Presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Dance on
May 14, 2021, at 8:00 PM
Here, There (premiere)
Featuring: Runako Campbell ’21*
Choreographer: Rena Butler
Composer: Darryl J. Hoffman
Cinematographer: Robert C. Banks, Jr.
Editor: Daniel Madoff
Camera Ops/Assistants: Mike Wendt, Mark Pendergast
Alterations: A Touch of Class Alterations, Cleveland
Production Assistant: Glendoria Burris
Special Thanks from Runako — Thank you to Rena Butler for all of your wisdom, kindness, and inspiration throughout this process. Thank you to the Faculty and Staff of the Program in Dance for all of your support over the years. Last but not least, special thanks to my family for all of their unconditional love.
Special thanks to Ingenuity Cleveland for making their location available.
Conversation with Runako Campbell and Rena Butler
Element (premiere)
Featuring: Jane Brown ’21*
Choreographer: Adam Barruch
Cinematographer & Editor: Daniel Madoff
Music and Sound Design: Roarke Menzies
Production Assistant: Alexander Deland ’21
Many thanks to Jane Brown, Roarke Menzies, Daniel Madoff, Mary Jo Mecca, Mary-Sue Gregson and Tina Fehlandt for their support and invaluable contributions to the process of creating this film.
Conversation with Jane Brown and Adam Barruch
Here, Now, This Way (premiere)
Featuring: Yolore Airewele ’21*, Sydney Maple ’21*
Choreographer: Martha Nichols
Cinematographer & Editor: Daniel Madoff
Composer: Martha Nichols
Conversation with Yolore Airewele, Sydney Maple and Martha Nichols
in time (premiere)
Dancers: Yolore Airewele ’21*, Ysabel Ayala ’21*, Sophie Blue ’21*, Jane Brown ’21*, Runako Campbell ’21*, Samantha Grayson ’21*, Natalie Lu ’21*, Sydney Maple ’21*, Enver Ramadani ’21*, Auset Taylor ’21*, Leila Ullmann ’21*, Phoebe Warren ’21*, Thea Zalabak ’21*
Creator and Director: Elisa Clark, based on movement vocabulary by Robert Battle
Editor: Danica Paulos
Composition & Sound Design: Vince di Mura
Cinematography: Robert C. Banks, Jr. (Cleveland), Emily Lu (Hong Kong), Daniel Madoff (Princeton)
Musicians: Dan Johnson & Wesley Rast, percussion; Dre Dimura, guitar
Special Thanks from the students — To Elisa Clark for working with us all year amidst the unpredictability of these times. Both virtually and in-person, you lifted our spirits and shared with us the joy of dance and gave us a community when we were all separated. To Daniel, Vince, and Danica, thank you for supporting this creative process through your videography, music development and editing. You made this work come to life and gave us seniors the opportunity to have a final product to share with our friends and family. To the dance program faculty and staff, thank you for advocating for studio space and on-campus filming opportunities despite the uncertainty and scariness of our times. A special thank you to Robert Battle for entrusting us with his choreography and giving us a wonderful set of movements to explore over this past year.
Special Thanks from Elisa Clark — I would like to thank the dancers, my creative collaborators, and the artistic leadership and staff members in the Program in Dance and at the Lewis Center for your patience, tireless efforts, artistic contributions, and unparalleled support. And thank you to Robert Battle for sharing your movement, which served as inspiration to create.
Special Thanks to Ingenuity Cleveland for making their location available.
Conversation with the seniors and Elisa Clark
*denotes a student earning a certificate in the Program in Dance
All films were recorded with the approval of the Princeton University Environmental Health & Safety’s Covid Resumption of On Campus Operations Committee, following the masking and social distancing protocols specified. Special thanks to Eric Hamblin, Director of Conference & Event Services, for University locations support.
