Duke UniversityDance Program

The Across The Threshold Conference will move back to the Northern Hemisphere in 2013, where it will again be hosted on Duke’s campus.  More info TBA.

As part of a research group which began in the fall of 2007, founding members of Across the Threshold: Creativity, Being and Healing, Duke University Dance Program Director, Keval Kaur Khalsa and Associate Professor of the Practice, Ava LaVonne Vinesett presented in Salvador da Bahía, Brasil from October 3-8, 2011 for the CRIATIVIDADE, SER E CURA conference, a collaborative event sponsored by the Federal University of Bahia Graduate Program of Performing Arts (PPGAC/UFBA; Salvador, BA), the Duke University Dance Program (Durham, NC, USA), and the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine Program in Integrative Medicine (Chapel Hill, NC, USA).

The theme of the event focused on creativity and our surroundings as factors integrating human beings with society and the environment in a cross-cultural and somatic healing context.

Across the Threshold: Creativity, Being and Healing is designed to explore areas as diverse as dance, medicine, nursing, anthropology, history and music, and join scholars and practitioners from these to investigate the transformative paths humans have discovered/created through performance, spiritual/religious/ritual practices, and healing practices.  In association with II Encontro de Estudos em Movimento, and the IV Seminários Transculturais Sobre Teatro e Dança, and under the direction of Ciane Fernandes (UFBA), the event took place in multiple spaces throughout Salvador including the Martim Gonçalves Theater (School of Theater UFBA), the Brazil-Germany Institute of Culture Theater, the João Augusto Room, the Vila Velha Theater, and The Museum of Modern Art of Bahía Sculpture Park.   Altogether the gathering consisted of a four member round table, 12 open sessions, and an integrated workshop and open to the public presentation.

Along with Khalsa (Kundalini yogeda) and Vinesett (West African dance), two other members of the North Carolina based Across the Threshold: Creativity, Being and Healing research group, Richenel “Muz” Ansano of Curacao and Vera Moura of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine Program in Integrative Medicine, and artists/therapists specializing in areas as diverse as Bodywork, Interart research, healing and performance, circle dances, theater-body cross-cultural education, art / music therapy, and practitioners with unique works internationally, and two Portuguese speakers, experts in cross-cultural migration and learning, all taught workshops and/or participated in roundtable discussions.    

The focus of study - body movement - incorporated diverse areas inquiry including the arts, health, communication, anthropology, sociology, neuroscience, education, sports, everyday life and of course nature itself.  Movement is present in all these approaches and contexts, assuring us that we all have something in common, rich in complexity and difference.

CRIATIVIDADE, SER E CURA

is a collaborative event between the Federal University of Bahia Graduate Program of Performing Arts (PPGAC/UFBA; Salvador, BA), the Duke University Dance Program (Durham, NC, USA), and the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine Program in Integrative Medicine (Chapel Hill, NC, USA).  II Encontro de Estudos em Movimento, in association with the Across the Threshold: Creativity, Being, and Healing’s fourth international symposium, and the IV Seminários Transculturais Sobre Teatro e Dança, will convene in Salvador da Bahía from October 3-8, 2011.  The event will take place in multiple spaces throughout Salvador including the Martim Gonçalves Theater (School of Theater UFBA), the Brazil-Germany Institute of Culture Theater, the João Augusto Room, the Vila Velha Theater, The Museum of Modern Art of Bahía Sculpture Park (TBD). Altogether the gathering will consist of 3 round tables, 12 open sessions, and an integration of workshops and an open to the public presentation.

Across the Threshold: Creativity, Being and Healing is the result of ongoing meetings between members of a research group at Duke University in areas as diverse as dance, medicine, nursing, anthropology, history and music. Of these, we have five members, one of Curacao / Caribbean, teaching workshops and participating in roundtables, with specialties as diverse as classical Indian dance, Kundalini yoga, West African dance and Integrative Medicine. In addition, we have four other artists/therapists specializing in  Bodywork, Interart research, healing and performance, and practitioners with unique works internationally, and two Portuguese speakers experts in cross-cultural migration and learning. In Brazil, we specialize in circle dances, and theater-body cross-cultural education, and art / music therapy.

The theme of the event focuses on creativity and our surroundings as factors integrating human beings with society and the environment in a cross-cultural and and somatic healing context.
Our focus of study - body movement - incorporates diverse areas inquiry including the arts, health, communication, anthropology, sociology, neuroscience, education, sports, everyday life and of course nature itself. Movement is present in all these approaches and contexts, assuring us that we all have something in common, paradoxically rich in multiplicities and differences.

Click here for more information: WWW.ESTUDOS-EM-MOVIMENTO.BLOGSPOT.COM

ACROSS THE THRESHOLD:  CREATIVITY, BEING & HEALING SYMPOSIUM - Saturday, April 3rd, 2010, Duke University East Campus.

This Symposium continues a highly interdisciplinary journey designed to join scholars and practitioners from many fields to explore the transformative paths humans have discovered/created through performance, spiritual/religious/ritual practices, and healing practices.

Acknowledging the complex interrelationship of mind, body, and spirit is a step towards empowered and enlightened healing of ourselves, our relationships, and our environment. We are physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual beings, and the interplay between all these parts of ourselves affects our quality of life moment-to-moment -- our ability to synthesize ideas and knowledge; to develop our intuition; to imagine and create; to heal.

Across The Threshold:  Creativity, Being & Healing is sponsored by the Duke University Dance Program, co-sponsored by the Franklin Humanities Institute; Duke University Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts; the University of North Carolina Medical School Department of P. M. & R., Program on Integrative Medicine; and the following Duke University Departments: Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, Music, Religion,Theater Studies.