Presenting the Senior Dance Majors
Hadassah James | “Frequency”
Frequency is a mysterious concept of working narratives that hasn’t been identified or explored. This work examines each dancer’s individual being of self-identity/awareness of self, cycles of exhaustion/resilience, and the unfolding of truth and freedom of expressions. By exploring these concepts the work is asking each artist to go beyond themselves, and it seeks to define a new improved art space that welcomes identity, exhaustions, freedom, and peace. Unfolding of truth is the culture of a cry. It’s the existence for a new journey
Hadassah James is a senior majoring in Dance. Her dance foundation began in her family church and she later started training At LeRe’s Dance Studio. Following this, Hadassah went on to train at Studio A Dance Academy in Baltimore Maryland. During Her UMBC career she has been to the American College Dance Association Conference where she performed in works selected for the gala in 2020 and 2022, GAlA Concert, and the Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement. She has performed works by Shaness Kemp, Giavanni Powell,Therersa Whittmore, Jahnaye Samuel and Kayla Massey. Hadassah currently teaches ballet and modern dance for A Brush of Art Visual Arts and Dance Center and is a serving member of del. In the Summer of 2022, Hadassah will be training in Deeply Rooted Dance Theater Summer Intensive.
Artist Statement
My passion for dance comes from a place of truth and trial that is transparent to all, and through dance I aim to break barriers that seem insurmountable. I create works and art spaces where I can express myself. A misconception of dance is that it is solely to be performed; I believe that dance should be more of an experience for personal edification. My dance philosophy is that the practice should, more than anything, teach its practitioners principles of discipline, etiquette, and healing, and I find it my obligation to facilitate this learning. Dance is just like life, each day it reveals something new to those that insist in it wholly.
In my work, I explore styles and techniques of modern, liturgical, jazz, and ballet. Within the development of new content, I strive for human authenticity explored through movement. It is therefore important that my collaborating dancers feel supported in the creative process, listened to, as they bring with them their vulnerabilities–such as the hidden surfaces of their thoughts, pain, and cries. Through this interconnected process, my aim is to challenge myself and dancers to re-identify and reexamine the space which are our bodies, and by centering myself and the dancers as evolving and powerful beings–I seek to define a new improved art space that welcomes identity, exhaustions, freedom, and peace.
Jasmine Glaze | “Cycles of Life”
We all have cycles in our lives and how we define them vary from person to person. This work is an investigation into the word cycles. When does a cycle start or end? Do we influence each other’s cycle? What happens when peoples’ cycles meet or go away from one another?
Jasmine Glaze is a transfer student from Howard community college where she was taught by Elizabeth Higgins and Alex Krebbs. At Howard community college she completed her first work called Work Out. In 2020, she performed work by an undergraduate Jes Powell and Faculty Elizabeth Higgins at the informal and formal concert during American College Dance Association conference. She transferred to UMBC in fall of 2020 and has performed in pieces by Brandon Perry and student choreographer Cristine Davis. After graduation she will be at UMBC for one more year completing her other major in media and communications.
Artist Statement
When I start a project I try to find something in my life that I’m having a problem figuring out or something that I need more time to explore and understand. For me, dance is another way to express myself. Sometimes words are not enough or I can’t
find the right ones to say so researching a dance and diving deep into the idea helps me to figure out what I might want to say. I find my dance practice to be very therapeutic for me because I think about the subject in ways that I never thought about before. When it comes to the dance works I create, I focus on the dance styles that I grew up studying. With my background in tap, jazz, and ballet I find my work integrating my past learned knowledge with new contemporary approaches. More recently with studying at college I have been getting a more well rounded knowledge of dance from different cultures and I try to incorporate that into my dances also.
Gretta Zinski | “the jOurney”
Gretta Zinski is a dancer with scholarly interests in feminist and critical sexuality studies. She has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Fillmore in Silver Spring, the American College Dance Association Conference, and annually in UMBC Dance showcases since 2018. In May 2022, Gretta will graduate from UMBC with a B.A. in Dance and a Minor in Information Systems. Throughout her undergraduate career she acted as the Dance Council of Majors student organization President and has received funding through the Undergraduate Research Award and Dance Department Summer Study award programs to pursue independent movement research in 2019 and 2020.
Artist Statement
I dance because movement in my body is how I have grown to experience life, and contemporary dance is where I find myself at home. My particular style is informed by a culmination of diverse movement vocabularies I’ve learned through training in contemporary, modern, ballet, umfundalai, and hip hop.
One of the many pleasures in my life comes from examining feminist and sexuality studies, which have become sources of artistic and entreprenurial inspiration. Choreography and idea development is often informed through my personal experiences of emotions, sensations, and scholarly theories about gender, sex, relationships, and inequity. When I make dance about human engagement, I enjoy collaborating with people because it creates space for the testimony of multiple otherness. This shared exploration is rewarding because the variety of nuances in every person’s experience reveal the interconnected-ness of the human experience.
I create dance work through movement research which is an investigation of ideas through movement. This is done with questions such as; what does this idea look or feel like in motion, with the body, in space, or in time? My current work and senior capstone project will explore women’s encounters with pleasure. The dancers tell stories of pleasure which include emotional and physical sensations, healing, self acceptance, and reclaiming personal agency and meaning. These themes have been discovered through observation of my own journey with pleasure and through conversations with the dancers throughout our creative process.