Coda: The Final Curtain — MFA Dance Thesis Concert

Presented by Mills College Dance & Theater Studies Department 

This event is free and open to the public, both in-person and online via live stream.
Registration is required.

In-Person:
Capacity is limited and Proof of Vaccination is required.
Face Coverings are required, at all times, in all venues.
For more info and a list of accepted documents visit: Mills College COVID-19 Response for event guests.
Live Stream: 
Live Stream link will be provided on the day of the event

The experimental and celebratory are the spotlight as the last group of Mills Dance MFA candidates present their culminating work. It’s a concert of group and solo dance, live and filmed––an ending that adds to and reflects back on what came before it. 
 
“Coda” is also offered in honor and celebration of the life of Dance Professor Emerita and Alumna Rebecca Fuller (1929-2022), who was among the first graduate students to receive an MA in Dance (1954). Becky, as she was called, would go on to become an inspirational force across the College, the artistic mentor of generations of dancers, including Trisha Brown and Molissa Fenley, and a “game” experimenter. It has been said that she once convinced Brown during one of her visits to the campus to put together a mini-version of the latter’s “Roof Piece,” with one person dancing on the roof of the multi-sided Haas Pavilion, someone else performing on the round Chapel roof, and another person dancing on top of the Spanish Colonial Music Building.
 
THE CHOREOGRAPHERS
Tawni Pizzagoni, who holds degrees in math and dance from San Jose State prior to attending Mills, presents,“Overload,” aptly describing the existential and material conditions of the working world. The idea for this work, she said, “came after news that Mills would be merging with Northeastern University, but prior to knowing that the department would no longer be in existence.”
 
Cat Vanderveen, a choreographer, dancer, and performance artist got her degree in Dance and Theater from UC Davis before arriving at Mills. For “Coda” she is staging a dancescreen solo, “Alternate,” filmed in the historic Greek Theater.This work, she says, “is a commentary on American sports culture––in particular, US Gymnastics––and the disposability of its athletes.” She places the dance in the audience bleacher seats, allowing her to comment on the nature of spectatorship. She says her interest “recently turned towards the capacities of screendance and expanding my work via the ever-present screens around us.”
 
Wade Reynolds, who received a BFA in choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University, presents “…and I climb,” a work that “explores the inevitable shift into adulthood and the human struggle to find balance between reality and nostalgia.” Wade danced professionally in New York and Philadelphia before creating her own project in Denver, Colorado, entitled DNR. DNR was a collaborative performance experience that connected concert dance and punk culture. 
 
Ye Feng is a “National First-Class Dancer ” in China and originally from Xinjiang. She presents “Work 19: Journey.” “Life is a journey,” she said, “and everyone of us is on a path and will leave marks in the soil.” She was a seasoned professional, serving as Artistic Director of Dance in the China National Song and Dance Troupe, before she set out to discover new forms of dance and dance making. She settled in the South Bay and launched the Feng Ye Dance Studio and the Feng Ye Dance Troupe, and then made the decision to return to school and dive into new modes and cultures of dance. At the same time, she emerged as an important figure in the region, promoting the integration of dance cultures from multiple racial and ethnic groups.

Photo by Stephen Texeira