WE ARE 'CREATING THINKING ARTISTS'!
The American College Dance Association is a nationally recognized festival within collegiate dance programs, and the WKU Dance Program will participate in the South Region festival March 14 – 17, 2020, in Lexington, Ky. The festival includes adjudicated dance concerts, daily master classes, presentations, and informal concerts.
This esteemed festival provides many opportunities for creative activity for dancers and faculty that support the WKU Dance Program’s mission of “Creating Thinking Artists.” Students will take more than five master technique and lecture classes from educators and guests across the nation! WKU dancers will perform in faculty-choreographed and student-choreographed adjudicated concerts, and they will also perform in an informal concert.
Presenting choreographic performance work at ACDA allows students to be adjudicated by a committee of dancers in the field, both in professional performance and education. Their evaluation provides recognition and crucial educational information and feedback for young artists. This large event also allows our students to make connections and experience networking opportunities in the very competitive field of dance. All of these experiences enhance the growth in a dancer’s creative process as well as provide educational evidence to the department, college, and university!
The largest number of WKU dancers are attending ACDA in program history! 24 dancers and 4 faculty will head to ACDA!
Costs associated with ACDA per dancer:
Deposit: $50
Registration: $140
Partial Housing: $250
Adjudication Fee: $150
Food: $200
Make a gift today to ensure our students can attend this wonderful opportunity to enhance their classroom learning!
All donations that exceed this project's goal will help support future scholarships, guest artists, and master classes for the dancers of the WKU Dance Program! All donations are tax deductible. The WKU Dance Program will receive 100% of the proceeds.
Thank you to everyone who helped us so generously work towards our ACDA goal. As you know, ACDA 2020 across the nation has been cancelled as well as WKU going to remote learning until April due to COVID 19. Do not fear, your generous funding will be put to good use to help support our dancers through continued learning through conferences, guest artists, master classes, and scholarship support. Our bright future is because of your help!
Leave the light on for us...we'll be back ♥️
A ghost light is a small, single bulbed light, usually a floor lamp of some sort, that shines on the dark stage throughout the night when the theater is closed and unoccupied.
In a more historical sense, the ghost light has many reasons. It is said that every theater has a ghost. The ghost light provides light at night for any spirits to be able to see and even “perform” or dance on the stage. Onstage Blog
Following WKU protocol to take the most prudent steps to limit COVID-19 exposure for our students, faculty, staff, and communities, the South Region of the American College Dance Association (ACDA) conference scheduled for March 14-17, 2020 has been canceled. This cancellation was made by all universities involved. Our students will be receiving online course delivery through April 5, and University travel has been canceled through that time. More information is available at wku.edu/covid19. We appreciate your understanding as we implement these measures to ensure the health and safety for all members of the WKU Family.
Thank you for your support of the WKU Dance Program. We always look forward to this annual festival for the opportunity for students to make connections and experience networking opportunities in the very competitive field of dance. Please know your gift to this campaign will be used to support future student travel to performances and conferences and to bring in guest artist choreographers/master classes for our dancers to experience at WKU. Your support will make a difference in the lives of these students.
If you have any questions, please contact philanthropy@wku.edu.
Sincerely,
Meghen McKinley
Assistant Professor, Dance
Department of Theatre & Dance
Western Kentucky University
1648 days ago by Aarika GunnWe have begun the countdown for our ACDA trip! This update must begin with a sincere THANK YOU for your continued support of our dancers! Your SpiritFunder gifts along with our excitement continue to grow as we get closer to departure. Dancers participated in a dress rehearsal and info/planning meeting prior to leaving for their spring break.
Enjoy a few images of the fun we have had on our previous trips to the South Region ACDA. Thank you again for your support and the continued education of our dancers! We are "Creating Thinking Artists!"
On behalf of The WKU Dance Program and our students, we wanted to provide another update at our countdown to ACDA!
* At the time of posting this update, 9% of our goal had been raised; $795.00 of $8,000. This is an incredible response from you, our generous donors. The Dance Program is grateful for your kindness and thankful for your support of our students!
* Our dancers have continued rehearsals as we approach ACDA! They have been rehearsing faculty and student choreography for ACDA in addition to their daily technique classes, rehearsals for our upcoming Evening of Dance concert, as well as hosting our most recent guest artist work by Melanie George!
* Please remember to spread the word to your community via social media or email. (It's easy! Just visit our campaign page and click the "Share" or "Tweet" buttons.) If you haven’t donated yet…our campaign is still open for your gifts! https://www.givecampus.com/schools/WesternKentuckyUniversity/send-the-wku-dance-program-to-acda#updates
* Our online campaign runs through March 18, 2020 and we are confident that other generous individuals like you will help us reach or exceed our goal!
* Remember, the Dance Program receives ALL proceeds to apply to our students’ needs. Any gifts exceeding our ACDA trip will continue to support the dancers through scholarships and master class opportunities.
* Best wishes for a wonderful weekend, and THANK YOU for supporting dance on the hill!
Enjoy a snippet of rehearsal for "Drive" choreographed by Meghen McKinley
1660 days ago by Meghen Leigh McKinley
So many elements go into producing a choreographic work! Dancers, choreographers, musicians, lighting designers, and costume designers help create the vision. Pictured is Beck Hargis working on costume pieces for Meghen McKinley's piece "Drive" that will be presented at ACDA in March!
If you haven't made a gift to SpiritFunder yet, please help not only the dancers get to ACDA, but all the work of production and design as well! And for those of you that have, thank you for getting us closer to our goal!
Monday starts a new week of dance on the hill! Even following the close of a dance concert, technique courses and rehearsals for upcoming performances continue! Dancers are rehearsing "CYOS" choreographed by Amanda Clark for the informal concert at ACDA. Here's a glimpse of rehearsal and a peek of choreography for ACDA that your generous support helps to make possible!
Thank you again to those that are making this incredible experience possible!
1672 days ago by Meghen Leigh McKinley
Thank you to everyone that responded so enthusiastically to our DAY 1 of SpiritFunder! We are very appreciative of our supporters and donors that gave so quickly and so generously from near and far!
A little update! We are looking forward to an awesome weekend of dance on the hill! The students will be performing in Dance Project, which is a student choreographed concert being held in Gordon Wilson Hall, Lab Theatre. These are just some of the dancers and student choreographed pieces that will be headed to ACDA in March. We would love to see you if you're in town!
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