2019 Spring Dance Concert

2019 Spring Dance Concert

March 28 – 30 at 7:30, March 30 and 31 at 3:00
Theatre 1
USF Tampa Campus

Featuring work by guest choreographers John W. Holloway Endowment Guest Artists Claudia Lavista (Delfos Danza) and Charles Anderson as well as by our talented DanceUSF faculty members Michael Foley and Paula Nunez. 

(Re)current Unrest: We The People, Choreography by Holloway Guest Artist in Residence, Charles Anderson

Prow, Choreography by Holloway Guest Artist in Residence, Claudia Lavista

In Fabric, Choreography by Paula Nuñez

Belle, Choreography by Michael Foley 

Claudia Lavista
Co-director of the renowned company, Delfos Danza Contemporánea, Claudia Lavista has more than 25 years of international dance experience, receiving several national and international awards, including the National Dance Award in 1992, Best Female Dancer at the International Dance Festival of San Luis Potosi in 2005, and Best Female Dancer at the National Dance Award in 1998 and the 2002. In 2001 the specialized critics selected her as “One of the 10Mexican Best Dancers of the XX Century”.The National Endowment for the Arts has also honored her with several fellowships for the Arts. In 2007 she was invited as International Visiting Artist at the 25th Bates Dance Festival, she came back as a Faculty member and choreographer in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2015. In 2008, 2011 and 2015 she receive the prestigious National System of Arts Creators, one of the most important recognition for artists in Mexico honored by CONACULTA-FONCA . Her video work “Between water walls” received the “Dona et Cinema International Festival award as Best video-creation 2012” in Valencia-Spain. The video-dance “Blank Mind” co-directed with Omar Carrum was selected in AGITE Y SIRVA Film Festival in 2015.

She has been a featured performer in over 80 works of dance, theater, video and opera, working with an international roster of choreographers and artist and performing in some of the world’s most prestigious theaters. Claudia has created more than 40 choreographic works and has collaborated with composers, theater and opera directors, photographers, video artists, poets and other choreographers for more than two decades. Her work has been praised by critics and presented in America, Latin America, Asia, Middle East and Europe. In 2011 she received a Mellon Residential Fellowship for Arts Practice and Scholarship at the Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago. As a teacher she has conducted workshops master classes in numerous cities throughout Mexico and abroad. In 2014 the Smith College and the Boston Conservatory invited her as guess teacher and choreographer.

Delfos Danza Contemporánea is Mexico’s premiere contemporary dance company and ranks among the best companies in Latin America both artistically and as leaders in the field. Based in Mazatlán, Mexico, Delfos inspires audiences, students, and communities with outstanding performances and in-depth residencies. Through physical grace, athleticism, and vibrancy, their performances evoke emotion and introspection. Celebrating 25 years, Delfos Danza Contemporánea tours throughout the world, creating enduring relationships wherever they go, seeking opportunities for collaboration and exchange and passionately committed to dance education.

Charles Anderson
Artistic director of dance theatre X (dtX), an afro-contemporary dance theatre company, which he founded in Philadelphia in 2003. Associate Professor of African Diasporic and Contemporary Dance, Charles O. Anderson is currently the Program Head of Dance at The University of Texas at Austin. Born and raised in Richmond, VA, Anderson earned his B.A. in Choreography and Performance from Cornell University and his M.F.A. in Dance from Temple University. He has performed in the companies of Ronald K. Brown, Sean Curran, Mark Dendy and Miguel Gutierrez, among others. Anderson's work has been presented nationally and internationally and has earned recognition by numerous grants and organizations such as the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine and one of ‘12 Rising Stars in the Academy” by Diverse: Issues In Higher Education Magazine.

Artist's Statement
"I am an artist, an activist-educator and scholar- I am a kinetic storyteller. I am moved to create dance theatre that bear witness to human experiences through the cultural lenses of the African Diaspora. I am contemporary dancer committed to working with traditional and contemporary boundaries of African derived movement. At the same time I am committed to subverting, confronting, and challenging deeply entrenched, two-dimensional public perceptions of work for the stage that stands on African and African American aesthetics. My goal is to create work that gives testimony. Testimony is the declaration of truth integral to the African-American oral and literary tradition, going back to slave narrative and folk practices. Testimonies can give praise and they can boast; they can also attest to suffering and injustice. The ultimate goal is to move the audience. To testify is to tell the truth; it is a form of story-telling based on the personal truth of the teller(s). It is used to allow the storyteller to connect with those who hear the testimony, as well as to a higher plane of being."

John W. Holloway Endowment in Dance and Theatre
The John W. Holloway Endowed Chair in Dance and Theatre provides these programs with funds on an annual basis. John W. Holloway, a TheatreUSF graduate, has systematically donated enhancement funds to build the Theatre and Dance programs to exceptional artistic status. The Holloway Endowed Chair has allowed both theatre and dance majors to work with renowned international artists in the creation of new work and in the preparation of interdisciplinary stage productions on important contemporary subjects.