SLMDances at PSU: a recap.

 

A month ago, SLMDances had the pleasure of sharing our work in a lecture demonstration with The Pennsylvania State University community. Invited by the Women's Studies Graduate Organization, we shared the dance as a part of their annual conference speaking up: a feminist practice. The day also featured a keynote address by Latoya Peterson, owner of popular blog Racialicious, the intersection of race and pop culture, and a workshop and performance by Ryan Vinson, spoken word poet. There were many other presentations and work sessions throughout the day, all of which I wanted to attend  because they were so closely tied to ideas at the core of TWSP, but couldn't. logistics. womp, womp.

See the video above for a taste of my talk, the dancing, and the post-performance conversation. That up there is the 22 minute version, even though the whole situation was about 45 minutes in real life. I suggest wine and popcorn to watch, a la Oliva Pope. If you dont have time for that, here's the 1 minute recap.

Many thanks to the organizers who went above and beyond to make our session happen, Catherine Jampel, Deniz Durmus and Nadine Schwartz. Nadine's reactions to the work are quoted below in The Daily Collegian, the PSU newspaper:

When a Harlem-based modern dance company put on its performance titled “The Window Sex Project” to a small audience of graduate students, faculty and State College residents, Swartz (graduate-French) was surprised at how moving it was for her. 

“Normally, when I think academic conference, I don’t think I’ll be tearing up multiple times, but I definitely did just now,” Swartz said. “It was so much more than I expected.”