(L-R): Aaliyah Leonard, Keisha Bennett, Alexis Franklin, and Amber Johnson in”Double Dutch Training Ground” (Photo: William Frederking)
A dance piece by Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago alum Keyierra Collins has been selected for the 2016 National College Dance Festival, presented by the American College Dance Association June 9-11 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
Nura Abdul-Mateen in “Double Dutch Training Ground” (Photo: William Frederking)
Collins’ work, Double Dutch Training Ground, was selected for the festival after it was presented at the American College Dance Conference, North Central Region. Collins’ piece was one of three pieces selected to go to the national festival in a blind adjudication process, in which Collins competed with student, faculty, and professional guest artist choreographers from schools across the region.
Marceia Scruggs in “Double Dutch Training Ground” (Photo: William Frederking)
The cast of Double Dutch Training Ground includes current Columbia College Chicago Dance Center students Marceia Scruggs (a senior in the Dance Center’s Dance BA program with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies from Columbia’s Humanities, History & Social Sciences Department), Nura Abdul-Mateen (a junior in the Dance BA program), and Keisha Bennett (a junior in the Dance BFA program with a minor in Black World Studies from the Humanities, History & Social Sciences Department), as well as Alexis Franklin (a junior in the Columbia College Humanities, History & Social Sciences Department’s BA Program in Cultural Studies with a minor in Black World Studies). Dance Center alums Aaliyah Leonard (BA ’16), a graduate of the Dance BA program with a minor in Fiction Writing from Columbia’s Creative Writing Department) and Amber Johnson are also in the cast. The lighting designer is Jasmine Mendoza, a senior pursuing an interdisciplinary major in Dance and Theatre.
Amber Johnson in “Double Dutch Training Ground” (Photo: William Frederking)
In April, Collins choreographed the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department’s mainstage production Death and the King’s Horseman.
Double Dutch Training Ground will be performed as part of the festival’s Program B on Friday, June 10, at 2 and 7 PM. For tickets and more information regarding the National College Dance Festival, call 202-467-4600 or click here.