PRODUCTION + DESIGN TEAM
Costume Designer: Mary Jo Mecca
Lighting Designer: Aaron Copp
Music Director: Vince di Mura
Film Production Manager: Daniel Madoff
Event Stage Manager: Mary-Susan Gregson
Preshow Music: Daniel Johnson, Wesley Rast, Vince diMura
Faculty Liaison: Tina Fehlandt
Stream Master — Matt Pilsner
Stream Associates — Torrey Drum, Jesse Froncek
LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS
Chair: Tracy K. Smith
Executive Director: Marion Friedman Young
PROGRAM IN DANCE (2020-2021)
Dance Faculty
View all faculty and guest profiles »
Kyle Abraham
Alexandra Beller
Elisa Clark
Tina Fehlandt, Acting Associate Director, Spring 2021
Judith Hamera, Professor
Francesca Harper
Dyane Harvey-Salaam
Rebecca Lazier, Associate Director, Senior Lecturer
Susan Marshall, Director, Professor
Dean Moss
Silas Riener
Joseph Schloss
Rebecca Stenn
Olivier Tarpaga
Aynsley Vandenbroucke
Sasha Welsh
Raphael Xavier
Netta Yerushalmy, Princeton Arts Fellow
Guest Artist
Peter Chu
Hearst Choreographer-in-Residence
Miguel Gutierrez
Co-curricular Instructors
Laurie Abramson, Ballet
Lauren Auyeung, Hip-Hop
Sherry Greenspan, Somatic Pilates
Adam Hyndman, Musical Theater Dance
Elaine Matthews, Ballet
Mecquel, Yoga
Kathleen Moore Tovar, Ballet
Christopher Ralph, Contemporary/Heels
Musicians
Vince di Mura
Ian Howells
Daniel Johnson
Timothy Motzer
Wesley Rast
David Tenney
Abdoulaye Toure
Ryan Wolfe
PRODUCTION AND ADMINISTRATION
View all staff profiles »
Producer: Darryl Waskow
Production Manager: Chloë Z. Brown
Production Stage Manager: Carmelita Becnel
Resident Musical Director/Composer: Vince di Mura
Assistant Stage Manager: Rob Del Colle
Costume Shop Manager: E. Keating Helfrich
Assistant Costume Shop Manager: Julia Kosanovich
Draper: Caitlin B. Brown
Technical Director: Timothy Godin
Assistant Technical Director: Jesse Froncek
Theater Technician: Torrey Drum
Lighting & Stage Supervisor: Matt Pilsner
Props Master: Allie Geiger Khanna
Scenic Artist: Melissa Riccobono
Master Carpenter: Michael A. Smola
Sound Supervisor: Kay Richardson
Dance Program Associate: Cindy Rosenfeld
Physical Therapist: Claudia Wohl
Director of Communications: Steve Runk
Multimedia Specialist: Zohar Lavi-Hasson
Visual Communications Specialist: Tracy Patterson
Web & Multimedia Strategist: Jonathan Sweeney
Communications Associate: Jaclyn Sweet
Communications Assistant: Hope VanCleaf
ARTIST BIOS
ROBERT C. BANKS, JR. (Cinematographer) was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1966, and he has attended Cleveland Institute of Art and Cleveland State University and has served in the U.S. Air Force. Inspired by his father, Banks is an experimental filmmaker, cinematographer, and teacher of filmmaking and photography at numerous colleges and universities. Banks’ films have been screened at numerous prestigious film festivals and art institutions, both domestically and abroad, such as Sundance Film Festival, SXSW Film-Music Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Museum of Modern Art, The Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, Chicago Underground Film Festival, and Ann Arbor. He is a recipient of numerous awards, including Filmmaker of the Year at the Midwest Filmmaker’s Conference, and his film retrospectives have been featured at The BBC British Short Film Festival, The Cleveland Cinematheque, and The Walker Center for the Arts. One of Banks’ best-known works is the 1992 short film X: The Baby Cinema, which chronicles the commercialization of Malcolm X’s image and legacy. Some of his other films include Motion Picture Genocide, My First Drug, the Idiot Box, Outlet, Goldfish and Sunflowers, AWOL, Autopilot, and Don’t Be Still, all of which were shot and edited on 16 and 35 mm film. Several of his short films have been added to the private collections of institutions such as The Yale University Film School and The Walker Center for the Arts. Most recently, Banks has completed his first 35 mm feature film, Paper Shadows, which was seven years in the making.
Photo by Scott Shaw
ADAM BARRUCH (Choreographer) began his career as a young actor, performing professionally on Broadway and in film and television, working with prominent figures such as Tony Bennett, Jerry Herman, and Susan Stroman. He later received dance training at LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts. After three years, he graduated early and was accepted into the dance department at The Juilliard School. As a dancer he has performed the works of Jiri Kylian, Ohad Naharin, Susan Marshall, Jose Limón, Daniele Dèsnoyers, and was a dancer with Sylvain Émard Danse in Montreal. He has also worked with The Margie Gillis Dance Foundation, performing and researching Conflict Transformation as part of The Legacy Project. Based in Brooklyn, Adam currently creates and performs work with his own company, Anatomiae Occultii. In addition, he has also created works for companies such as The Limón Company, Ailey II, Keigwin + Company, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, River North Dance Chicago, BalletX, Whim W’Him Seattle Contemporary Dance, Graham II, GroundWorks Dance Theater, Minnesota Dance Theatre, The Gibney Dance Company, 10 Hairy Legs, and Daniel Costa Dance. Adam Barruch is also the developer of ‘Dynamic Sequencing,’ a movement practice designed to promote expansive range, healthful coordination and optimal awareness in motion.
