Hello members of the College of Fine Arts Advisory Council!
I’m looking forward to seeing you again on Thursday, October 22 at 10:30 a.m. CST.
In this age of COVID-19 and Zoom, we’ve exchanged our convivial in-person Advisory Council meetings for more frequent Zoom sessions. The disadvantages of not being together a few times a year is clear enough, but video conferencing lets us share more views into the college more frequently. And we’re going to make the most of that silver lining in this pandemic cloud.
The really great, encouraging thing that I want you to know is that teaching and learning and creative invention and discovery and debate and collaboration are going on still every day. In short, education and creativity carry on! We just have to zoom in a little closer to find it.
And we’re going to make this as educational and as interesting for you as we can. If we do this right, each of our council meetings should be a little slice of college life for you to share in—at least virtually.
So, to prepare you for our meeting on the 22nd, I’ve included the following links for your homework! (And no, you won’t be quizzed or graded!)
In addition to my usual scintillating updates on what’s happening in the college, you’re going to learn about the creative and production challenges of mounting a dance performance in the age of COVID by choreographer and faculty member, Charles Anderson, head of our Dance program. Professor Anderson’s choreography is “Afro-contemporary” or “Afrocentric,” which makes his work especially timely in a period when we as a campus and nation are once again coming to grips with issues of race.
Professor Anderson’s piece, (Re)current Unrest, is in socially distanced rehearsal right now, as I write you, on the stage of Bass Concert Hall—with financial and operational support from Texas Performing Arts—in preparation for a live-streaming performance this coming Friday and Saturday (Oct. 16/17) at 7:30 p.m. CST.
Your first homework assignment is to watch the streamed performance if you can. To watch, go to this link on either evening and enter the password 2020TAD_Recurrent. Your “tickets” are free, as we will underwrite your attendance from Advisory Council dues.
Next Thursday, during our council meeting you’ll get to meet and ask questions of Professor Anderson and, I hope, one or more of his dancers. They’ll be interviewed by Robert Ramirez, chair of Theatre and Dance.
And if you’d like to do some extra-credit homework, I’ll suggest you read this article from SMU’s DataArts called “Choreographing the Future: How Dance Companies are Turning Crisis into Opportunity,” which focuses coincidentally on how the famed Dallas Black Dance Theater is responding to the pandemic.
And if you can’t do your homework, come to the Advisory Council meeting anyway and be part of the conversation.
Looking forward to seeing you! Excelsior!
Doug Dempster
Dean
