From The Center for Creative and Performing Arts at Salem State University
The Center for Creative and Performing Arts at Salem State returns to presenting live performances and other arts events on campus with a Faculty and Guest Artist Dance Concert on Thursday, September 9 at 7:30 pm in the Sophia Gordon Center. Admission is free but advance registration is encouraged at www.salemstatetickets.com. The concert will run one hour with no intermission. Masks are required to be worn by all attendees per university COVID-19 safety protocols.
Michelle Deane Laila Franklin
This concert will feature original choreography by Salem State dance faculty Betsy Miller, MeghanMcLyman, Michelle Deane and Laila Franklin and alumni Lindsey McGovern and Jake Crawford.
McGovern and Crawford have choreographed works to texts by Elisabeth Weiss, Museum Sculpture Garden and Cathy Fahey, To the Young Girl in the Torn Dress. These pieces were premiered at the 2021 Mass Poetry Festival.
Miller and McLyman are creating work with Salem State dance alumni and faculty from other university departments. Miller’s piece is the premiere of a 3-part work created in collaboration with professors Phil Swanson, music and JD Scrimgeour, English. The first section is set to Swanson’s original composition The Restless Seas, performed by dance alumni. Sections two and three are performed by Miller with spoken word by Scrimgeour and music by Swanson that blend elements of the games telephone and exquisite corpse and an improvisatory final movement.
Victoria Awkward Meghan McLyman
McLyman’s piece, What Matters Most? is created in conjunction with art + design faculty Ken Reker and pianist Karen Gahagan, director of the Center for the Arts. This interactive work will begin in the lobby prior to the start of the concert where the audience will be asked to engage with Reker’s work and answer the question, “What concerns or questions are at the forefront of your mind today?” Selections from Chick Corea’s Children’s Songsaccompany this work.
Upcoming events for the fall semester include the reopening of the Winfisky Gallery featuring work by Salem State’s art + design faculty through September 17 and the return of the Salem State Writers Series with guest Ernesto Quiñonez on October 14. The theatre department returns to the stage with a production of Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando, October 14 – 24, while the music department presents two concerts in October, the Boston Village Gamelan on October 10 and a music faculty recital on October 21. Check www.salemstate.edu/arts for the fall schedule of events.
About the Center for Creative and Performing Arts
Salem State’s Center for Creative and Performing Arts (CCPA) provides the arts explorer a singular destination to experience world-class guest artists and award-winning student and faculty performances in dance, music and theatre as well as art exhibitions and spoken word events. The CCPA is committed to providing diverse, inclusive and affordable arts experiences to the communities on Boston’s north shore.
About Salem State University
Salem State University, established in 1854, is a comprehensive, public institution of higher learning located approximately 15 miles north of Boston, Massachusetts. One of the largest state universities in the Commonwealth, Salem State enrolls about 7,000 undergraduate and graduate students. It offers 32 undergraduate programs and graduate programs that offer degrees in 24 fields. The university also has a continuing education division that offers both credit and non-credit programs. Known for the academic strength of its faculty, Salem State was named a Top Producer of U.S. Fulbright Scholars in 2011 and for the 2016-2017 academic year. The university is designated a Top College and University by Military Advanced Education and a Best for Vets College by Military Times. Salem State proudly participates in the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement and has shown a student voting rate well above the national average, earning the university a gold seal from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.
