Program Notes: Upcoming on "Body and Soul"

Gesel Mason--award-winning dancer and choreographer based in the DC metropolitan area--brings passion for community, communication and justice to all of her provocative work on behalf of the arts, particularly artists of color. On the eve of the election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States, we spent an hour in a wide-ranging discussion of issues affecting dance artists and audiences as well as exploring how she is helping to honor and preserve the work of generations of Black choreographers--from Donald McKayle to David Roussève--through her No Boundaries project.

Links: Gesel Mason Performance Projects and Mason/Rhynes Productions

Gesel Mason is Co-founder and Artistic Director for Mason/Rhynes Productions and Gesel Mason Performance Projects. Ms. Mason has performed with Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, toured Germany with the Repertory Dance Theatre of Utah, and was a member of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange from 1996-2000, where she continues to perform as a guest artist. Ms. Mason’s solo project, NO BOUNDARIES: Dancing the Visions of Contemporary Black Choreographers, includes the work of Donald McKayle, Bebe Miller, David Rousséve, Reggie Wilson, Andrea Woods, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. The project received a National Dance Project Tour Only Grant for 2008/09 season and two Metro DC Dance Awards in 2007 for Outstanding Individual Performance and Outstanding Overall Production – Small Venue. She has also worked with Alison Chase, Sardono Kusumo, Jacek Luminski, Victoria Marks, Susan Marshall, Peter Pucci, Doug Varone, and Ralph Lemon in the final installment of his Geography Trilogy: “Come home Charley Patton”.

As an educator she has taught all ages and abilities and has been invited as artist in residence at schools and universities across the country including Texas Women’s University, University of Utah, Columbia College, University of Maryland, University of Maryland at Baltimore County, and Virginia Commonwealth University. Ms. Mason received a Maryland State Arts Council Award in 2001, 2004 and 2005, an Arts Council of Montgomery County Artist Fellowship in 1999 and 2005, was selected Emerging Choreographer by the Bates Dance Festival in 2000, and received 2007 Millennium Stage Local Dance Commissioning Project from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Dallas Black Dance Theater, Eisenhower Dance Ensemble and Sandra Organ Dance Company have commissioned Ms. Mason’s award winning choreography, among others, and her work has been presented at Joyce SoHo, the Fort Wayne Performing Arts Center, Diverse Works in Houston, 651 Arts in Brooklyn, Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, Clarice Smith Center for the Performing Arts in College Park, MD, as part of the International Contemporary Dance Conference and Performance Festival in Bytom, Poland, DanceAfrica, and the International Association of Blacks in Dance. For more information visit gmasonprojects.com.