Theme: Cal State Fullerton Department of Theater and Dance
Lead Curator: Courtney Ozovek
The Dance Faculty all share with you the love of the art of dance. We take dance and your talent in dance very seriously. The Dance Program works to develop young dance artists, and to foster the skills, understanding, and discipline that will prepare you for the professional world. We strive to educate, inspire, and motivate all of our students. We create a nurturing, yet rigorous, environment that offers our dance majors many opportunities that will enrich their development. The curriculum combines practical training in technique, aesthetics, and critical thinking. An intensive training in Modern/Contemporary Dance, Afro-Contemporary and Ballet is complemented by improvisation, composition, dance history, kinesiology, pedagogy, and extensive performance experience. Students will be able to complement their technical training with Dunham Technique, jazz, tap, Hip Hop and Yoga for the Performer. We also have a rich and diverse Guest Artist Series with offerings such as contact improvisation, Flamenco, Ballet Folkloric, GAGA, Counter point, Hip-Hop and other techniques. In this way, the graduating student is prepared technically and creatively for success in the dance profession and other related areas.
Curator: Victoria Burnett
Theme: How We Learn To Fly
Session Details: Master storyteller Victoria Burnett will share the powerful and healing work of storytelling, engaging audiences in the collective acts of listening and imagination. With her Story Spirituology, she will infuse music, movement, and storytelling into a telling of African American history and share how together, we can learn to fly.
Victoria Burnett is an internationally recognized Master Storyteller/Vocalist. She blends her skills as a teacher, librarian, singer and performer to become what she refers to as a “Story Musicologist.” She earned a Master’s degree in Education from Lesley University with an emphasis in Integrating the Art of Storytelling, Music and Movement Across the Curriculum.
Victoria currently tours with “Spirit Chorale”, an acapella ensemble; is on the ArtsTeach roster for Segerstrom Performing Arts Center of OC and has been a featured Master Teller for the Smithsonian Institute Folk-Life Festival in Washington DC, the J. Paul Getty Museum in LA and most recently a consultant for the Walt Disney Corporation.
This talented and versatile storyteller, singer, performer has toured extensively in the United States, Europe, Africa, South/Central America, Korea, New Zealand and Australia.
Curator: Steven Homestead & Kerry McPherson
Theme: Mending and Tearing: Creativity in the Face of Loss
Session Details: Find a space of empathy and hope as poet Kerry McPherson, author of The Ecstatic Orphan, and artist Steven Homestead, join for a discussion and reading centered on creativity as a response to trauma, grief, and loss. Be encouraged by stories and poetry from their work and friendship, which was formed in the midst of the pandemic.
Kerry McPherson is a poet, screenwriter, and actress from a fishing village in Nova Scotia, Canada. The first thing she ever wrote was a poem titled Yellow, inspired either by the lichen on rocks at the mouth of the cove, or the kelp, or both. Her debut book of poetry, The Ecstatic Orphan, was released last year by Cloud Publishing (Vancouver). Her short film, Albert, was made with support from the National Film Board of Canada and screened at festivals internationally. She has lived in Hollywood for the past decade, making art, blowing seeds on the wind, hustling, and communing with the land and cities of California.
Steven Homestead is an artist, composer, writer, curator, and speaker, who works to promote honor, champion voice, share wonder, and develop unity. He brings genre-spanning creativity to life, whether composing music, leading community art projects, writing and speaking, or curating generative events. Steven has led numerous community projects, including work to launch the inaugural Compose LA Festival, and has engaged participants with interactive art at the Festival of Arts, the Santa Ana Art Walk, on the streets of Altea, Spain, and in spaces of Berlin. In 2020, Steven pivoted to create in virtual spaces with the Digital Super Bloom and an online poetry reading series, Word Up! He also collaborated as a guest curator for the 2021 Boca de Oro Festival. Discover more at stevenhomestead.com and @scubahomie on Instagram.