USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance

The creative collaborative founded by USC Kaufman alums Jordan Johnson and Aidan Carberry (BFA ’19) will debut a new work as part of LADP Presents.

Catching up with USC Kaufman alumna — and Broadway star — Ava Noble, as she recounts her experiences with & Juliet so far.

Known colloquially as the Oscars of Dance, The Bessies are presented annually in New York City and recognize outstanding creative work in the field.

For the BFA students at the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, summer break does not mean a break from dance training. Many BFAs continue to train at various summer intensives and company programs. These programs take them all over the world. Take a look at what four of our students have been up to this summer so far.

Madison Falconer (BFA ’23) announces FALCO, her project-based dance company. Its first initiative is the WOODWORKS Traverse City Residency Program, which hosts artists for a two-week creative collaborative process.

Alumnus Noah Guthier (BFA ‘19) always had an interest in multimedia production in addition to dance. In his junior year at USC Kaufman, he began teaching himself the basic skills and softwares for motion capture work. Now, Guthier has created Purple Virtual, which focuses on his creative passion for motion capture and 3D art.

During her time here, Brianna Mims (BFA ’19) began creating work addressing various social issues. Her most recent project, titled Uncle Ronnie’s Room, tells the story of her uncle’s illegal incarceration. Uncle Ronnie’s Room consists of four parts: a billboard campaign, an archival installation at Chuco’s Justice Center, a docuseries and a performance by Mims.

Starting a business can be a daunting, especially for a trio of fresh-faced graduates — and even more so during a pandemic. But that’s exactly what a group of USC Kaufman School of Dance graduates did, and now they’re using their technological prowess and dance knowledge to help current Trojan dance students.

Since graduating in May, the Class of 2021 has begun to establish themselves in the dance world and beyond. These artist scholars have started their own businesses, are pursuing graduate degrees, dancing with renowned companies, working in the commercial dance industry and more. Read on to learn about their recent accomplishments.

USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance faculty members Rosanna Tavarez and Amy O’Neal are being featured in REDCAT’s New Original Works (NOW) Festival. The festival spans three weekends; Tavarez’s piece titled “Piece X Piece” will perform on October 14-16, and O’Neal’s piece, “There is No Other (The Remix),” will show on October 21-23.

Dance Magazine caught up with five recent grads to see where they’ve landed and how USC Kaufman and its career services department prepared them for their future in the dance industry. Read on to learn more about Aurora Vaughan (BFA ’21), Ausia Jones (BFA ’20, Adam Vesperman (BFA ’20), Jessica Muszynski (BFA ’19) and Zach Manske (BFA ’21).

Pulling off an online intensive can be a daunting task. Because of this, I was not sure what to expect from a two week long, seven hours a day Zoom intensive with the dance company BODYTRAFFIC. I am happy to report that the experience was not only inspiring, but humbling as well.

USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance alumni Adam Agostino and Justin Epstein (BFA ‘19) launched their production company, RYBG, in the spring of 2020. The pair had already been collaborating as part of the media crew for USC Kaufman’s Dance Operations. They saw RYBG as a natural progression of this work. After the pandemic hit, they brought on fellow alum, Noah Guthier (BFA ‘19), to round out their multifaceted company.

The USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance welcomes a variety of USC students to join the community as dance minors. These students blend their dance training with their chosen majors to create their own path of interdisciplinary studies. Read on to discover how two alumni of the program draw from their dance minor in their postgraduate lives.

COVID-19 may have halted the live, theatrical experience of the dance industry, but many minds are still hard at work creating adaptive and artistic projects in the field. Brianna Mims, a Class of 2019 alum, has been quite active since graduation with many collaborative projects. Read on to discover more about her work since her time at USC Kaufman.

Parsons Dance created a virtual apprenticeship program to introduce collegiate dancers to their company as well as the inner workings of a professional dance setting. This semester, Aurora Vaughan (BFA ‘21), Luke Csordas (BFA ‘22) and Simon Schuh (BFA ‘21) are participating in the program in tandem with their BFA training.