Performed: Spring 2022
Director: Amy Swanson
A dance concert featuring students enrolled in THEA 371: Contemporary Dance in Performance. Choreography by guest artist Kaolack (Pape Ibrahima Ndiaye) from Senegal, professors Jennifer LeMesurier and Amy Swanson, and by the students. Each piece takes a unique perspective on the theme of “escape,” offering embodied approaches to (re)thinking what escape means, what it feels like, and why it is sometimes necessary.
Guest Choreographer:
Kaolack (Pape Ibrahima Ndiaye) began his professional dance career at École des Sables in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal. He was a member of Germaine Acogny’s Compagnie Jant-bi from 2001 to 2007, touring internationally in works by choreographers including Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Kota Yamazaki. In 2008, Kaolack became the first Senegalese choreographer to win the pan-African contemporary dance competition Danse l’Afrique Danse, with his solo J’accuse. From 2014 to 2016, he toured extensively as a performer in Nora Chipaumire’s portrait of myself as my father. Currently, Kaolack is an MFA candidate at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pa. His work focuses on pushing boundaries of space and time, interrogating liveness and fully being in the spaces we inhabit and claim as our own, and making space for spirit to be present.
Guest Faculty Choreographer:
Assistant Professor Jennifer LeMesurier (writing and rhetoric) received her BA in dance from the University of Washington. She has choreographed for and performed with several pre-professional companies in the greater Seattle area. For her doctoral dissertation, she conducted ethnographic research on the reciprocal influence of discourse and movement in dance training. Her current research continues to explore the impact of the moving body in contexts besides the dance classroom. She would like to thank her dancers for their willingness to take chances, follow-through, and spirit of fun.
