School of Dance Announces Visiting Guest Artist Marcus White
The Line Up
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
The Florida State University School of Dance is proud to announce visiting guest artist Marcus White. White visits the School of Dance as a part of a Faculty Exchange Program with Arizona State University. School of Dance Assistant Professor, Hannah Schwadron, spent one week on the campus of ASU contributing to their dance department, and in turn White will spend one week in FSU’s School of Dance. During his visit, White will contribute to Contemporary Dance technique, Studies in Dance Technology, and the Choreographic and Composition studies of the undergraduate and graduate dance majors.
On Wednesday, February 27, 2019, during the School of Dance’s weekly Forum, White will present his work, The Line Up, followed by an interactive Q&A session. The Line Up is the second solo project of a trilogy of works as a part of the Mas(c) or Nah Solo Series. This presentation is a choreographic sketch that explores the terms “Line Up” as a double edged blade between care and trauma in the US public sphere. Forum is free at 10:45 am at Studio 301 in FSU’s Montgomery Hall.
Marcus White Biography
Marcus White is an American movement maker, educator, community engagement advocate and storyteller. His work has been described as “ingenious” and “vulnerable” by the Chicago Tribune and according to Dance Panorama is “bold”. As Founder and Creative Director of Detroit-based performance company White Werx, he creates dance-driven work for the stage and screen. White is an Assistant Professor of Dance within the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. His teaching and creative practice centralizes embodied performance as transformational and are informed by his experiences and embodied investigations of American urban, social dance forms and postmodern contemporary dance. White Werx screendances have been presented at dance film festivals across the United States including most recently at American Dance Festival’s Movies by Movers program. White Werx has also partnered with organizations such as Dance Films Association, Dance Film Fest at DDCF, and Dances Made for Camera at the Detroit Institute for Art. Marcus White/White Werx is excited to launch Moving 24fps in partnership with Carlos Funn/Funn Foto. This multi-city project is designed to bring film and dance makers together to craft new screendances in a single weekend. The next iteration of this project is Detroit – May 2017. For more information about Marcus White/White Werx visit www.theofficialmrw.com
White has taught at University of Michigan, Wayne State University and has served as a resident creative and teaching artist at various prestigious pre-professional dance programs such as the Penn State University, University of Montana, Oakland University, Fayetteville State University, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and the American College Dance Association. Marcus White/White Werx was recently featured in the New York Times about their collaborative interdisciplinary work as a part of Nick Cave’s Here/Hear project and create screendance programs
Screendance programs include: Dance Film Fest at DDCF, Ann Arbor Dance on Camera Marcus White and his company was recently featured in the New York Times about their collaborative interdisciplinary work as a part of Nick Cave’s Here/Hear project.
Creative Research Focus and Interests
- Interdisciplinary
- Performance Making Practices
- ‘American’
- Social Dance Practices and Performance
- Performance
- as Activism
- Community
- engagement
- Dance
- for the Camera
- Arts
- Entrepreneurship
- Cultural Studies
My creative research integrates cultural theory, movement practice and digital media. I’m interested in the ways we perform our identity in our mobile, complex bodies. I aim to use and create visual imagery, sound, and performance as frameworks that I use in my creative process to develop a conceptual flow and rhythm within the my projects in process and performance. I enjoy bringing diverse groups together, and I encourage an invested dialogue with artists, community partners, and designers, all of whom I see as collaborators. It is through collective effort and community cultural exchange, where I create multimedia works that engage complex philosophical questions about who we are, why we are here, and how we interact.
-Marcus White