The dance program at the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ at Boulder was recently named one of 51 grant recipients from the National College Choreography Initiative, a National Endowment for the Arts fund administered by Dance/USA.
The $10,000 award will enable CU's dance program to host a notable dance artist on campus later this year.
"We are very excited about winning the award since it enables us to provide students with an opportunity to work with a distinguished professional artist in a variety of ways, including rehearsal, daily technique class and observation of the choreographer's own company," said David Capps, director of the dance program at CU-Boulder.
The project funded by the grant is an artist-in-residence program with innovative choreographer Gabe Masson, who will be visiting the Boulder campus from Nov. 26 to Dec. 8. Masson's residence activities will include the creation of a new work for CU dance students, two informal performances by his professional company, and two weeks of teaching classes in the department. The performances will be open to the public, and an open rehearsal of the student work will also be scheduled.
"Through Masson's residence program, we hope to foster a mutually beneficial relationship between our students and the professional artistic arena," said Capps. "We are also pleased to be able to offer events to the Colorado public and thereby work to increase the public's knowledge of American dance."
CU's Dance Program has been committed to providing guest residencies as part of training of undergraduate and graduate dance majors. Guest artists invited to the Boulder campus offer master classes, daily technique training, hands-on workshops and performance.
They also create original works for performance by CU students in the Faculty Dance Concert. The residency programs have been made possible with funding from the James L.D. and Rebecca J. Roser Visiting Artist Program, which supports artistic activities on all CU campuses.
Housed in the department of theatre and dance, CU's dance program is regarded as one of the best in the nation. The program is based on the study of contemporary dance emphasizing modern dance and ballet with additional studies in pointe, jazz, African, choreography, dance history, world dance, music, somatics, stagecraft and multidisciplinary creative work.
ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in the program may earn BA, BFA and MFA degrees, preparing them for careers as professional dancers, choreographers or teachers.