USM Dance Professor Awarded South Arts Presentation Grant
Mon, 08/29/2022 - 01:48pm | By: Ivonne Kawas
Dr. Candice Salyers, assistant professor of dance in the School of Performing and
Visual Arts at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM), has been awarded a presentation
grant by regional arts non-profit organization South Arts for a residency with Full
Radius Dance, an Atlanta-based professional modern dance company in the field of physically
integrated dance.
These competitive and limited presentation grants of up to $9,500 are a portion of $491,391 that organizations across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee will receive fee support to present Southern guest film directors, visual and performing artists, or writers from inside or outside of the presenter’s state.
Dr. Salyers is organizing a residency with Full Radius Dance, a company focused on bringing together disabled and non-disabled dancers through performance. Full Radius Dance will conduct a week-long residency with USM’s Dance program, offering rigorous dance technique classes, choreographic workshops exploring how dancers in wheelchairs and standing dancers partner together, lectures and conversations on dance and disability, community team building workshops, and two public performances. This performance will be funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Mississippi Arts Commission.
“Our students will engage in intensive dance technique classes and will learn more about how dancers in wheelchairs and standing dancers partner together to create complex choreography,” said Dr. Salyers. “The public company performances, to be announced at a later date, will be one of the first times that audiences in Hattiesburg have had the chance to see professional dancers in wheelchairs and standing dancers performing together.”
Dr. Salyers notes that this partnership will provide participants with lasting connections, as it aims to promote public awareness and a more inclusive society.
“Because these partnership experiences manifest through dance, it will provide participants with lasting connections to the joy of diverse bodies moving together, to the power of the arts, and to their own sense of actively creating a more inclusive society,” said Dr. Salyers.
South Arts believes the arts elevate the region, increasing connectedness and inspiring meaningful change in the process. The organization is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. It has prioritized this commitment to ensure that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) led and LGBTQIA+ led organizations are represented as both applicants and grantees. In addition, it encourages applications for projects that engage BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ artists.
Learn more about USM Dance.
About South Arts
Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, South Arts is a nonprofit regional arts organization empowering artists, organizations, and communities, and increasing access to arts and culture. In partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the State Arts Agencies of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee — with additional funding from other public and private donors such as the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation — South Arts supports artists and organizations through a rich and responsive portfolio of grants, fellowships, and programs. For more information visit southarts.org.