Mason Arts at Home

A Contemporary Composer Fuels a New Mason Collaboration

Emily Schneider — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 19:19:10 +0000

A Contemporary Composer Fuels a New Mason Collaboration Emily Schneider Tue, 03/07/2023 - 14:19

In This Story

Growing up in the Black church, Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Concert Bands, Dr. William Lake, Jr., deeply understands the power of music and movement.

After hearing Come Sunday by composer Omar Thomas, Lake dreamed of bringing this work to life with movement, bringing together the George Mason University Bands and the School of Dance. Working on such a project would not only expand his students' musical vocabulary but also create an authentic and expansive cultural experience for the Mason community. Associate Professor of Dance, Lawrence M. Jackson, had similar experiences, growing up in “the southern Black church, a very charismatic church” and reflected on his own upbringing and research into African diasporic dance forms. This collaboration came to life onstage in the Center for the Arts on Mason’s Fairfax Campus on February 28.

Students from Mason's School of Dance performing with the Mason Wind Symphony to Omar Thomas's Come Sunday on February 28. Photo by Will Martinez.

As a composer, arranger, and educator, Omar Thomas works with some of the most respected names in composition and education, including multiple GRAMMY-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider, Ken Schaphorst, and Frank Carlberg. Born to Guyanese parents in Brooklyn, New York, Thomas pursued music diligently, completing his Master of Music at Berklee College of Music and becoming the first Black composer to ever receive the National Bandmasters Association/Revelli Award for Come Sunday. His compositions are described as “thought-provoking, multi-layered masterpiece[s],” which made embarking on a partnership around this piece even more exciting for Jackson and Lake.

“I really hold dear my experiences as a musician in the Black church (I started playing the piano for my children’s choir around age 6) to my musical upbringing. Since I know gospel and other sacred music intimately, I can infuse the music with the extra nuances that can’t be described using notation but are true to the style. This piece has been performed by many great ensembles across the country… however, there hasn’t been a performance that centers movement and these great sounds.” said Lake.

Professor Jackson’s career often includes collaborations, a hallmark of his practice at other universities before coming to Mason in the fall of 2022. While the invitation to work with Dr. Lake at the end of the fall semester was a surprise, it also felt reassuring to find this partnership so early on and to begin exploring what this experience would mean for Mason students from both the School of Dance and the Dewberry School of Music.

A student from the School of Dance smiles at the audience during the performance of "Come Sunday" by Omar Thomas, performed by the Mason Wind Symphony. Photo by Will Martinez.

Building a vocabulary for the dancers was an opportunity for Jackson’s students to explore the storied culture of the Black church's sacred space and develop an understanding of the types of movement vocabulary that would reflect the energy and history of these spaces and traditions. From watching Alvin Ailey’s Revelations and clips of a particular scene from the movie Blues Brothers, Jackson offered context to his creative process, “blending contemporary dance forms, African diasporic dance forms, and pedestrian movement that is derived from the Black church, all merged into an amalgamation of movement vocabulary uniquely designed for this work.”

“The Mason School of Dance students are excited to work with the musicians,” said Jackson. “These dancers, most of them, if not all of them, have never had the experience of working alongside a symphony or a band. I’m excited for them to experience the unique energy of the symphony and adapt in the moment.” All of the dancers performing in this piece are seniors in their final semester with the School of Dance, which made Jackson that much more eager to share this experience with them before they embark on the next stage of their careers.

The dancers are not the only ones expanding their understanding and skills with this performance. “The jazz and gospel musical vocabulary is foreign to my students,” said Dr. Lake.

“It’s inspiring to see how invested our students are in something that they realize is new and different. My hope is that through music and collaborations, my students have a gateway to appreciate cultures different than their own,” Lake adds.

Dancers from Mason's School of Dance perform Professor Lawrence M. Jackson's original choreography to Come Sunday by Omar Thomas, performed by the Mason Wind Symphony on February 28. Photo by Will Martinez.

Unlike most concerts, the Wind Symphony will be moved further upstage than normal and without the acoustic shell to allow for the choreography to be presented downstage. This has resulted in the assistance of the Center for the Arts Artistic Staff to add audio, lighting, and stage-managing support. This unique concert has been chosen as one of the Mason Arts at Home features that will be captured via six cameras in the hall and even GoPros! Dr. Lake shared, “I’m jealous of the audience, I won’t get to experience the concert from their vantage point – I’m thankful that the School of Music and the College of Visual and Performing Arts have agreed to record, edit, and professionally mix our hard work”.

The duo is optimistic that this is just the beginning of collaborations between the Mason School of Dance and the Dewberry School of Music.

You can watch an in-depth interview with Jackson and Lake on the College of Visual and Performing Arts YouTube channel, including behind-the-scenes footage of rehearsals leading up to the performance.

The Wind Symphony’s performance from February 28, 2023, including Come Sunday featuring the School of Dance, will be available to watch from March 28 through April 28, 2023 exclusively through Mason Arts at Home.

Topics

College of Visual and Performing Arts

Mason Arts

Dewberry School of Music

College of Visual and Performing Arts School of Dance

Behind the Premiere: The Making of the Black Voices Screening Project

Emily Schneider — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 15:34:39 +0000

Behind the Premiere: The Making of the Black Voices Screening Project Emily Schneider Tue, 07/13/2021 - 11:34

In This Story

Carmella Taitt

Brianna Dawkins

Olivia McCall

Students in the College of Visual and Performing Arts are empowered to share their stories through the arts. In April 2021, three students from the School of Dance partnered with world-renowned choreographer Rafael Palacios to explore, express, and share their experiences as Black women through movement.

