USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance

As a member of USC Kaufman’s inaugural class graduating spring 2019, Alvarez-Mena is in the process of developing her senior project, called Kaufman Care–a program that makes mental health services exclusively available to BFA students at the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance.

Each senior at USC Kaufman was tasked with creating a final project that combined three areas that interest them. Jackie Schiffner is combining her passions for dance, education and psychology to create a dance outreach program for elementary schoolers.

USC Kaufman BFA senior Rachel Walton is no stranger to technology. She attended a math and science preparatory high school before joining the inaugural class of dance majors at USC in 2015. As graduation approaches, Walton is planning to present her love of dance with a tech-savvy twist as her senior project.

This December, USC Kaufman students will appear in several productions of the Nutcracker, in Southern California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.

USC Kaufman professor E. Moncell Durden has incorporated theory from several disciplines into his research on dances born of the African diaspora.

November 30, 2018 – USC Kaufman minors and other non-major dance students showcase what they have learned during their elective dance classes.

Kaufman Connections is a new initiative for community engagement, whose pilot program is partnering with 32nd Street Elementary School on a 24-week, hip-hop dance program led by USC Kaufman BFA students.

November 14 – 17, 2018 – BFA dance students present their Fall Dance Performance, featuring works by George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Jodie Gates, d. Sabela grimes, Matthew Neenan, Crystal Pite and Paul Taylor.

Jamie Bishton, the newest addition to USC Kaufman’s Board of Councilors, brings years of dance expertise with a successful career in business. Bishton will work alongside Dean Robert Cutietta and other board members to advance the school’s mission.

Internationally acclaimed dancer, and Academy Award and Tony Award nominee, Mikhail Baryshnikov will deliver the commencement address at the first graduation ceremony of the University of Southern California’s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. The ceremony will take place at USC’s University Park Campus on Friday, May 10, 2019.

USC Kaufman BFA students performed at Laguna Dance Festival’s “Stars of Dance” on Oct. 6 and Oct. 7. The final performance was followed by a reception at the beachfront home of Nancy and Mike Meyer.

Last fall, Israeli choreographer Barak Marshall set excerpts of his full-length work “Monger” on USC Kaufman BFA students. This semester, he returns to teach the work again—this time, as an Artist in Residence. The opportunity to teach at USC Kaufman as a faculty member, he said, was too good to pass up.

October 12, 2018 – BFA students present their midterm “Works In Progress” with works by Barak Marshall, William Forsythe, George Balanchine, Crystal Pite, Jodie Gates, and Paul Taylor.

October 11, 2018 – Choreographers from the Sophomore BFA class present their own works onstage at the Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center. 

Emma Portner is everywhere this season: she’s working with New York City Ballet and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, she’s on the cover of Dance Magazine, and she just finished a commission for Fondation Beyeler—a dance film called “Femme Debout.” If you look closely, you’ll be able to pick out a familiar face among the five dancers: Jordan Johnson, USC Kaufman class of 2019, helped create the work and performed in it alongside Portner.

This September, USC Kaufman New Movement Residency artist Seda Aybay’s work NOIR premiered in full at The Broad Stage. For this performance, USC Kaufman senior Rachel Walton was asked to dance alongside the members of Aybay’s company (Kybele Dance Theater) marking her first professional performance opportunity.

USC’s Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy invites applicants for a full-time, clinical track faculty position to provide clinical services in a dance medicine setting within the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance and the USC PT Clinic, University Park Campus (UPC). This is a joint position between the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance and the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy.

BFA dance majors at USC Kaufman spared no time once they returned to school this fall—new Artist in Residence Jermaine Spivey had already arrived to set excerpts of Crystal Pite’s “Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue.” Spivey, a Princess Grace recipient and seasoned collaborator of Pite and her company Kidd Pivot, worked with students for almost two months, teaching technique and choreography before setting the piece on three casts of five dancers each.

On Sept. 10, USC Kaufman supporters and friends gathered in the Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center for an evening featuring faculty member William Forsythe and Artist in Residence Jermaine Spivey. The evening kicked off with a wine reception in the conference room followed by a seated dinner in the Turquoise Studio.

Last Thursday, urban Latin dance theater company CONTRA-TIEMPO premiered evening-length work joyUS justUS at Bovard Auditorium as part of USC’s Visions & Voices program. The piece has been a long time coming: company’s artistic director and choreographer, Ana Maria Alvarez, participated in USC Kaufman’s New Movement Residency this summer.

This fall, choreographers who participated in USC Kaufman’s New Movement Residency take their works to the stage. CONTRA-TIEMPO will perform Ana Maria Alvarez’s joyUS justUS at Bovard Auditorium on Sept. 13 as part of the university’s Visions and Voices program, while Kybele Dance Theater will premiere Seda Aybay’s NOIR at The Broad Stage the very next night.

The USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance is seeking a collaborative, dynamic and innovative artist-scholar to teach all levels of dance, choreography and directing for stage and screen. Successful candidates will have significant experience in teaching dance for musical theater and will possess expertise in several styles of dance.

USC Kaufman’s newest class of BFA freshmen will become the school’s fourth class–this is the first year that the school will be completely full, with freshmen through seniors lining the halls.

By Olivia Euritt

Over these past two weeks, I have had the pleasure of being a chaperone for the Advanced Hubbard Street Intensive here at USC. Not only was this an incredible opportunity to take advantage of the many classes they had to offer with a diverse grouping of professors, but also to understand some of the logistics that are required to execute a successful experience for young teens in dance. 

By Dylan Balka

In our first LA Maymester lecture with professor Patrick Corbin, we were asked to make a sense of what dance provides to the county of Los Angeles, and how it influences people beyond its borders. We learned that the foundation of modern dance began in Southern California, with the debut of the Denishawn School in MacArthur Park, which gave way to many greats such as Martha Graham and Jack Cole.

The USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance’s New Movement Residency program is brand-new this year—in an effort to provide space for Los-Angeles-based choreographers and female choreographers, the school has selected three artists to inhabit the studios at USC Kaufman this summer.

This spring, USC Kaufman adds two new members to the Board of Councilors: Jennifer Cheng and Bradley Tabach-Bank. Both will join the rest of the board and Dean Robert Cutietta in order to advance the school’s mission.

On April 4, 2018, USC Kaufman supporters, friends and artists joined together for a special reception following the opening performance of Caught in the Chamber: A Music and Dance Concert-in-Process with yMusic. The performance and reception took place in the Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center.

This spring, USC Kaufman launched “Friends of Kaufman,” the school’s newest annual giving program. With a lower threshold for participation, Friends of Kaufman aims to grow the USC Kaufman community of support by appealing to a broader base of donors, with membership beginning at only $125.