including the choreography of TDPS MFA Dance candidate Mustapha Braimah, Poem of Change, which was performed by Braimah and TDPS Dance undergrads Ira Hill and Jasmine Watkins. From the Gala pool, Poem of Change was then selected as an alternate to perform at the Kennedy Center in the National Gala in June.

Powered by Mutabaruka’s poetry about oppression, this dance is a call to action demanding change in unjust social systems. The poetry of the two black bodies and the cadence of the voice combine to forcefully question our complacency. - Adjudicator's comments

Mustapha Braimah led a dance workshop with live drumming at the mid-Atlantic ACDA conference

We are proud of all of our performers and choreographers who represented TDPS this weekend!

For more about the event, see this article in the local newspaper:

http://www.wboy.com/story/31522005/west-virginia-university-hosts-regional-dance-conference