When Urban Bush Women comes to campus this week, School of Dance Alumna Shayla Taylor (‘20 BFA Dance: Choreography and Performance) will be with them. Taylor is an apprentice with the company known for weaving contemporary dance, music, and text with the history, culture, and spiritual traditions of the African Diaspora.

The performance on Friday, October 14th coincides with UNCG’s homecoming.  Taylor says she’s thrilled to be back at her alma mater—a school she almost didn’t attend:

“I’m from Baton Rouge, and I just always thought I’d stay there. I had only applied to schools in Louisiana, but my sister had gone to UNCG and she kept saying I should too because they had a good dance program. My sister’s not a dancer, so I really didn’t think she knew about that! Plus, I wasn’t even sure I was going to major in dance. But at the very last minute I decided to take a big leap of faith and a big move from home. It was the best decision I could ever have made.”

When she arrived at the Coleman Building for her very first class, Taylor says she was excited but nervous:

“I still wasn’t sure there was a place for me in the world of dance, even though I had danced my whole life. So, I felt a little scared when I walked into the building and past this woman wearing slippers and this long, dramatic scarf. The woman called out ‘Hello Shayla, we’re so glad you’re here!’ When I got to my class, I asked some of the other students if they knew who that woman was and they told me it was the School Director Janet Lilly. It was at that point, I felt a sense of comfort. I knew then that I wasn’t going to be kind of just another student tossed into a program and lost.” (more…)

Kevin Lawson jokes that it took him twenty years to go zero-point-four miles—that’s the distance from the Music Building to Taylor Theatre—from a freshman piano performance major to the School of Theatre’s first MFA student with a concentration in Musical Theatre Directing—with a lot of stops along the way.

Lawson first enrolled at UNCG in 2002. He discovered that he enjoyed musical theatre more than any other genre of music and began playing for shows at the University. That led to almost constant work with theaters around the Triad, which caused him to pursue a dream:

“I was getting so much freelance work, and it was the direction that I wanted to take. I moved to New York with a dream many of us have—that I was going to work on Broadway.”

Lawson was successful in finding work as an accompanist for auditions and readings for new shows, and he did vocal coaching. He also worked as a music director at an off-Broadway theater and did regular stints out of town at regional theaters. When a more permanent opportunity presented itself, he moved cross-country to become the resident Music Director for a theater on California’s central coast:

“It was called ‘The Great American Melodrama,’ and oh boy it was! We did musical theatre shows and also parodies on the shows. It was great fun in that I got to create and perform some original work with the ensemble.”

While in California, Lawson began taking classes at a local community college and finishing up general education courses that he needed to complete his degree from UNCG. And then, his path took another turn: (more…)

A group led by a School of Music student has won a spot to perform in the North Carolina Folk Festival this fall.

Anna Vtipil is a composition student under Professors Mark Engebretson and Alejandro Rutty. Her group is made up of two other UNCG students – Gracie Zielinski (’23 Arts Administration) and Hanna Fishastion (’23 Music Education- Strings) – as well as UNCG alumna Lora Mouna (’21 BFA Voice), and UNC Asheville student Clara Lampkin.

The group performs Vtipil’s original music, which Vtipil says explores the vulnerability of fully expressing oneself through intimate lyrics, and harmonically rich and rhythmically flowing textures. (more…)

Rachael Hayes (BFA Sculpture and Ceramics 2021) finally made it to Italy for her previously delayed Artist Residency with the Digital Stone Carving Project!

The Digital Stone Project was founded in 2005 by sculptors who wanted to create a new way of working in stone by leveraging the burgeoning digital technologies. Garfagnana Innovazione is a state-of-the-art technology center equipped with robotic stone cutting equipment and access to the best sculptural marble in the world.

Each year, the Digital Stone Project and Garfagnana Innovazione work together to bring an international cohort of artists, architects, designers, educators and students to the historic Garfagnana region of Italy. While in Italy, participants gain experience working with high technology and ancient Tuscan stone. During the month-long Residency, participants are giving the opportunity to produce work carved using a combination of robotic manufacturing technologies and traditional hand-carving tools. Our partner, Garfagnana Innovazione, offers participants a unique opportunity to employ the latest innovations in digital stone carving. As an incubator of new techniques, the Residency provides a wide range of professional development opportunities focused on technology and materials.

https://www.digitalstoneproject.com/residency

Caitlyn Schrader (’22 MFA Dance) is moving into a role that seems choreographed just for her — Director of Community Engagement for UNCG’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA).  In that position, she will also serve as Director of Greensboro Project Space (GPS), CVPA’s contemporary art gallery in downtown Greensboro.

Schrader is a dance artist, educator, curator, choreographer, and filmmaker who recognizes the value of community engagement and the potential for art to impact the lives of citizens:

“Art helps cultivate critical thinkers, curious minds, agents of change, and leads to productive lives of consequence. I bring my joy for the arts, my belief in their power to affect change, and an open mind to this role. I pledge to work toward making GPS and CVPA initiatives vessels of research, inquiry, and innovation. I care for the UNCG community and take great pride in being a member – I look forward to contributing to its continued progress.” (more…)