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Coca-Cola Artist Residencies

Music | Theater | Dance | Interdisciplinary

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Past Dance Residencies

Fall 2007

David Dorfman Dance

Since its founding in 1985, David Dorfman Dance has performed extensively throughout North and South America, Great Britain, and Europe. Dorfman and his dancers have been honored with eight New York Dance and Performance ("Bessie") Awards. The company's newest work, underground, inspired by a recent documentary on the Weathermen, premiered at the American Dance Festival in June 2006, and later had its New York premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in November 2006. The company’s involvement with Emory spans two semesters and will culminate in a performance by the full company in the Schwartz Center, Dance Studio as well as the Rialto Center for the Arts and Georgia State University in March of 2008.

For the first part of the residency, two dancers from David Dorfman Dance, Molly Poerstel and Karl Rogers , came to Emory for two weeks to set Dorfman’s underground on members of the Emory Dance Company . The piece was included in Emory Dance Company’s fall concert entitled Frames and References along with other works by guest choreographers and Emory dance faculty. In addition to daily rehearsals to set underground on Emory Dance Company members, the pair also taught Emory’s modern dance classes three times a week. Poerstel taught the intermediate-advanced group while Rogers taught the advanced class.

The two dancers also taught masterclasses at three different area public schools: North Springs High School, Dekalb School of the Arts, and North Atlanta High School. Despite limited funding for the arts, each of these schools has an established dance program, which incorporates daily dance classes into the students’ normal academic schedule. Poerstel and Rogers taught similar classes at each school they visited, introducing the students to the concepts of improvisation and partnering work and also teaching them a complex phrase of movement. Both dancers were impressed with the level of talent among the students at each school. The students energetically embraced this new style of dance and likewise were awed by Poerstel and Roger’s enthusiasm and skill.

Fall 2006

José Limón Dance Company, October 2006

During the months of September and October 2006, Emory University was honored to host the Limón Dance Company. Acclaimed for its dramatic expression, technical mastery and expansive yet nuanced movement, the Limón Dance Company illustrates the timelessness of José Limón's work and vision.

The Limón residency encompassed several different projects including a reconstruction and performance of Limón’s signature work, Missa Brevis, by a cast of Limón company dancers and Atlanta community dancers that was performed in the Schwartz Center Dance Studio along with two other pieces by the Limón company.

Ann Vachon, director of the Limón School, set Limón’s Choreographic Offering on students in the Emory Dance Company that was performed in their November concert. Additionally, Ms. Vachon gave a lecture at the Carlos Museum entitled, “Limón’s Choreography as a Cultural Reconciliation,” and taught a class at Moving in the Spirit.

Emory dance students in Modern III and IV had the chance to take weekly master classes from Limón company directors and dancers during their residency at Emory. Limón dancer, Kurt Douglas, also gave master classes to the students of North Springs High School and the Dekalb School of the Arts.

Spring 2006

Toronto Dance Theater, March 2006

Formed in 1968, the Toronto Dance Theatre is acclaimed for the virtuosity and physical daring of its dancers and is credited with the transformation of dance in Canada and beyond. Christopher House took over as director of the ensemble in 1994 and began creating works that reveal a formidable kinetic imagination and a unique poetic sensibility. The ensemble receives high praise worldwide as they bring to life the rich movement, invention, subversive wit and layered meaning of House’s choreography. At Emory, the company performed their work Sly Verb.

Emory dance students and Atlanta dancers had the opportunity to take class from both Christopher House and company dancer Johanna Bergfelt during Toronto Dance Theatre’s residency at Emory. Bergfelt’s class presented Emory’s advanced modern students with extremely physical and challenging movement typical of the company’s unique style. House’s class was formatted as a creative workshop open to the community including dancers from Spelman and Morehouse Colleges. House led the group in choreographic and improvisational exercises.

Spring 2005

Urban Bush Women, February 2005

Urban Bush Women is a Brooklyn-based performance ensemble that engages a diverse audience by producing bold and life affirming Dance Theater based on women’s experiences, African American history and cultural influences of the African Diaspora. UBW gave four performances in Atlanta, two of which took place at the Rialto Center for Performing Arts at Georgia State University. School children from Metro-Atlanta were bussed to the Rialto for the daytime performance and free tickets to the evening program were offered to participants in several high school dance programs.

Fall 2004

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, September - October 2004

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar is the artistic director of Urban Bush Women, a New York dance company she founded in 1984. She has created more than forty works, some for her company and others for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Arizona, Philandanco, and others.

During her month-long residency, Zollar's outreach activities focused on Emory University Dance Program students and dancers from the Atlanta community. She gave a public lecture, taught choreography and advanced modern dance classes, and led a community dance workshop entitled "Dreaming, Dance Dialogue, Democracy." There were fifty attendees at the workshop, including Emory alumni, faculty, and students, community residents, and members of Moving in the Spirit Dance Company.