Camille A. Brown & Dancers performed Black Girl – Linguistic Play on February 13, 2016, and the dancers also participated in various community activities including a free Breakfast Download post-performance discussion and all-levels You Can Dance workshop. UMS also hosted a panel celebrating 25 years of the Dance Series at UMS.

What some of the participants thought about their experiences:

Photo moments from the weekend:

Quotes from the weekend:

“I saw myself in this play. The way the dancers expressed themselves in each scene seemed like flashes of my own life.”
-Christina DeBlanchi, Black Girl: Linguistic Play audience member

“Being in college means I have to be an adult who is focused on reading and writing. It was really fun to see something equally, or even more important, happening on stage. It brought me joy. And these experiences give me the opportunity to learn more by exploring my self, instead of reading about others.”
-Alexis Lesperance, U-M Residential College student

Interested in more? Learn about our community education programs.

Editor’s note: This post is a part of a series focusing on education and community engagement events surrounding our dance performances.

The 25th UMS Dance Series opened with L-E-V, an adventurous new ensemble of fiercely talented dancers, the culmination of years of collaboration between two Israeli creative superstars: Jerusalem-born Sharon Eyal (muse, dancer, and choreographer at Batsheva) and Gai Behar (who produces live music, techno raves, and underground art events in Tel Aviv).

Right after the performance, audience members could ask the artists questions about the performance as part of the post-show Q&A with artists. And the morning after the performance, dancers, audience members, and UMS staff got together for a post-show conversation, part of a new series of events called Breakfast Download Discussions (which feature bagels and coffee, too!).

Photos by participant Sharman Spieser.