Series: Window on Williams
Lectures and special events from the Williams College campus in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Window on Williams – 2018 Commencement – Welcome from Interim President Protik Majumder
Scientists, Poets, Writers, Sociologists, Thespians, Art Historians-- Interim President Tiku Majumder honors several of the 13 retiring faculty, including geologist David Dethier at the 229th Williams College Commencement.
Window on Williams – Williams Baccalaureate 2018
Window on Williams – Sankofa 2018 – Kofa High!
The foundations of contemporary stepping emerged in the United States during the 1900s as an aspect of performed self and group affirmation for African-American Greek letter sororities and fraternities. At Williams, this history began in 1996 when five students introduced the tradition to friends. As a result, interest in the power of bodies moving in unison to create sound and motion grew. They named themselves Sankofa, a word and concept from the Akan people of Ghana that can be translated as “reach back and get it.” Sankofa acknowledges its roots and uses Hip-Hop, spoken word and media to keep stepping contemporary.
Window on Williams – CoDA (Contemporary Dance Ensemble) – Celebration!
CoDa (Contemporary Dance Ensemble) strives to educate and inspire through the creation and performance of repertoire and new work by faculty, guest artists, and students. The spring program included Martha Graham’s 1934 Celebration, restaged by Erica Dankmeyer. With a score by Graham’s longtime collaborator Louis Horst, Celebration is an abstract work of stark physicality, showcasing Graham’s early technique and embodying the austere purity of her creative voice just before she began to work with narrative. Janine Parker premieres We Were, a now-playful, now-lyrical abstract work set to J.S. Bach’s Partita #1, performed live by department accompanist John Sauer. The program also included four new works by student choreographers Alexia Barandiaran ’19, Grace Mazzarella ’19, Nyla Thompson ’20, and Joelle Troiano ’20.
