Diversity of Dance Master Artist Residency and Performance on Oct. 27, 2016

September 28, 2016

Brian Harlan Brooks, a member of Earl Mosley's Diversity of Dance, will be the Master Artist in Residence to create a new work with the Dance Theatre of Santa Fe (DTSF) Oct. 22-27, 2016. Members of Diversity of Dance will join DTSF in performance of that work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, in the Fine Arts Hall at the Northwest Campus, 3000 NW 83 Street, Gainesville. The Diversity of Dance residency dovetails into a residency at the Young Dancer Workshop Oct. 28-29.

Tickets for the Oct. 27 performance are $15 or $9 for seniors, children under 12, University of Florida and Santa Fe College students, staff, and faculty. For ticket information, call the Box Office at 352-395-4181 or visit the Fine Arts ticket website at:

https://www.sfcollege.edu/finearts

The DTSF residency is part of the SF College Master Artist series that enables students to interact with and learn from visiting performers. The Young Dancer Workshop-organized annually by the Florida Dance Association, the University of Florida School of Theatre and Dance and Santa Fe College-will be held at the Northwest Campus Oct. 28-29. That event brings hundreds of dance students from throughout Florida to Gainesville for classes with guest instructors and two evening performances.

"Earl Mosley is a longtime friend and I admire his work very much," said Alora Haynes, chairperson of the SF College Fine Arts Department who is also a director of the Florida Dance Association (FDA). "For the Young Dancer Workshop this year, I recommended to FDA that we offer a residency with a dance company and I suggested Diversity of Dance. This is an incredible opportunity for area dancers and students in Dance Theatre of Santa Fe because it's a chance for them to work with professional dancers who've had successful careers with Alvin Ailey, on Broadway, and on television."

Born in Pennsylvania and raised in New Jersey, actor/dancer/choreographer Brian Harlan Brooks began his dance training at the Dance Theater of Harlem, later moved to Alvin Ailey American Dance Centre, and has performed with companies throughout the U.S. He trained as a professional actor, appeared on television in "Boardwalk Empire," and worked as rehearsal director for various dance companies, as dance captain for "The Color Purple" first national tour, and as associate/resident choreographer for "Motown: The Musical."

Diversity of Dance is a nonprofit organization focused on dance education. For more information about Earl Mosley, Diversity of Dance, and Earl Mosley's Institute of the Arts, see:

http://www.emiadance.org/director

Several sponsoring organizations are collaborating on Brooks' Master Artist residency and the Oct. 27 performance:

• The Master Artist residency with DTSF is co-sponsored by the Santa Fe College Foundation and the Santa Fe College Fine Arts Department.
• The appearance of the other members of Diversity of Dance in the Oct. 27 performance is sponsored by the Florida Dance Association. The Florida Dance Association is a NPN Partner of the National Performance Network (NPN). This project is made possible in part by support from the NPN Performance Residency Program. Major contributors of NPN include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information visit: npnweb.org
• The DOD dancers are also sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.
• The Santa Fe College Fine Arts Department is providing the services of technical personnel/Fine Arts Hall staff members for the Oct. 27 performance.

For more information, sponsorship logos, biographies of visiting dancers from Diversity of Dance, and/or photographs, call Alora Haynes, 352-395-5296.