Wayne State Produces It's First Virtual Dance Production

Theatre and Dance at Wayne, the producing arm of the Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance at Wayne State University is excited to share its first virtual dance production, "Dynamic Perspectives" through it's website on Saturday, January 23 at 5 p.m..

"Dynamic Perspectives" is a virtual storytelling presentation that combines the work of our Dance students from the Fall semester. Through dance and dialogue, we explore themes of healing, humanizing, and collectively engaging with our present moment. Through adaptability in our field, we were able to produce this display of resilient student experiences.

The presentation is a commemorative reflection on the Wayne State dance community's efforts to navigate the present moment as the world grapples with the impacts of COVID-19. The project is devised, organized, and executed by students in the Virtual Dance Collaboratory (VDC) - a new company created to give students creative space to process, dialogue, and create work about the present moment and future possibilities. VDC is a student-driven collective whose structure has been built from the ground up. Dance students have said that this process has been like, "building the boat as we sail down the river." As such, the dance department is provocation for a new way of working that prioritizes student-driven, collective working models that give space for dynamic perspectives and embraces massive shift. It is their response to the dance area's theme for the semester. Humanizing Identities: Self-Healing through Resilience, Response, and Inclusion.

This event will begin with a live, 30-minute pre-screening conversation with the students involved in the Virtual Dance Collaboratory. This will be followed by the screening of student screendance projects, along with video interludes highlighting and student and faculty reflections of this past fall semester. Together, the project gives an intimate portrayal of how the department navigated remote education as a community.

Jessica Rajko, one of the Faculty Project Directors of "Dynamic Perspectives", explains how this work is important in today's political unrest, stating:

"The former director of the Arizona Commission on the Arts and mentor of mine, Bob Booker, often said, 'you make radical change when you have a lot and when you have very little.' In this moment of collective grief for the loss of many community members, key institutions, and prior ways of working, we are finding ways to radically reimagine what it is we do as artists. Dynamic Perspectives is a story of resilience, response, and inclusion. It is a celebration of Wayne State Dance's radical reimagining of what it means to dance together."

Tickets to this event are Pay-What-You-Can with a suggested ticket price of $10 and may be purchased at https://www.theatreanddanceatwayne.com/shows/dynamicperspectives/.

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