Photo by Andrew Eccles
ROBERT BATTLE (Choreographer) has been the artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater since 2011, after being personally selected by Judith Jamison. In addition to expanding the Ailey repertory Mr. Battle also instituted the New Directions Choreography Lab to help develop the next generation of choreographers. Originally from the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, Florida, Mr. Battle studied dance at New World School of the Arts under the direction of Daniel Lewis and Gerri Houlihan, as well as at The Juilliard School under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy, where he met his mentor, Carolyn Adams. He danced with The Parsons Dance Company from 1994 to 2001, where he also staged his work, and Mr. Battle then founded his own Battleworks Dance Company, which made its debut in 2002 in Düsseldorf, Germany, as the U.S. representative to the World Dance Alliance’s Global Assembly. Mr. Battle was honored as one of the “Masters of African-American Choreography” by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2005, and he received the prestigious Statue Award from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA in 2007. He has honorary doctorates from The University of the Arts and Marymount Manhattan College. Mr. Battle was named a 2015 Visiting Fellow for The Art of Change, an initiative by the Ford Foundation.
Photo by Lindsay Linton
RENA BUTLER (Choreographer) hails from Chicago, IL. She began her studies at The Chicago Academy for the Arts, studied overseas at Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan, and received her BFA from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. Rena danced with companies such as Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (also a choreographic fellow), AIM by Kyle Abraham, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, David Dorfman Dance, Manuel Vignoulle/M-Motions, The Kevin Wynn Collection, and Pasos Con Sabor Salsa Dance Company. Currently, she dances for Gibney Company and was recently named its Choreographic Associate. Her choreographic work includes BalletX, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Boston Dance Theater, The New Orleans Museum of Modern Art in collaboration with Academy Award-Winning jazz composer, Terrence Blanchard, CHTV Stories television program in Switzerland, a film short in collaboration with Third Coast Percussion x Devonté Hynes/Blood Orange, The Young Choreographer’s Festival in NYC, The Ailey/Fordham School, TEDxChicago Virtual Salon 3.0: Design Your Life, and more. In 2019, she was the recipient of the prestigious Princess Grace Award for Choreography, and has been spotlighted in Dance Magazine’s On The Rise feature. Rena has taught workshops at L’Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Danse de Marseille in France, The Macau Cultural Center in China, Ailey Camp Chicago, and SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. Rena served on the Consortium for Chicago Dancemakers Forum for 3 years, was on the annual panel for Black Girls Dance in Chicago, and co-created and directed DanceLab—a free, choreographic course for Chicago teens, empowering participants of varying socioeconomic backgrounds + identities to find commonality in creation. She currently serves on Dancewave’s Artistic Advisory Council in NYC, and as a dance and choreographic mentor for young, aspiring artists as part of the Pointe People Mentorship Program.
Photo by Andrew Eccles
ELISA CLARK (Creator and Director) is an award winning artist, educator, and administrator from the Washington, DC area, who trained at the Maryland Youth Ballet before receiving a BFA from The Juilliard School under Benjamin Harkarvy. Clark was a founding member of Robert Battle’s Battleworks Dance Company, where she also served as Company Manager. Additionally, she was a featured member of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, and Mark Morris Dance Group, and she performed with Nederlands Dans Theater and The Metropolitan Opera in works by Jirí Kylián and Crystal Pite, respectively. As an educator, she has held residencies and faculty positions at the Ailey School/Fordham University, Alabama School of Fine Arts, American Dance Festival, Brown University, George Mason University, Indiana University, Jacob’s Pillow, Marymount Manhattan College, MOVE (NYC), University of North Carolina School of the Arts, New World School of the Arts and is currently on faculty at the University of the Arts and Princeton University. As a repetiteur and rehearsal director, Clark frequently restages the works of Mr. Battle and Mr. Morris. Clark is a Princess Grace Award Winner and a Certified Life Coach, often leading seminars and empowering artists to navigate their respective field. She is also most recently touring alongside Monica Bill Barnes with Monica Bill Barnes & Company in Happy Hour.
