Monthly Archives: February 2018

Cameron McKinney ’14 Returns to Middlebury Classrooms with his Dance Company

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February 24, 2018
This post was originally published by Sarah Ray, Middlebury College Newsroom

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – “There’s something that’s actually really incredible about creating movement in your own body and then allowing that movement to live in someone else’s” says dancer and choreographer Cameron McKinney ’4, “because as soon as you give it away, it’s already different because no two bodies are the same.”

McKinney recently spent a week at Middlebury in residence with his dance company Kizuna, which he founded in 2014. In a weeklong “takeover,” Kizuna members taught all courses in the dance department’s curriculum. Kizuna, a Japanese word meaning bonds or connections between people, reflects McKinney’s interest in Japanese language and culture. He is currently developing a movement style that blends Japanese influences with aspects of capoeira, street dance, and contemporary floor work.

Cameron McKinney ’14 returned to Middlebury with his dance company Kizuna to teach classes and perform.

In the few short years since he graduated from Middlebury—where he first began dancing—McKinney has set to work filling a niche in the dance world that he felt was missing. And he’s been successful. He was recently named a participant in the Alvin Ailey Foundation’s New Directions Choreography Lab, was chosen as one of ten emerging choreographers for Doug Varone’s DEVICES choreographic mentorship program in 2015, and is on faculty at Gibney Dance Center. He has also taught on faculty at the Joffrey Dance School, the Southern Vermont Dance Festival, and Williamsburg Movement and Arts Center.

McKinney and his company capped of their weeklong residency with a performance at the Mahaney Center’s dance theatre.

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Cameron brings Kizuna Dance to the MIIS campus from March 5th – 10th, 2018. Cited in the Huffington Post as “one of the best performances of 2017”!

  • Tuesday, March 6 Performance of full repertory at the Chautauqua Hall in Pacific Grove 7-8:30 p.m. Co-sponsored by the Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce.
  • Thursday, March 8: Dances born from Revolution: How Japanese Butoh Ideologies Can Influence Streetdance, lecture-demonstration. 7-8:30 p.m. Irvine Auditorium, 499 Pierce Street, Monterey.
  • Friday, March 9: Movement Workshop, 11 a.m.– 12:15 p.m. at Carmel Barre, 465 Pacific Street ($12 fee for non-Institute participants)
  • Saturday, March 10: Berkeley performance and Middlebury alumni events, 8:00 p.m. Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, 2704 Alcatraz Ave. Berkeley, CA 94705. Tickets: $15/$12. Limited seating: reserve here: https://www.artful.ly/store/events/14336

Learn more about Kizuna Dance
Kizuna Dance Marketing Kit 2017. PDF

New Intercultural Arts Series Launches Feb. 26 with Meklit Hadero

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February 24, 2018

This post was origionally published by Jason Warburg, Middlebury Institute News

Meklit Hadero will kick off the Middlebury Institute’s new Intercultural Arts and Leadership Series with a free performance on February 26 in the Irvine Auditorium. (Credit: Ryan Lash )

Renowned Ethio-jazz artist, TED Senior Fellow, and “cultural instigator” Meklit Hadero will perform at the Middlebury Institute next Monday, headlining the kickoff event in a new intercultural arts and leadership initiative. The performance, at 7 p.m. on Monday, February 26 in the Irvine Auditorium at 499 Pierce Street in Monterey, is free and open to the public.

Born in Ethiopia and based in Oakland, California, Meklit Hadero is a vocalist and composer who brings Ethio-jazz together with a singer-songwriter’s storytelling and strum. She is co-founder of the Nile Project, and her TED talk “The Unexpected Beauty of Everyday Sounds” has been watched by more than 1.2 million people. She has received musical commissions from Lincoln Center and has toured extensively across the United States, United Kingdom, and East Africa.

Hailed as “brilliant” by New York Magazine, and “stunning” by the San Francisco Chronicle, Hadero’s recent album When The People Move, The Music Moves Tooreached #4 on the iTunes World Music Charts and #1 on the North American Community + College Radio World Music charts. The Feb. 26 concert with Hadero and her five-member ensemble will be introduced by Dean of the Institute Jeff Dayton-Johnson and followed by a short conversation with Hadero about her work as a social change agent through the arts.

Hadero’s performance marks the launch of the Institute’s new Intercultural Arts and Leadership Project, supported by Middlebury’s Fund for Innovation.

As far as we know, this is the first arts series ever developed in the 62-year history of the Institute, featuring professional artists in music, theatre, dance, film, visual arts, and writing.

— Intercultural Arts and Leadership Project host Tangut Degfay ’18

“As far as we know, this is the first arts series ever developed in the 62-year history of the Institute, featuring professional artists in music, theatre, dance, film, visual arts, and writing,” said project host Tangut Degfay ’18. Middlebury College Professor of Dance Andrea Olsen adds: “It’s exciting to see the quality of the artists who have agreed to participate and the very positive response we’ve had from the campus community here in Monterey.” A visiting faculty member in Monterey this spring, Olsen is helping Degfay coordinate the project with support from an “arts team” from her spring course on Intercultural Arts and Social Change.

The project includes performances and events on the Institute’s downtown Monterey campus stretching from February 26 through May 4, spotlighting artists working on the fields of music, dance, writing, film, sculpture, and more. Hadero’s concert is part of Focus on Africa Week with multiple events. For additional information and the full series schedule, visit the Intercultural Arts and Leadership Spring Series website.

Student Tangut Degfay ’18 (right) is coordinating the Institute’s first Intercultural Arts and Leadership Spring series with support from Middlebury College Professor of Dance Andrea Olsen (left) and an “arts team” from her spring course on Intercultural Arts and Social Change.