Kim Y. Bears-Bailey

Thursday, October 24, 2024 
9:55am - 11:10am
Troy Dance Lab, Lang Performing Arts Center 002

Horton Master Class

Bio: Kim Y. Bears Bailey is the Artistic Director/PHILADANCO, where she performed for twenty years before retiring from the stage. She is a Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) graduate of The University of Arts where she taught for twenty-three years at rank of Associate Professor. Ms. Bears-Bailey joined PHILADANCO in 1981.

A 1992 Bessie Award recipient, (The New York Dance and Performance Award), she represented PHILADANCO at the 1988 American Dance Festival, performing works of Dr. Pearl Primus, and appeared in the movie Beloved. She is one of few artists granted permission to remount the works of many world-renowned choreographers including Talley Beatty, Pearl Primus,
Louis Johnson, and Gene Hill Sagan.

She received the Mary Louise Beitzel Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Silver Star Alumni Award from University of the Arts. Ms. Bears-Bailey is a member of the International Association of Blacks in Dance’s Next Generation of Leaders. Ms. Bears-Bailey received the 2017 “Bring it to the Marley” Icon Award and the 2018 “Legacy Award” from DCNS Dance.

Since 2009 Bears-Bailey has choreographed and directed an annual “Dancing with the Stars of Philadelphia” fundraiser event or Let’s See If We Can Help, Inc. Ms. Kim’s likeness is immortalized on an Artists Mural in the heart of downtown Philadelphia.

Aishika Chakraborty

Thursday, October 24, 2024 
11:20am - 12:35pm
Lang Performing Arts Center, Cinema

The Last Night-Dancers: Race, Class and Gender in Calcutta’s Nightlife (1940-1990)
The nighttime economy of the city of Calcutta in the 1940s consisted of European clubs that greeted racially fetishized transnational bodies from faraway lands for nightly entertainment of the ruling classes which also included soldiers and officers of the colony. The talk maps the shifting patterns of dance performance and consumption of the city’s erotic subculture, which started sporting cabaret theatres with local talents recruited from the ranks of refugees, migrants, and squatters. Drawing attention to the cultural politics of the middle-class intelligentsia, my focus privileges the voice of the last night-dancers of Calcutta who thrived with resilience despite the moral policing of a democratic nation.

Bio: Aishika Chakraborty is Professor and Director of the School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University, India. Her research straddles gender history, dance history and feminist performance. Her book, Widows of Colonial Bengal: Gender, Morality and Cultural Representation (2023) is the winner of the Hiralal Gupta Research Award for the Best Book by a Woman Historian in the Indian History Congress, 2023. A bi-lingual author, Aishika has authored two books on the changing faces of contemporary dance of Calcutta, Kolkatar Cabaret: Bangali, Younata Ebang Miss Shefali (2020) and Kolkatar Nach: Samakaleen Nagarnritya (2019). Her forthcoming edited volumes are The Dancing Body: Labour, Livelihood and Leisure (with Urmimala Sarkar Munsi, Routledge, 2024) and Gendered Bodies, Social Exclusions: Contemporary Issues in Women’s Studies (with Nandita Banerjee Dhawan, Routledge 2025).

Nyama-McCarthy Brown

Monday , October 28, 2024 
6:00pm - 7:30pm
Troy Dance Lab, Lang Performing Arts Center 002

Teaching and Learning Salsa Dance Workshop
Salsa Rueda de Casino is a type of salsa dance that originated in Cuba in the mid-1950's. It is a circular dance form that connects all dancers in the circle, moves circularly, and uplifts community. Partners work together in a circle and change partners repeatedly. The dance is rooted in West African traditions of syncopated rhythm, call and response, and improvisational adornments to the movements from dancers. Together, dancers move seamlessly to a unifying beat, and communal goal. The dance is celebrated for its ability to bring large groups of people together, across generations, in a spirit of full and unwavering inclusion.  Sharing in this dance from another nation, culture, and community is also an opportunity to build cross cultural connections and understanding.

