MANSFIELD — Ohio State University’s Inaugural Artist Laureate, Dr. Nyama McCarthy-Brown of The Ohio State University’s Department of Dance, will bring her new production, Dancing Stories: Comings, Goings, and Finding Home, to the Mansfield campus in collaboration with Richland Academy of the Arts on Thursday, March 21 at 6:30 p.m. at Founder’s Auditorium in Ovalwood Hall.
This event is free and open to the public with no tickets required.
The show features a collection of dancers that uplift themes of identity, inclusion, and expanding ideas around who gets to dance.
McCarthy-Brown will present two works with her cast of eight OSU dance majors and share a short dance film featuring BalletMet dancer, Victoria Watford.
Pieces by graduate students in the OSU Department of Dance, Lucy Dillon and Kierra Williams, will also be shared in this performance.
McCarthy-Brown is an internationally recognized culturally sustaining dance educator.
She is Associate Professor of Dance Pedagogy through Community Engagement at The Ohio State University.
Originally from San Francisco, Nya’s love for dance developed at her community recreation center, and later at the School of the Arts High School.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Spelman College; MFA in Performance and Choreography from the University of Michigan; and a doctoral degree in Dance Studies from Temple University.
Dr. McCarthy-Brown’s first book, Dance Pedagogy for a Diverse World: Culturally Relevant Teaching in Research, Theory, and Practice, was released in 2017 and quickly became an anchoring text in dance education.
She recently completed her second book, about women of Color in ballet. Dr. McCarthy-Brown is an active consultant for organizations including: BalletMet; San Francisco Ballet School; Dance Educators Coalition, Minnesota; Cincinnati Ballet: Ohio Dance; and Dance Education Laboratory.
This year, she is excited to step into her new role as the inaugural Artist Laureate at The Ohio State University.