Photo Credit: FunnFoto
The Dance Program welcomes guest artist Ronya-Lee LaVaune Anderson of Ronya-Lee and the Light Factory
Ronya-Lee will be in residence March 11-16, 2024, leading two workshops open to UVA students, faculty, and staff, giving an informal performance of Residence Time, free and open to the public, and choreographing a new work to be presented in our Spring Dance Concert in April.
This residency is supported by the University of Virginia Arts Council.
WORKSHOP INFORMATION
Contemporary House Dance (Monday, March 11th, 6:00-7:30pm) This class for Intermediate/Advanced dancers draws on House Dance as lived practice, providing space for curiosity, creativity, and choice. Participants will be guided through continuous movement, finding periods of both personal and collective expression.
Moving Stories Workshop (Saturday, March 16th, 10:00am-12:00pm) In this heavily movement based workshop open to all levels and backgrounds, participants are led through a series of exercises designed to unearth their own matrilineal narratives. Participants then, through song, text, and movement, create stories that move, both figuratively and literally.
Workshop registration is limited - please contact Kim Brooks Mata with the subject line "Spring Dance Residency" to sign up!
PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
Performance - Residence Time (Thursday, March 14th, 7:00-8:30pm, Ruth Caplin Theatre) Residence Time is a sung, danced, and spoken performance study. The work traverses the future, past, and present, folding in ancestral knowledge and incomplete histories of the peoples of the African Diaspora. It highlights shared identity that traverses time and space. Residence Time features original music by Ronya-Lee and the Light Factory, choreography and text as well as stories from the audience.
This performance is free and open to the public. No tickets are required; seating is available on a first-come, first served basis.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Image
Ronya-Lee is a Carribean-American folk-soul singer-songwriter and dancer-choreographer from Washington, DC. Born of Jamaican immigrants, she spent her formative years moving between school plays, church services, and basement parties. She continued her education, obtaining a Master's of Divinity from Duke University and an MFA in Dance from Maryland University.
A former member of the Chuck Davis African American Dance Ensemble and of Liz Lerman's Dance Exchange, she has numerous live theater credits and has appeared in national commercial and print ads. Recent awards and commissions include the Pola Nirenska Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance (2021), See Site National Endowment of the Arts Residency (2023), Kennedy Center REACH Office Hours (2024) and Dance Place Artist Residency (2022-24). Ronya-Lee is currently a doctoral fellow at the University of Maryland and is on dance faculty at American University.
She has published articles in the Journal of Dance Education, Sojourners Magazine, and the UCC Journal of Worship, Music and Ministry, with a publication forthcoming in the textbook, Dance in US Popular Culture. The original music of Ronya-Lee and the Light Factory is available on all streaming platforms. To learn more about Ronya-Lee's work, follow her on Instagram.
Image
