Dance Program Collaboration
For the 2013-2014 academic year, the Georgetown University Dance program organized a collaboration between our two academic dance companies, Black Movements Dance Theatre and Georgetown University Dance Company, bringing in choreographers of national and international reputation to work with students from across the dance program.
KEVIN IEGA JEFF
Iega has been Artistic Director of Deeply Rooted Dance Theater in Chicago for the last 15 years. As a dancer, choreographer, arts manager, and teacher, his mission is to bring dancers, students and communities to excellence through movement, self-discipline and a commitment to living an artful life.
Kevin Iega Jeff began studying dance formally at age thirteen. He trained at the Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts Center, New York City’s High School for the Performing Arts, Darvash Ballet School, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center before matriculating into The Juilliard School. As a dancer he has been praised for his technical brilliance and rigor, his dramatic power, and the singular ability to perform and bridge different dance forms in a seamless manner, whether it be ballet, modern, contemporary, or African American dance.
At the age of 21, Iega founded his first company, JUBILATION! Dance Company in New York City. JUBILATION! was created out of a need to provide a forum for African-American artists to be nurtured holistically through the arts. For ten years the company toured nationally and internationally, helping to bring the stories, histories, and art of the African American people as well as his unique approach to contemporary dance to a global audience.
While continuing to perform as a dancer, it was at JUBILATION! that Iega began his life long pursuit of both choreographing new work and directing a company that would train a new generation of dancers and choreographers In 1994, he left New York to take up an appointment as Artistic Director of the Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theater. In 1995, he co-founded Deeply Rooted Productions in Chicago where he continues to serve today as Artistic Director. As a choreographer, Iega has created more than 50 works, ranging from solos to large-scale company dances, where he pushes contemporary dance to take cognizance of different voices and aesthetics. He primarily creates for Deeply Rooted, but also continuously receives commissions by other companies to create new works for them, such as the Alvin Ailey Dance Ensemble, River North Dance Company, Dallas Black Dance Theater, the Cleveland Contemporary Dance Theater, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, and the Wylliams/Henry Dance Theatre.
In 2005, Iega was named as one of the Juilliard School’s 100 Outstanding Alumni in celebration of the school’s centenary anniversary. Among his other awards are those from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Council for Culture and Arts, and the BTAA Best Choreography award for Church of Nations. He received a Merit Award from the International Association of Blacks in Dance, and joined their Board in January 2006. Most recently, Iega was awarded the 2009 Chicago Dance Makers Forum Grant to support the creation of I Am Deeply Rooted, which premiered in the Spring of 2010.
Iega has served as artist-in-residence at Howard University, the University of Las Vegas, Goucher College, SUNY Purchase and at Purdue University’s Black Cultural Center. His work has been featured in several films, including Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It, and in the Broadway shows Comin’ Uptown and The Wiz. Iega’s Walls premiered at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, GA. In 2003, Iega and Deeply Rooted Dance Theater Associate Artistic Director Gary Abbott co-choreographed Jagged Ledges, featuring Tony Award-winning spoken word artist Staceyann Chin. In 2006, he and Abbott were commissioned to choreograph Three Brazilian Dances for the Chicago Sinfonietta, which premiered at Chicago’s Symphony Hall.
As Iega reflects on 15 years at Deeply Rooted, he states: “I want my work to grow truer, more focused, and relevant over time. My art is born out of human examination, and my desire to communicate authentically informs what I create. For me dance is a perfect catalyst. It reveals the inner voice, reflecting who we are and who we strive to become.”
CHRISTOPHER L. HUGGINS
Christopher L. Huggins, choreographer, teacher and former member of the renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. A native of Boston, Massachusetts, trained under Andrea Herbert Major, Danny Sloan and Martha Gray. After attending SUNY Purchase, The Julliard School, and fellowship at The Ailey School, Huggins appeared as a guest artist in several dance companies in the United States, Oslo Dance Ensemble in Oslo, Norway and Aterballetto of Reggio Emilia, Italy.
Christopher has had the distinct honor as a master teacher and choreographer to work in South Africa, Europe, Japan, Korea as well as throughout the United States in high schools and major Universities like Howard University, Spellman College, University of Arts, Eastern and Western Michigan and Wayne State University. It has been said that Huggins is a much sought after Choreographer and have created ballets for Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Ailey II, Philadanco, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Louisiana Dance Theatre, Lulu Washington Dance Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, Broadway Dance of Tokyo and Oslo Dance Ensemble in Oslo, Norway. Additionally, he was esteemed the honor of serving as sole choreographer for the 50th Anniversary Opening Night Gala for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in 2008.
In 2002 and 2008 Huggins was recognized for his work and became the recipient of the Alvin Ailey Award for Best Choreography, The Black Alliance Award in Chicago for Enemy Behind The Gates and Pyrokinesis as well as recognized as a silver medalist from the 4th Annual Seoul International Contemporary Dance Competition, in Seoul Korea. Another highlight was winning the “Critics Choice Award” for his choreography of the Musical The Wiz with Dallas Theatre Center in Dallas, Texas and Service to IABD in the Field of Dance Award from the International Association of Blacks in Dance.
Huggins is currently serving as resident choreographer at Duke Ellington High School of the Arts in Washington, D.C. and choreographer in Cape Town, South Africa where he recently set his ballet “Bolero” on Cape Dance Company. Currently, he is a faculty member of the Dance Convention Tour, ASH – Artists Simply Human.
The following dance concerts showcase the outgrowth of these choreographers’ extended residencies and the deep collaboration with Georgetown dance students, featuring “Church of Nations” by Kevin Iega Jeff and “Mothers of War” by Christopher Huggins:
Friday and Saturday, February 7 and 8 at 8 p.m.
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY DANCE PROGRAM
Black Movements Dance Theatre
Professor Alfreda Davis, Artistic Director
Spring Concert: Black History Month program
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
$10 GENERAL/ $8 STUDENT
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Friday and Saturday, February 14 and 15 at 8 p.m.
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY DANCE PROGRAM
Georgetown University Dance Company
Miya Hisaka Silva, Faculty Artistic Director
Spring Concert
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
$10 GENERAL / $8 FACULTY, STAFF, SENIOR, STUDENT