News and Events
Students participate in Balinese dance performance/demonstration
11/06/09
I Made Bandem and Ni Suasthi Bandem, visiting Fellows in Balinese Music, Theatre, and Dance at the College of the Holy Cross, conducted a performance/demonstration and workshop on Balinese dance and theater at Emerson on Friday, November 6.
Emerson's Department of Performing Arts and the Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies sponsored the performance/demonstration.
Students were encouraged to participate in the dances. Many of the dances are done with masks and specific choreography that includes detailed hand and eye gestures.
I Made Bandem is widely regarded as the foremost living expert on traditional Balinese dance and drama. Bandem's book, Balinese Dance in Transition, was the first extensive study of the art form to be published in the West.
Descended from a long line of arja (Balinese opera) dancers in Singapadu Village, Bandem was a well-known baris dancer in Bali by the age of 10. In 1980 he turned to scholarship and became the first Balinese artist to receive a PhD in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University.
Bandem spent 16 years as director of ISI Arts Academy in Denpasar, Bali. During his tenure he championed the resuscitation of many near-lost classical forms. In recognition for this, he received UNESCO's 1994 International Music Council Award.
Bandem went on to became Rektor of ISI Yogyakarta and is currently Professor of Balinese Dance at Holy Cross. He has led ensembles and danced on numerous world tours, including appearances at World Expositions in Vancouver, Brisbane, and Sevilla.
Student profile: Chase Finn '13
11/05/09
Chase Finn, Film Major
Jacksonville, Florida
Chase Finn was first nominated for an Emmy his junior year of high school. Finn was part of the film production company called Team Gaia, which was nominated in 2007 for a Broadband Emmy for its show, Global Warming: Fact or Friction?
Finn attended the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, a magnet high school in Jacksonville, Florida, where he auditioned and was accepted into its film program. It was there that he helped form the film production group Team Gaia with students and teachers.
"Team Gaia's mission is to produce and direct PSAs and short documentaries about issues that members of the team are passionate about," Finn says.
Finn went to the 2007 Emmy ceremony in New York City with a fellow Team Gaia member. "That was the most exhilarating time of my life," he recalls.
On September 26 of this year, Finn returned to New York City to view a screening of his recent film, Inundation, which was selected by the New York Surf Film Festival to screen at the Tribeca Cinemas.
"When I started [making films] it was something I just thought was fun to do. Now I don't see myself in a job where I can't look back on what I've done and say, 'Wow, I created that.' I want to keep making films because it says something to people; it makes a statement."
Institute Experts Bureau launched
11/05/09
Emerson's Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies recently announced the creation of the Institute Experts Bureau. The bureau is a group of full and part-time faculty members who teach in the Institute and are available as guest lecturers to classes, consultants to the community, and collaborators on projects.
Experts who are part of the bureau are qualified to speak on topics ranging from migration trends in Europe to punk rock music. For a list of all the bureau members and their areas of scholarly and professional expertise, click here.
Emerson's Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies promotes the interdisciplinary study of the liberal arts. One of the goal's of the Institute, is to integrate the study of the liberal arts with the educational experience in the major programs offered in the School of the Arts and the School of Communication.
Emerson College also boasts many of the country's leading experts in the fields of communication and the arts. A full list of Emerson's faculty experts in those fields can be found at http://www.emerson.edu/public_affairs/faculty_experts/ .
