Tulsa Modern Movement Plans for 2014-15 Season
COMMUNITY SUPPORT: Enjoying TuMM’s (Tulsa Modern Movement) recent The KiCKER fundraiser at AHHA are, from left, AHHA Executive Director and KiCKER MC Ken Busby, Ari Christopher and Alicia Cheeser with TuMM, and Merrily Sanzalone and Joel Norvell of The Norvell Family Foundation.
Always known for its cosmopolitan cultural environment, Tulsa is in the midst of a renaissance fueling robust infrastructure development, particularly in the Brady Arts District immediately north of downtown. New places for more art have given rise to TuMM (Tulsa Modern Movement), a resident modern dance company.
In late April, TuMM hosted The KiCKER, its first fundraising campaign. Major donors to date are The Norvell Family Foundation, The Anne & Henry Zarrow Foundation and The Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa. Proceeds benefit educational programs.
“With this campaign, which is ongoing until we raise the amount budgeted for our 2014-15 season, we are asking the community to join us build TuMM,” says Artistic Director Alicia Chesser.
“Dance connects all of us to our humanity. Growing a sustainable modern dance company here benefits the whole community culturally and economically. Our work attracts young talent to the area, where there has for so long been an exceptional ballet company.”
TuMM’s artistic leadership received training at Marymount Manhattan College Modern Dance program, the Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance, and Tulsa Ballet and honed that training with decades of artistic practice in Tulsa and in New York City.
TuMM’s outreach in area schools this past season inspired more than 3,000 students through classroom visits and its Harwelden Institute production Afternoons with Emery. More than 100 teachers participated in professional development sessions where they learned about aesthetic education and the value of open-ended inquiry in the arts. In addition, TuMM produced multiple site-specific performances, performed engagements at Tulsa Ballet’s Studio K and commissioned works for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Add to those efforts, weekly free public classes and workshops hosted for advanced dancers and non-dancers and warmly welcoming audiences in to observe their creative process, and it is clear TuMM is squarely on a course to becoming a permanent resident modern dance company and a regional dance ambassador for Tulsa.
The company’s 2013-14 season concluded recently with performances of “HOLD,” an exploration of memory and identity featuring three new works by Ari Christopher and Chesser. For more information about performances, classes and the ongoing capital campaign, The KiCKER, visit TuMMdance.org.
Updated 07-26-2014
READER COMMENTS
About Post Author
