Choreographer/Dancer S. Ama Wray Master Artist Outreach

Presentation followed by Q & A

Yvonne Scarlett Golden Cultural and Educational Center,1000 Vine Street, Daytona Beach, 32117

Free – public invited. For more information please contact (386) 671-5780

Presented in association with the City of Daytona Beach Cultural and Leisure Services

Dr. S. Ama Wray is an artist whose primary focus is dance. This is often in conjunction with other creative forces, music and technology being key. She is a choreographer, dancer and researcher who takes an exceptional interest in Jazz as a fueling agent to developing her work and philosophy. This is manifested not only in collaborations and research with combined music and dance outcome, but has led her to innovative uses of new technology that extend the bounds of improvisation to include the audience in spontaneous creativity.

Her NESTA Fellowship has led her on to a pioneering creation Texterritory which through the use of mobile phone technology enables the audience to influence the performance. As the winner of the ADE competition the work has toured internationally in Germany, Romania, and Italy as well as produced for a large-scale outdoor event in Trafalgar Square.

Alongside this she has begun the international dissemination of the Kaleidoscope Approach; a methodology for the practice of integrated dance and music improvisation. The development of this work received the Gerry Fuller prize for academic excellence when presented for her Master’s thesis.

For over 10 years she danced with the UK’s leading Contemporary Dance Company’s Rambert and “London Contemporary Dance Theatre”. In tandem with this activity, she began creating her own work and in the summer of 1992, JazzXchange Music and Dance Company was formed. During the company’s first 10 years she created work with Wynton Marsalis, Byron Wallen, Julian Joseph, Gary Crosby (Jazz Jamaica), and Derek Bermel. She also made a guest appearance with Bobby McFerrin.

Wray is the custodian of a seminal work Harmonica Breakdown and is the artist who is depicted in the film of this classic work choreographed by Jane Dudley. Her own solo film Special Request shot in New York captures her versatile approach and wide-ranging vocabulary; covering Tap, Modern, African and Caribbean, Hip Hop and Ballet, all of which play a part in today’s expressive dancing. (See video archive at  http://www.sheronwray.com/)

In community art’s settings, she has collaborated with the London Music Orchestra, the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, for the Millennium celebrations she was commissioned to choreograph The Carnival for the Opening Ceremony at the Dome with designer and producer Keith Khan, created for 300 people. In 2000 Sheron became one of the first Artists – in – Residence at the Royal Opera House.

Internationally collaborations have included New York contemporary music group TONK, Tumbuka Dance Company Zimbabwe, DJD – Canada, the Filipino National Commission on Culture and Arts. She has also taught and choreographed in Argentina, Italy and Germany. For academic institutions; UC Irvine – California, Fonty’s Dansacademie-Holland. Sheron has been an associate visiting choreographer for Danza Libre in Cuba since 1999.

Wray was one of the co – founders of ADAD (Association of Dance of the African Diaspora), an organization dedicated to dissemination and highlighting of work created from an Africanist perspective. She teaches and choreographs for a number of British institutions including the, London Contemporary Dance School, Middlesex University, London Studio Centre, Rambert Dance Company, Royal Ballet School, Dance Arts International, New Adventures and Union. She contributes articles for dance based publications and is often invited to present and chair discussions at seminars and conferences.

For more information, please visit http://www.sheronwray.com/

http://jazzxchange.org/

S. Ama Wray TED talk: http://www.tedxorangecoast.com/videopick/sheron-wray-bodily-steps-to-innovation/