MON JAN 09 and WED JAN 11 at 7:30-9:20PM
MON: ROBLE GYM 115 | WED: HARRY J. ELAM, JR. THEATER
OPEN to STANFORD STUDENTS

Through collaborative and dialogic processes, this course will investigate the real or perceived to be real systems of power as it relates to race, class and gender. Fall/Flight is an intercultural choreographic invention investigating the episteme of aerial dance, contemporary modern exercises — and the questioning of social constructs — as it relates to the body.

Students should come ready and prepared to learn materials related to aerial dance and contemporary modern movement. Intermediate to advanced experience in any dance technique is required. For questions, please email raiisas@stanford.edu. 

The work in this course will be presented in the TAPS Spring Main Stage dance concert.

ABOUT INSTRUCTOR / PROJECT DIRECTOR RAISSA SIMPSON

Raissa Simpson is a scholar and artistic director of the San Francisco-based PUSH Dance Company. Her multidisciplinary dances are at the intersection of complex racial and cultural identities and centers around discourse on the complex experiences of racialized bodies. 

A graduate of SUNY Purchase with an MFA from UC Davis, Simpson had an extensive performance career with Robert Moses Kin and Joanna Haigood’s Zaccho Dance Theatre. Her choreography honors include Margrit Mondavi Award, San Francisco Arts Commission, Zellerbach Family Foundation, California Arts Council, San Francisco Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, and Grants for the Arts. 

 Simpson has also taught for PUSH’s robust outreach program, which encompasses engaging youth with elements of dance and technology. She has held positions at UC Davis, San Francisco State University, Santa Clara University and as a visiting scholar for Sacramento State University. She is currently a lecturer at San Jose State University’s Communication Studies dept. teaching Race and Performance in addition to Contemporary Modern Dance at Stanford University.  

She has been presented by Joyce SoHo, Aspen Fringe Festival, Dance St. Louis, Ferst Center, Los Angeles Women’s Theater Festival and Black Choreographers Festival. She has held creative residencies at Dance Initiative Carbondale, Bayview Opera House, Margaret Jenkins’s CHIME, African American Theater Alliance (AATAIN!) and CounterPulse. Her most recent writings on dance and technology were published in the Afrofuturistic anthology Critical Black Futures by Palgrave MacMillian.

 

VIEW THE COURSE