As a culturally responsive and sustaining educator, the number one question I receive is, "how do you teach students about cultures that you are not connected to without modeling appropriation?" It is an excellent, culturally sensitive and critical question. First, the only way to push beyond a monolithic worldview is if instructors can learn to value, and teach about other cultures. One can teach about other cultures from a position of a learner, and guest. With cultural appreciation and humility, you position yourself as a learner and open a learning experience up to students where the teacher and students learn together. You call in the experts of the form, point to your sources of information and learning in the room and beyond; and teach from a position of dy-expertise. Ideally, you also share a model of this process. I propose to model this teaching strategy using the culturally informed dance, Salsa Rueda de Casino.   

Nyama McCarthy-Brown is a Salcera (someone who loves salsa dancing). She studied salsa dancing in social settings for over a decade, and learned Salsa Rueda de Casino in Atlanta, Georgia in the early 2000s with master instructor, Julian Mejia. She is not an expert of the Cuban-based form, but a practitioner. 

Nyama-McCarthy Brown: Associate Professor of Community Engagement, The Ohio State University

Co-Sponsors: Swarthmore College President's Fund for Racial Justice, Education Studies Department, and Latin American and Latino Studies Program

Nyama McCarthy-Brown, Yinet Fernandez, Caridad Martinez

Tuesday, October 29, 2024 
4:30pm - 6:00pm
Lang Performing Arts Center, Cinema

Navigating Cultural Tides of Ballet: A Conversation with Latina Ballet Dancers in the United States
Dr. Nyama McCarthy-Brown is a culturally sustaining pedagogue deeply committed to dance education.  She is currently on faculty at The Ohio State University, as an Associate Professor of Community Engagement through Dance Pedagogy, where she recently served as the inaugural Artist Laureate 2024. Nyama teaches dance education and contemporary dance with Africanist underpinnings grounded the celebration of all movers. She is an established scholar, with articles in numerous academic publications. In 2017, her book, Dance Pedagogy for a Diverse World: Culturally Relevant Teaching in Research, Theory, and Practice was released. Her second book, Skin Colored Pointes: Interviews with Women of Color in Ballet was published this past spring, featuring the unsung stories of thirteen dance artists. Dr. McCarthy-Brown is an active consultant and workshop facilitator for diversifying dance curriculum for organizations such as: San Francisco Ballet School; Joffrey Ballet; Colorado Ballet; BalletMet; Dance Educators Coalition, Minnesota; Rutgers University Dance Department; University of Buffalo; Ohio Dance and Dance Education

Yinet Fernandez Arbolaez was born in Havana, Cuba. She started her dance studies at Alejo Carpentier National School of Ballet in Cuba. She was fortunate to have mentors like Marta Iris Fernandez, Ramona de Saa, and Caridad Martinez among other great teachers.  In 2008, she graduated and went to the National Ballet of Cuba for six years, where she danced ballets like Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Giselle, Coppelia, and Romeo and Juliet.  In 2016, she moved to the United States and started in 2017 at the Dance Theater of Harlem, where she has danced roles like Le Corsair pas de deux, Allegro Brilliant, This Bitter Earth, and Blake works IV.

Caridad Martinez graduated from the Escuela Nacional de Arte in Havana, Cuba. She studied with Fernando & Alicia Alonso, Joaquin Banegas, Azary Plisetski, Ramona de Saa, Karemia Moreno, and Jose Pares. As principal dancer of the National Ballet of Cuba she performed in the most important theaters in Europe, North and South Americas and Asia, with a repertory that included Coppelia, Las Fille Mal Gardeé, La Sylphide, Pas de Quatre, Don Quixote, Les Corsaires, Apollo,  Papillon and Times Out of Mind.  After leaving the National Ballet of Cuba, Martinez created and led The Havana Ballet Theater through a theater creative concept that transformed the performing arts in Cuba during the 80s. She also went on to choreograph for the Hispanic Heritage Awards, and for the acclaimed Julian Schnabel film Before Night Falls. Martinez was also Director of the Cuban Ballet School in Veracruz, Mexico and was distinguished with the honorary membership of the Dance Educators of Mexico and Dance Educators of America.  She has received numerous awards for her dance and theater choreographies, including an award from The Association of Writers and Artists in Cuba for two consecutive years, Cuban Cultural Center of New York, Veracruz State Government and BBB Montana, Honorary mention Varna International Competition and Tokio Olympic Competition.  Martinez currently serves as faculty member of JKO school of American Ballet Theater, the Alvin Ailey, American Dance Theater Ailey/Fordham and Certificate programs, Peridance Center, she has coached of Classical works for Dance Theater of Harlem, serves on the board of Ballet Beyond Borders, is a Member of the International Dance Council and is working on an oral history project about her life and career under the auspices of the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU with Elizabeth Schwall.