Photo courtesy Aaron Copp
AARON COPP’s (Lighting Designer) recent projects include The New One by Mike Birbiglia on Broadway, One Line Drawn by Brian Brooks for Miami City Ballet, Newsies at Village Theater, Shahrazad for The Royal Ballet of Flanders, and Rules Of The Game, created by Jonah Bokaer, Daniel Arsham and Pharrell Williams at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas. Music projects include designs for The Silk Road Ensemble, Natalie Merchant, The Goat Rodeo Sessions, So ̄ Percussion, Maya Beiser and the Bang On A Can All-Stars. Aaron has designed for The Old Globe, The Kennedy Center, Dallas Theater Center, and other major theaters around the country. He has worked extensively in the dance world, and in 2008 he received his second Bessie Award for Jonah Bokaer’s The Invention Of Minus One. He had a long association with Merce Cunningham, designing such pieces as Ground Level Overlay, Windows, and Biped, for which he also won a Bessie.
Photo courtesy Vince di Mura
VINCE DI MURA (Resident Composer/Musical Director) has appeared on concert stages and theaters throughout North America, Canada, Europe and Latin America. He has conducted theater seasons in virtually every region of the United States. He is best known for his arrangements of My Way: A Tribute to the Music of Frank Sinatra, Simply Simone, and I Left My Heart, (with over 900 productions nationally). He is also the author of A Conversation With The Blues, a 14 part web instructional series on improvisation through the Blues produced by Soundfy Inc. He holds fellowships from the William Goldman Foundation, Temple University, Meet the Composer, CEPAC, the Union County Foundation, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Puffin Cultural Forum, and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. He has six CDs on the market including his most recent release, Meditations on the Sacred Heart. He is currently engaged in a collaboration about the Great Migration with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Yusef Komunyakaa. The new work is slated to premier in 2021 and was commissioned by the Jazz Disciples.
MARY-SUSAN GREGSON (Stage Manager) has worked with Princeton’s Program in Dance since 2012. Recent credits include Gabriel Kahane’s 8980: Book of Travelers, Lincoln Center’s Global Exchange: Art for Good, A Proust Sonata for Da Camera Chamber Music, Narcissus Now Festival for the Onassis Cultural Center, Sufjan Steven’s Round Up and Gabriel Kahane’s The Ambassador, both at BAM. At The New Victory Theater she has stage-managed over twenty shows in the last 20 years and spent 20 summers production coordinating for Lincoln Center Festival. She has production managed Divinamente Festival and the New Island Festival on Governor’s Island. New York shows include Dance Africa, Sizwe Banzi is Dead, The Gate, BQE, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The Jazz Nativity, Breaking the Code and Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Regional credits include McCarter Theatre, Yale Rep, Williamstown, The Huntington, and the White House. She has toured with Dance Theatre of Harlem, Elisa Monte, Jennifer Muller, Pilobolus and internationally with Forbidden Christmas starring Baryshnikov.
Photo courtesy Darryl J Hoffman
DARRYL J. HOFFMAN (Composer) is a Bronx, New York, native currently based in Chicago. With his lifelong love for music, he developed a curiosity for sound and began creating at the age of 13. His resume of compositions include works on Kansas City Ballet for choreographer Stephanie Martinez, in collaboration with cellist Desiree Miller (2016); Danceworks Chicago with choreography by Owen Scarlet (2016); Visceral Dance Chicago’s Synapse, choreographed by Nick Pupillo (2017); Minnesota Dance Theatre for choreographer Darwin Black (2017); three Philadanco works choreographed by Anthony Burrell & Christopher Huggins (2018-2019); and works for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago & Ballet X, choreographed by Rena Butler (2018-Present); as well as full compositions for both Ebony Williams’ pieces entitled Title lX (2018) and Victoria, which premiered at Jacob’s Pillow in August of 2019. Expanding his creative horizons in 2020 by serving as Musical director for Regional Dance America’s National Choreography Summer Intensive, Darryl continues to live in his gift as he intends to shape the culture of music and dance with his sound, while continuing to contribute in other aspects of the arts.
