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As he reflected on the turmoil in 2020, Harrison explored how he could facilitate socially conscious artmaking in the classroom. (Photo courtesy of Iyun Ashani Harrison) It was 2020, and Iyun Ashani Harrison was still one year away from accepting his position with the Dance Program. He spent most of his time in his California hills apartment on lockdown from the pandemic and surrounded by wildfires — while the rest of the country was also on fire. “The intersections of COVID-19, the… read more about When Isolation Ignites Change: New Course Fuses Arts Activism with Technology »

When Andrea E. Woods Valdés, chair of the Dance Program, extended a residency to Juel D. Lane this Fall, she gave the choreographer carte blanche with his creative process. What materialized was an original work contemplating what dance classes will look like in the future and addressing how to maintain the authenticity that defines our individuality. “Discovering Your Voice: A Dance Class” debuted at the fall concert November Dances and featured eight student dancers: Michela Annamaria Arietti, Alyah Burnett-Baker, Indigo… read more about ­­­Juel D. Lane’s Residency Imagines the Future of Dance Classes »

Assistant Professor of the Practice of Dance Jingqiu Guan joins the Duke faculty this year. (John West/Trinity Communications) It seems fitting that Jingqiu Guan, assistant professor of the practice in the Dance Program, now teaches at the university where her career as a dance film artist first took shape.  “This is definitely a full-circle moment,” she acknowledges. Her ties to Duke began in 2013 when she was a graduate student pursuing an MFA in dance performance at the… read more about Jingqiu Guan Starts Cross-Cultural Dialogues with Her Work »

The Duke Dance Program MFA in Dance: Embodied Interdisciplinary Praxis (MFAEIP) welcomes its fifth cohort to campus this fall. The two-year, full-time, terminal degree program is grounded in Duke’s interdisciplinary approach and encourages research responding to global issues while joining critical conversations both within and beyond the arts. Sarah Wilbur, director of the MFAEIP program and associate professor in the Dance Program, looks forward to how the cohort’s individual creative endeavors will influence Duke’s… read more about Five Join Duke’s Dance M.F.A. Program, Bringing Interdisciplinary Research Along »

Florence Wang graduated this past May with dual degrees in Statistical Science and Neuroscience and minors in Chemistry and Dance. Immersed in STEM throughout her time at Duke, she enhanced her course loads by adding quantitative statistical and life science classes. “That additional coursework really helped me gain a better understanding of the neural mechanisms behind how humans think,” she explains. During her senior year, she added a research assistant position at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, where she was… read more about Divergent Thinking by Dint of Dance  »