News & Updates
Bankers, dancers and projection design – it’s not your everyday entertainment. But at a recent Connect4Climate conference held at the World Bank Headquarters in DC, that combination of talent was a perfect fit.
Alvin Mayes brings dance to life in his own choreography as well as the works of other choreographers. He has been called on to rehearse dances of Anna Sokolow, Erika Thimey and Eric Hampton for area dance companies.
Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig, artistic directors of PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER since 1987, have gained an international following for work that transforms the familiar into the “mysterious, the subversive, and the intimate”. The dance partners, known for their contemporary, site-specific projects and community dance/theater/video installations are also an academic team at the UMD School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, where they are associate professors of dance.
To University of Maryland students, Scot Reese is known as an outgoing and well-loved professor from the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. But to a national audience, he is better known as a prominent actor and director of Black Theatre, appearing in theatres from LA to New York, and locally at the Kennedy Center and Arena Stage.
The University of Maryland (UMD) College of Arts and Humanities has appointed Leigh Wilson Smiley director of the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.
Smiley is the former associate director of TDPS and served as the School’s first head of the MFA in Performance (MFAP) program, and played an integral role in establishing the degree in 2010. She has taught at UMD since 2003. Read more here.
UMD’s TerpVision, the TV news and information channel that brings you stories of impact and inspiration around campus, shares a behind-the-scenes look at A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Karen Kohn Bradley dances to her own tune, and it seems to be attracting all kinds of attention.
2013 is just around the corner! Here's what some Center staff had to say about what they're looking forward to in the new year.
I am looking forward to eighth blackbird with great anticipation. I am always thrilled when visiting artists perform with School of Music students.
This performance includes Steve Reich’s Double Sextet, a piece I’ve never heard. I’m trying to decide whether to buy the music and listen to it before the concert or be completely surprised by it at the performance. Steve Reich was awarded a Pulitzer for this piece so it will be fun to hear what excited the Pulitzer judges heard that caused them to make the award.
— SUSIE FARR, Executive Director, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
You may be wondering why a story booth has appeared in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center’s lobby, outside the Kay Theater. We learn something new almost every day about why this project is important to us but our intention in doing it was to collect narratives from the people that matter to us, people like you, about the performing arts.
Kwame Opare believes that dance is about building a community. In the slideshow above, the MFA Dance candidate from the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies leads his students in a joyous dance celebration, accompanied by three African drummers.