Co-Sponsors: Swarthmore College President's Fund for Racial Justice, Education Studies Department, and Latin American and Latino Studies Program

Elba Cena

Wednesday, October 30, 2024 
11:30am - 1:00pm
Boyer Dance Studio, Lang Performing Arts Center

“Por Tangos”
Join me for an exciting flamenco workshop designed for students of all levels! Whether you’re a complete beginner or have experience with flamenco, this workshop will introduce you to the vibrant and rhythmic world of Tangos, one of flamenco’s most accessible and lively forms.
What to Expect: In this class, we will start by exploring the basics of  "tiempo" (keeping time) and "contra tiempo" (syncopation), two essential elements in flamenco rhythm. Understanding these concepts will help you feel more grounded in the music and guide your movement with precision.
Palmas & Remates: You’ll also learn palmas (handclapping) techniques, which will be a key part
of the workshop, as palmas not only accompany dancers but also reinforce the compás (rhythmic structure) of Tangos. We’ll then move on to learning remates (footwork accents or finishes), where you’ll get to experiment with dynamic movements that punctuate your dancing.
Building a Sequence: By the end of the workshop, you’ll have learned a short Tangos choreography. The sequence will be built step-by-step in a way that allows everyone, regardless of level, to understand and enjoy. You’ll leave with a solid feel for the rhythm of Tangos and the confidence to piece it together in a fluid and fun way.
This will be a hands-on, interactive class where the students will experience the joy of flamenco
in a supportive and welcoming environment. Come ready to enjoy, stomp, and immerse
yourself in the passion of Flamenco.

Bio:
Hometown: Veracruz, México
Elba has been living in Philadelphia teaching at the School of Philadelphia Ballet since 2021 as a faculty member focused on Spanish Dance and Flamenco. Additionally, she is an Artistic Faculty member and Company Manager of Pasion y Arte Conservatory in Overbrook.

Originally from Veracruz, México, Elba Cena is a dance educator, choreographer, and highly accomplished dancer. She has been endorsed as a qualified teacher by Institution “Amor De Dios”, a highly esteemed and oldest institution in Madrid, where Spanish dance and Flamenco have been taught since 1953.

She and her mother founded the renowned school “Danzas Españolas Elba Cena” over 30 years ago, teaching Flamenco and Spanish Dance where their technique has been recognized at the National Center for the Arts in Mexico City.

She has studied with many renowned artists, including Cristobal Reyes (her primary Flamenco teacher), Olga Marcioni “La China”, Manuel Reyes, Merche Esmeralda, José Molina and Manuel Linan, Ana López (teacher of the Conservatorio real de Madrid Mariemma), Elba Hevia y Vaca, among others.

Elba has been recognized numerous times for her artistic direction, her solo dancing, and her dance company and school´s productions over the past 17 years. She has made several appearances with renowned symphony and philharmonic orchestras in Mexico and taking flamenco, to important stages within large productions such as the show Esencia y Consecuencia for 15 years, and the staging of Viva Lara accompanying great artists of international stature.

A recent twist in Elba’s career saw her collaborate with the British Junior Ice Skating Champions Phebe Bekker and James Hernandez. She choreographed flamenco elements into their program, where they won a silver medal at the Junior Prix in Ostrava 2022, first place at the British Championships and recently, third place at World Junior Championship in Calgary with their Flamenco program.

Elba is passionate about connecting and sharing dance with all of her students, regardless of where they are in their careers.

Fall 2023 Dance Department Lecture and Workshop Series

Miro Magloire

Monday September 11 at 4:30pm
Troy Dance Lab, LPAC 002