Communities of Embodied Connection

Virtual - Monday, September 12 at 7pm

Communities of Embodied Connection: Tracing Community-Building Practices from the Classroom to Local and International Movement Exchanges

This panel addresses how dance curriculum can support spaces of multicultural affirmation where community-sourced knowledge is validated. Alesondra (Alex) Christmas discusses the 2020 Ohio State University Department of Dance Brazil Tour Group study abroad trip as a race-conscious autoethnographic case study, encouraging educational opportunities that foreground racially diverse cultural experiences. Kathryn Nusa Logan considers somatics as a catalyst to undoing racism through our bodies with the goal of forging equitable communities of practice in the classroom. Dr. Lyndsey Vader shares perspectives on learning experiences that extend beyond the traditional classroom, offering ethical strategies to building sustainable community-engaged partnerships that provide public programming at the intersection of social justice education, art-making, and activism.

Facilitator bios:

Alesondra (Alex) Christmas is a PhD Candidate in Dance Studies at Ohio State. Her research interests surround Racial Battle Fatigue, Black Women Dancers, and Dance in the Academy. See Alex’s website for more information alesondrachristmas.wixsite.com/dance.

Kathryn Nusa Logan is an interdisciplinary artist who utilizes experimental art practices to imagine new futures through themes of perspective, lineage, and environment. Her primary research is in integrated screendance works that engage in somatic-based practices of interacting with cameras and holistically consider the camera in the making process.

Lyndsey Vader holds a PhD in Dance Studies from The Ohio State University and an MFA in Dance from The College at Brockport. Her research examines the use of audience participation in immersive performances that imagine new ways of being together during these politically divisive times. For more information, visit lyndseyvader.wordpress.com.