Dear Ohio State Dance Family,
Still recovering from a packed autumn semester, we celebrate many remarkable events in this issue of InForm: hosting the Dance Studies Association Conference, presenting Parallel Connections in collaboration with the Wexner Center for the Arts and BalletMet and producing the Faculty Concert in our own Barnett Theatre.
Colleagues from across the globe hailed the inaugural DSA conference as an unqualified success on all fronts, from stimulating content to flawless operations. Conference Chair, Ohio State Dance Professor Hannah Kosstrin, left no detail unaddressed. Many staff members, faculty and students volunteered countless hours towards this conference, setting the bar very high for future DSA events.
Parallel Connections came to fruition after two years of planning and fundraising. Working with our community partners yielded an artistically superlative program and tremendous success at the box office. These collaborations put the vibrant arts community in Columbus front and center, attended by a multiple constituent communities, including seniors, school age children, arts patrons, city and university leaders, and neighborhood residents.
Our Faculty Concert showcased the depth of choreographic vision within our faculty and the strong performance of over 40 student dancers. The Barnett remains busy next semester with three student concerts, as well as showings of the Brazil Tour Group and the School Tour Group.
We are currently planning our 50th anniversary concert in our own Barnett Theatre and the Motion Lab at ACCAD: eight shows spanning two weekends in November 2018, highlighting choreography and performance at the intersection of digital design and mediated performance. Media Manager Chris Summers and Production Manager Carrie Cox are moving our 70 years of archives from cardboard boxes to digital media, towards the creation of an interactive archival exhibit during this anniversary celebration.
I am pleased to announce the new Dance Innovation Fund, with a target ask of $500,000 towards the goal of endowing continuing contributions to equipment, technology and the Barnett Theatre, keeping us at the forefront of technological innovation in dance creation and production for the next 50 years. Please consider making a contribution to this new fund, ensuring Ohio State Dance’s place at the cutting edge of innovation in dance.
Please, make Sullivant Hall a destination for November 2018. We are already saving a place for you at our 50th anniversary reunion event during the second weekend, November 15 - 19.
Happy New Year,
