Faculty-Student Colloquium: Miriam Phillips & Kate Spanos

Faculty-Student Colloquium

Foot, Floor, Footwork: Embodied Culture Through Kathak and Flamenco Foot Percussion

Miriam Phillips, Assistant Professor in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies

Rooting, Uprooting, and Re-Rooting: Weaving Music and Percussion in Traditional Irish Step Dance

Kate Spanos, Ph.D. candidate, School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies

Friday, November 30, 2012 . 4PM

The rhythmic beauty and percussive beats of dance often reflect the cultural values and aesthetics of the civilizations from which they originate.

School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) Assistant Professor Miriam Phillips and doctoral candidate Kate Spanos are pleased to share their extensive research into this aspect of dance in a colorful look at percussive dance styles from India, Spain and Ireland. The duo has presented their extensive research into this topic across Europe and North America.

Join us for a dance performance that explores the ways in which the floor is danced upon, and reveals the embodied past, ethos, values and aesthetics of these rich global cultures.

Professor Miriam Phillips is a dance ethnologist trained by the pioneers of American Dance Ethnology at UCLA’s former Department of Dance, and is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst.

Kate Spanos, Ph.D. candidate in TDPS, has a BA in Cognitive Science from the University of Virginia and an MA in Traditional Irish Dance Performance from the University of Limerick, Ireland.