Thursday, November 19, 2015
Duke & Mellon Foundations Sponsor Provocative Dance Work on the Legacy of Confederate Symbolism
Wideman/Davis Dance, the UofSC Dance Program’s resident professional dance company, will present their original evening-length work, Ruptured Silence: Racist Symbolism and Signs, December 1-4 at Drayton Hall Theatre.
Performance times are 8pm each evening. Tickets for the concert are $12 for students, $16 for UofSC Faculty/Staff, Military and Seniors, and $18 for the general public. Tickets are available at the door or by calling 803-777-2551. Drayton Hall Theatre is located at 1214 College St, across from the historic UofSC Horseshoe. Post-show discussions will be held each evening.
Conceived and directed by Tanya Wideman-Davis and Thaddeus Davis, Co-Artistic Directors of Wideman/Davis Dance and Assistant Professors in the University of South Carolina Dance Program, Ruptured Silence is a new media and dance performance that examines contemporary perspectives about the confederate flag, a bygone symbol, and its usage as an intimidation tool. In lieu of the recent mass murders at South Carolina’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Ruptured Silence provides an opportunity for discourse on racial equality and oppression within our current cultural landscape. As professors and dance makers, Wideman-Davis and Davis seek to illuminate and challenge the order of discriminatory practices through movement.
In 2013, Wideman/Davis Dance was awarded a Map Fund Grant (provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) to support the research and development of the work. Wideman/Davis Dance, through its fiscal partner Columbia Music Festival Association, was one of just ten dance companies in the nation to receive the grant...