Dance Program Honors & Awards
2016 Brave New World
Wichita State University’s School of Performing Arts Dance Program produced an original experimental dance theater event in April, 2015. Written and directed by Nicholas Johnson, Director of Dance, "Brave New World," was inspired by the 1932 novel from English writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World” examines what happens to a conformist society when it is confronted by the behavior of an outcast individualist. The performance is a collision of two worlds, pitting a highly structured, passionless society against a new vision brought by a visit from beings outside their social context. Wild, free and curious, these others immerse themselves in the new world, but discover they can never fit.
“Brave New World” is designed to break the conventional boundaries of theater-based performance. The event was staged at four locations around campus, starting at the Heskett Center pool, moving to outside Hubbard Hall, then inside the Rhatigan Student Center, near the food court, and then on to Shocker Courtyard, outside Shocker Hall.
The event was a multi-disciplinary undertaking, incorporating technology, videography, dance, theatre and physical theatre to create an extended moment that shifts audience perceptions towards self-reflection and new concepts of external and internal space. “Brave New World” includes choreography from School of Performing Arts Professor Denise Celestin, dance teacher Sabrina Vasquez and instructor Cheyla Chandler.
