Small Dances, Big Creativity

Photo of the Week

The Department of Dance presents its resident and visiting artist dance concert Wednesday, Nov 14-Saturday, Nov 17. The production -- Small Dances for Small Spaces -- will be presented in the EMMA (Experimental Media and Movement Arts) Lab in the ACCAD building, and will feature works from OSU's Candace Feck, Shawn Hove, Michael Kelly Bruce, Norah Zuniga-Shaw and Melanie Bales, and visitors Ming-Lung Yang (above) from Taiwan and Tania Isaac, Philadelphia. Dances include the premiere of Walks to Linko - Threadless Footprint by Yang; Stuporwoman by Isaac, Boy Sandwich by Bruce, NO/ON with text by Feck, six untitled scenes referencing film scenes by Bales, Murmer by Marc Ainger (Music) and Shaw, and bata version by Brent Haley (computer science), Hove and David Morneau (music).

Notable News

A fabulous, five minute video about our opera students' summer experience in Novafeltria, Italy, is on the front page of the OSU website. The video traces the students' experiences in the Italian language school and on the local opera stages.

Costume designs by Kristine Kearney (Theatre) have received a Peggy Ezekiel Award of Outstanding Achievement at the recent United States Institute for Theatre Technology Ohio Valley Conference held in Wilmington. Kearney's designs for the 2006 OSU production of Hair were selected for the recognition out of 26 entries.

Music alumna Kathleen Sasnett has been contracted to have her DMA thesis, "25 works for the Dramatic Soprano Voice and Orchestra," published by VDM Verlag. A portion of her work will also be published in the GNATS Journal. Another music alum, Rob Kerr, is a finalist in the Chester Ludgin Memorial International Verdi Baritone Competition.

Sarah Lewis Jones, music student, is a national finalist in the Santa Fe Young Artists auditions.

Music alumnus Tadd Russo has a couple of music pieces on a program now airing on PBS stations nationwide. The show, United States Air Force 60th Anniversary: A Musical Celebration was taped at the Strathmore Music Center in Washington DC last June, and includes the Air Force Orchestra, Singing Sergeants, Empire Brass and the original Three Mo' Tenors. Russo's Dreaming of Skies to Conquer is an original compositon in a Hollywood style, and the official march for the 60th anniversary. He also arranged a grand finale version of God Bless America.

Art Ed alum Janet Fedorenko was named an Ohio Art Education Association (OAEA) Distinguished Fellow at the organization's recent conference in Dayton. The award recognizes members who have made long-term marked contributions to the association and to the advancement of art education. She is the principal at Hanby Arts Magnet Elementary School in Westerville, and she teaches as an adjunct faculty member at OSU, Otterbein and Ashland University.

Michael Mercil (Art) recently represented the department's Living Culture Initiative in an exhibition at Allegheny College in Pennsyvlania. There, he organized an Allegheny College "campus sweep" and gave a public reading.

Reinhart Butter (Design) recently spent eight weeks as a guest professor at Kyonggi University (KGU) in Suwon, South Korea. He taught undergraduate studio courses in Industrial Design, as well as seminars for graduate and Ph.D students. Public lectures addressed the role of research in design education and provided an opportunity to compare OSU's vision on the subject with other educational approaches. Kyonggi University and its respected College of Art and Design is the latest addition to the slate of foreign institutions with which the Department of Design maintains formal exchange agreements. Two seniors in Industrial Design, Sarah Park and Joshua Morrow, are currently visiting Korea, while
one of KGU's students, Eun Jee Hyun, is spending several quarters at Ohio State. KGU is the department's first Asian exchange program; future options might include Japan and China.

Late last month the School of Music hosted Music, War and Reconciliation, the 52nd annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, which attracted 860 US and international ethnomusicologists. About 300 participants were grad students. The School of Music maintained a strong presence at the conference, with 15 faculty members and students presenting research and performing music. Four ensembles (jazz, steel drums, African and Slavic groups) also performed.

Design alum Courtney Jones has been promoted to senior interactive designer at TenUnited in Columbus.

Ken Rinaldo (Art & Techonology) premiered his installation Buzz in Portugal last week at the Research Center for Science and Technology in the Arts at the Portuguese Catholic University in Porto. Buzz is a sound and glass installation which amplifies all forms of networks related to wine production, at the center of commerce there. The bacterial networks that support wine fermentation are made visible as are sounds of bees, telephony, transportation and satellite networks, which support world-wide wine distribution. Rinaldo also presented a keynote address on networks and art.

Art & Technology alumnus Fernando Orellana opens his robotic works as part of Emergents at Laboral Centro de Arte y Creation Industrial in Gijon, Spain, as part of 10 projects by Latin American artists.

David Huron (Music Theory) has returned from a month in Russia, where he assisted folklorist Yelena Minyonok in recording elderly Cossack singers and conducting an experiment in a rural village near Volgograd.