National Endowment for the Arts Awards Grant to Kennesaw State

6/20/2010

Grant will fund dance programs promoting diversity throughout Atlanta

Kennesaw State University Associate Professor of Dance Ivan Pulinkala recently received a National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpiece Grant to help fund the upcoming KSU production of “D-Man in the Waters” and additional educational activities during the 2010-11 academic year. Originally choreographed by Tony Award-winning artist Bill T. Jones, “D-Man in the Waters” examines issues of race, faith and politics.

The project will provide an opportunity for dialogue about diversity in dance in the Atlanta community through a series of performances, lectures, master classes and educational outreach activities. To begin the project, artists from the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company will conduct a three-week residency at KSU in the fall. The residency will include lectures, workshops and master classes for university students, high school students and the local Atlanta community.

In November, the project will continue with a community lecture series titled “Diversity in Dance,” a project dialogue and presentation to KSU students through the Arts in Society courses, the KSU production of “D-Man in the Waters” in Howard Logan Stillwell Theater, and outreach performances in Stillwell Theater for local at-risk school students.

Pulinkala, who directs the KSU Program in Dance, is pleased to receive the NEA grant. “This grant will provide us with the opportunity to commission the work of Bill T. Jones. The experience of performing this American choreographic treasure will provide our students with technical growth and help make them socially aware artists who are capable of questioning issues of sexuality, race, discrimination, physicality and socio-economics.”

A member of the 35-unit University System of Georgia, Kennesaw State University is a comprehensive, residential institution with a growing student population of more than 21,000 from 142 countries. The third-largest university in Georgia, Kennesaw State offers more than 65 graduate and undergraduate degrees, including new doctorates in education and business. The KSU College of the Arts is one of only four Georgia institutions to have achieved full national accreditation for all of its arts programs.