New ASU dance season highlights students’ voices, identities
The ASU School of Music, Dance and Theatre will present a powerful 2024–25 dance season filled with student work focused on themes around community, social justice, cultural identity and feminism. Photo courtesy of the ASU School of Music, Dance and Theatre
Dance is one of the most personal forms of self-expression, and the dance program at Arizona State University is poised to present a new season filled with student work that addresses a range of very personal topics.
“This year’s season highlights a powerful group of dance changemakers whose work focuses on themes around community, social justice, cultural identity and feminism,” said Mary Fitzgerald, artistic director and professor of dance in ASU's School of Music, Dance and Theatre, part of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.
The season begins with the Emerging Artists series, showcasing the thesis projects of third-year graduate students in the Galvin Playhouse. Emerging Artists I features the work of graduate students JP Alejandro and Brandon Lombardo. In their pieces, Alejandro and Lombardo examine their personal identities.
Alejandro’s work explores his Filipino American identity in a dance theater work about home, heritage and belonging. Drawing inspiration from the Balikbayan box — the cultural practice of sending packages home to bridge distances between families — Alejandro transforms these symbols of connection into metaphors of identity.
“There’s a lot of opening and closing and interacting with the box,” Alejandro said. “I want audiences to relate to what it means to build and break a home. What does it mean to define home when home isn’t a physical thing?”
Lombardo said his work is both funny and vulnerable as it explores the themes of family/chosen family, queerness and identity. He wanted his final project to be reflective of his full self, which he encourages in his students as well.
“That’s what I strive for as a dance teacher here — to allow my students to be seen and heard and to live authentically through their movement,” Lombardo said.
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JP Alejandro performs original choreography in Spring Dance Fest 2024.
Photo courtesy of the ASU School of Music, Dance and Theatre
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Brandon Lombardo leads stretches at the beginning of his DCE 122: Jazz I class.
Photo courtesy of the ASU School of Music, Dance and Theatre
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Dancers perform in Valkyrie Yao's original work presented at Spring Dance Fest 2024.
Photo courtesy of the ASU School of Music, Dance and Theatre
Emerging Artists II will feature the work of Valkyrie Yao. Inspired by Daoism and Tibetan Buddhism, Yao’s work explores the complexities of human nature, power dynamics and shared vulnerabilities, weaving together performing arts, visual arts and abstract narration to create immersive experiences.
This season's lineup also includes the vibrant Sol Motion series — Sol Power, Latin Sol and Sol Rhythmz. Each year, the ASU dance department welcomes the community to the ASU Tempe campus to celebrate dance and culture. These community events are free and open to anyone interested in dance. ASU students are especially encouraged to participate.
Undergraduate dance majors will present their final capstone projects over two weekends this spring in the thought-provoking Transitions showcase. The students not only choreograph but also design and market the entire show.
"The seniors in dance are working on highly original and creative works that are deeply personal and moving," said Carley Conder, clinical assistant professor and artistic director for the Transitions showcase. "I'm already so impressed by the depth of research, originality and passion that the senior capstone students are pouring into their works."
The season concludes with Spring Dance Fest, where audiences will have the opportunity to see never-before-seen works by renowned guest artists Gerald Casel and Stefanie Batten Bland performed by ASU dance students.
Keith Thompson, associate professor and director of dance at ASU, said these artists were chosen not only for their cultural advocacy in the field of dance and immersive physical theater, but also for their artistic impact in education and community.
“Our students at ASU will be impacted and provoked by the rigor and authenticity that these works will bring and the questions that will challenge their art-making skills,” Thompson said.
Tickets are available at the Herberger Institute Box Office three weeks prior to performances. Information on the free Sol Motion community festivals can be found on the special event listings page.
2024–25 ASU dance season
Emerging Artists I
7:30 p.m. Oct. 25–26
2 p.m. Oct. 27
Galvin Playhouse
Sol Power Hip Hop Festival
Oct. 28 through Nov. 2
Nelson Fine Arts Plaza
ASU Dance Festival
8 a.m. Nov. 16
Margaret Gisolo Dance Theatre
Emerging Artists II
7:30 p.m. Nov. 15–16
2 p.m. Nov. 17
Galvin Playhouse
Undergraduate Project Presentations
7:30 p.m. Nov. 21–22
Margaret Gisolo Dance Theatre
Transitions I and II
7:30 p.m. Feb. 14–15, 21–22
2 p.m. Feb. 16, 23
Margaret Gisolo Dance Theatre
Sol Rhythmz Dance Festival
March 21–23
Graduate Project Presentations
7:30 p.m. March 27–28
Margaret Gisolo Dance Theatre
Latin Sol Dance Festival
April 11–13
Spring Dance Fest
7:30 p.m. April 18–19
2 p.m. April 19
Galvin Playhouse
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