Photo by Lisa Lancin
DANIEL MADOFF (Film Production Manager) is a film director, cinematographer, editor, and producer. His work includes award-winning films which have screened worldwide, as well as commercials for national television. He has created content for The New York Times, BBC America, Grey Goose Vodka, BMW, Dewar’s Whiskey, Michelob Ultra, Dermalogica, People Magazine, The Empire State Building, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Trisha Brown Dance Company, Celebrity Series of Boston, Princeton University, SUNY Purchase, East Carolina University, BRIC Media Arts, among others. Daniel was a dancer with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 2007 to its closure in 2012. He served as Director of Media for the Merce Cunningham Trust during Cunningham’s centennial celebration.
Photo courtesy Mary Jo Mecca
MARY JO MECCA’s (Costume Designer) work includes Nicole Wolcotts’ Luggage Lost at Triskelion Arts; Ellen Cornfelds’ Raw Footage; Aaron Landsman’s Empathy School & Love Story at Abrons Art Center; Joanna Kotze’s Find Yourself Here at Baryshnikov Arts Center; Liz Magic Laser’s Like You; Laura Petersons’ Forever at The Kennedy Center; Rashaun Mitchell’s Tesseract, Interface at Baryshnikov Arts Center and Nox at Danspace Project; Rebecca Lazier’s There Might Be Others at New York Live Arts, Coming Together/Attica at the Invisible Dog and I Just Like This Music, Terminal; Zvi Gotheiner’s Bear’s Ear, Detoura, Escher/Bacon/Rothko, Surveillance at New York Live Arts, Sky and Water at the MUSA! Festival; Jody Sperling’s Time Lapse-Fantasy at Danspace Project; Laura Peterson Dance’s Atomic Orbital and traceroute; and Barkin/Sellisen Project’s Differential Cohomology. Mecca has designed for the Theater and Dance Programs at Princeton University since 2009. She studied Couture Design with Miss Alice Sapho of Paris and New York. Creator of the Sippi, a social distance Drinking Mask.
Photo courtesy Roarke Menzies
ROARKE MENZIES (Composer) is a New York City-based composer, producer, and audio engineer making original music for performance, podcasts, games, television, and film. His work has been described by Exclaim Magazine as, “deeply hypnotic,” and by The New Yorker as, “a layered electronic throb, coming and going, always enhancing but never overpowering.” Menzies’s music has appeared in outlets like VICE Media, IFC Films, the Tribeca Film Festival, SF MoMA, the New Museum, the ICA Boston, the Joyce Theater, Danspace Project, New York Live Arts, and many others. He has four albums to date on his own Coup de Glotte label.
Photo by Wes Klain
MARTHA NICHOLS (Choreographer) is an award-winning choreographer, notable dancer, master teacher, dynamic speaker, and multifaceted artist who believes dance is an experience. Physical, emotional, energetic, musical and spiritual; It should be felt on all planes. Her credits include the movie In The Heights, The Greatest Showman, La La Land, The Louis Armstrong House Museum, The Metropolitan Opera, Khalid, Madonna, Rihanna, Ke$ha, Moses Sumney, Peter Chu’s ‘chuthis’, Fire Island Dance Festival, Cirque Du Soleil, The Oscars, The Grammys, Dancing with the Stars, The Cher Show Broadway, and more. She has created work for Pace University, Point Park University, and Boston Conservatory. In addition, Martha is the 2016 Capezio A.C.E. Award winner for choreographic excellence, was chosen as one of Dance Magazine’s Top 25 to Watch for 2017, can be found in Dance Spirit Magazine, Dance Lifestyle Magazine and has graced the cover of Dance Teacher Magazine.
Photo courtesy Danica Paulos
DANICA PAULOS (Editor) is a dancer, photographer, filmmaker, dance educator, and sound healer from Huntington Beach, California. She first studied dance at Orange County Dance Center and continued training at world renowned institutions such as The Juilliard School, San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and The School at Jacob’s Pillow. Danica joined the prestigious dance company Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 2014 after joining Ailey II for one year. Danica originated several roles and was featured in the Ailey Company’s repertory while traveling across the world. She also performed on television stations in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. While at Ailey, she modeled and was featured in Elle Magazine, Double Magazine, Refinery29, and graced the cover of Dance Magazine, where she was named “25 to Watch” in 2015. She has trained with Gong Masters Don Conreaux, Aiden McIntyre and Kay Karl in the sacred healing art of Gong playing for individual and group sound baths, as well as all-night Gong Puja. Danica has been practicing photography for over ten years and working professionally for four years. She is a dance photographer and dance filmmaker. You can find articles written about her work from Dance Spirit Magazine and The New York Times.
