The dance department in the Herberger College of Fine Arts recently acquired four grants totaling $50,400 that will allow the department to hire professional choreographers and to expand its work in the community.
The amount of money received from the grants is the most ever obtained by the department.
The ASU/Motorola Great Communities program donated a $34,700 grant that will be combined with a $3,600 grant from the Phoenix Commission of the Arts, a city organization to further arts in the area, to completely fund the department's community partnership program. The ASU/Motorola program is a combined funding program for community and neighborhood grants.
With the program, the dance department will regularly teach at three educational institutions in the Valley including Herrera School for Fine Arts, the Thomas J. Pappas School and the Gilbert Boys' and Girls' Club.
"These grants benefit students enormously because it helps us provide opportunities we normally wouldn't be able to," department chairwoman Claudia Murphey said. "Having the ability for up-and-coming dancers to work with professionals is a great opportunity for networking and to be acquainted with what it's like to be working in the field."
Assistant professors of dance Mary Fitzgerald and Jennifer Tsukayama will lead a group consisting of 12 undergraduate and graduate ASU students who will work directly with children at the schools for the academic school year. The group will create dances and choreography in preparation for a performance by children of all three schools in April at the Third Street Theatre in Phoenix.
A grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts for $2,100 combined with a $10,000 grant from Dance/USA and National Endowment for the Arts National College Choreography Initiative will go toward bringing in three professional guest choreographers. The work done by the choreographers will eventually be performed in the dance department concert series. The trio will also do a number of guest master classes for the department as well as in the community.
Dance/USA only awards its $10,000 grant to one organization in each state.
The dance department had applied for more grants this year than in the past.
"We are constantly extending who we apply to. Once you have a good cause, then that's the opportune time to ask for help from outside sources," Murphey said.
Tsukayama added, "We're incredibly grateful for these grants. In the past we've worked on a budget of about $3,000. In the last few years we've been able to establish ourselves more and gotten a greater response from the public."
Reach Christopher Drexel at christopher.drexel@asu.edu.