The collaboration resulted in three world premiere dance-films presented as part of Mason Arts at Home. View the three films here:

The project was born from a desire to sustain connections during the isolation of lockdown in 2020 when Palacios reached out to the dancers from his Colombian-based company, Sankofa Danzafro. He asked them to write letters about “their stories, their experiences, things that they felt they have been silenced for.” Founded by Palacios in 1997, the company’s work centers on rewriting the history of Black communities through the eyes of those who are directly involved, the Afro-descendants, in Colombia and around the world. Shortly after the dancers began to document their stories, a call for creative works that could be presented online came from their government. Palacios asked his dancers if they would be willing to “translate those letters into movements” and the company then created 26 videos of individual dances, including one from Palacios himself.

Inspired, Rafael decided to bring the Black Voices project to other communities to explore this idea of expression and release, first in Boston (billed as Black Voices Boston) and most recently through the Mason Arts at Home. Palacios sent an open call into the Mason community for students who identified as Black, African American, Afro Caribbean, Continental African, Afro European, Afro Latino, Afro Hispanic, Afro Asian, Afro Australian, or Mixed race with one parent who identifies as Black to apply. The only requirement was that participants be willing to write letters and share their own stories through movement or other art forms, and School of Dance majors Brianna Dawkins (Class of 2024), Carmella Taitt (Class of 2022) and Olivia McCall (Class of 2021) seized the opportunity.

The dancers each investigated deeply personal encounters in the letters that would become their dances. Speaking during a live post-premiere conversation Taitt reflected on the process, “I asked myself questions that I wanted to ask society, about why do they view Black people the way that they do, and so through those questions …I started to come up with my own answers for them.”

Given the travel complications caused by the pandemic, Palacios had to participate in the rehearsals and creation process remotely via Zoom. This coupled with the incredibly personal and vulnerable nature of the work meant that everyone involved in the project was determined to construct both a technologically equipped and emotionally protected space.

“It was paramount that we as a team recognized the gift that our students were offering,” shared Haley Smyser, Programming and Engagement Manager for the Center for the Arts and the College of Visual and Performing Arts. “We were absolutely intentional about who was allowed to be in the room so that there was no pressure to feel censored or criticized by people who could not relate to the experiences these dancers were tapping into.”

Smyser added that, as Mason continues our work towards anti-racism and inclusive excellence, “We can further enrich the experiences and learning environments for our students by considering the depth of the connections that are possible and made available with these professional artists, in addition to the width of their impact when they share their work with our audiences both on and off-campus.”

At the end of the rehearsal process, conducted over Zoom using The LIVE Center Window Wall technology developed at Mason, each student choreographed their full piece in collaboration with Rafael. Acting as their own creative directors, the dancers selected the spaces on campus where they would perform and record their works, then directed the editing of the raw footage into the films that premiered on May 7 on Mason Arts at Home. Taitt edited her own work, and Dawkins and McCall were supported by alumni and student editors from Mason’s Film and Video Studies program.

“The hardest part about the entire process was coming to terms [with the idea] that it was a collaborative process,” confided Dawkins. “Instead of the choreographer telling me what to do, because as dancers that is what we’re used to.”

McCall concurred, saying that her biggest challenge in the process was setting choreography [on herself]. She shared, “When you’re dancing by yourself, it’s easy to improvise or just do what you want to do in the moment, because it’s just you, you don’t have to worry about anyone else.”

Faculty mentor Setarra Kennedy, Assistant Director of the Arts Management program and adjunct professor in the School of Dance, wore many hats during the rehearsal and production process, from company manager to sounding board, coach, and videographer. While in the rehearsal room, Kennedy kept to the background, recording notes and feedback as Palacios, his translator, Monica Delgado, and each dancer worked together to develop the movements of their pieces.

“At the end of the day, we would review those notes together, with me asking, ‘this is what I understood as the elements that need work, do you agree? Does that feel right to you?” Kennedy said. “The idea was always to be in conversation, because these dances are not only based on personal stories, the students are making these dances on their own bodies, which was also a new experience. I concentrated on encouraging them to lean into their own creative voice, reminding them that anything they want to explore is possible, as long as it feels authentic and real to them.”

The resulting dances are eye-opening, powerful, and courageous, a testament to the willingness of these students to explore their personal lives through their professional art. The emotional power of these performers is clearly evident in each of their works: “Becoming,” “On View,” and “Hear Me As I Am".

Reflecting on the experience, Palacios said, “I would just like to reiterate my deepest gratitude for amplifying and sharing my vision of the world through dance, a world that becomes smaller thanks to the mutual interest in knowing each other not as foreigners or strangers but rather as who we really are; diverse and valuable humans in distant and common lands at the same time.”

Dawkins shared that she’s “excited to continue choreographing” as part of her studies in the School of Dance, as she was a freshman during this project. Taitt, who will begin her senior year in Fall 2021, said that as a result of this experience, “I find it important to incorporate my Black voice into whatever I create so that I can fill spaces with my purpose and be able to represent my community.” McCall concurred, noting that as she moves into her professional career, “it’s important for me to also incorporate my own Black movement and voice into all the choreography that I do.”

Topics

Mason Arts at Home

College of Visual and Performing Arts School of Dance

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)