Bridging the Gap
A Jazz Dance and Music Festival Hosted by Salve Regina University
Tuesday, July 30 to Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024
Since 1954, Newport has welcomed tens of thousands of people to celebrate the rich culture and history of jazz music. Salve Regina University's dance program aims to augment the incredible work of the Newport Jazz Festival by creating a festival dedicated to jazz dance in conversation with jazz music.
Curated by jazz dance artists and scholars from across the U.S. and Canada, and in collaboration with celebrated jazz musician Julius Rodriguez, this three-day festival aims to bridge the gap that is often perceived between jazz dance and jazz music.
Festival Events
Featured Musicians
Julius Rodriguez
You can find Julius Rodriguez in many places. You could walk into a packed jazz haunt and bear witness to him behind the piano with energy practically surging from his fingers through the room. You might scroll up on social media and catch him alternating from drums to bass to guitar at the speed of a jump cut. You may also step onto festival grounds and see him on stage either solo or accompanying another like-minded visionary, jamming like his life depends on it. No matter where, the New York-born and Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer electrifies any lane. By doing so, he also transcends perceived boundaries between genres and styles, redefining the music to mirror his own fluid creative inclinations and delivering a sound that's solely his alone.
Rodriguez's signature style came to life on his solo debut, "Let Sound Tell All," which NPR hailed as "a project so dynamic that even the umbrella of jazz couldn't quite contain its essence." Following widespread applause from The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The FADER and more, collaborations with everyone from Wynton Marsalis to A$AP Rocky, and tens of millions of streams, Rodriguez grows in as many directions as possible on his second full-length offering, "Evergreen."
At the top of 2024, he entered a studio in North Hollywood, California with producer Tim Anderson (Solange, Halsey, Billie Eilish). They unlocked a distinct chemistry, bonding over the catalog of Herbie Hancock and 70s fusion titans Mahavishnu Orchestra. Rodriguez introduces the album with the opener and single "Mission Statement." Steady handclaps set the track in motion as a spacey loop swims around a slick bass line. Cymbals chatter through vibrant piano, and a saxophone solo sails off towards the horizon.
"Love Everlasting" sees him team up with longtime friend and fellow dynamo Keyon Harold. A dreamy keyboard melody gently echoes as Harold's unmistakable trumpet booms in fits of emotion over robust drums and shimmering piano. Then, there's "Run to It (The CP Song)." It hinges on a boisterous back-and-forth between the bass, beats, guitar and piano – akin to a vivacious Sunday on stage in a Southern church.
On the other end of the spectrum, he injects a "jazz waltz vibe" into his reimagining of Dijon's "Many Times." The epic "Stars Talk" unites him with Nate Mercereau, whose synths and freestyled guitar samples amplify an exhale of sonic bliss.
The album crescendos to a triumphant inflection point on "Champion's Call," featuring Georgia Anne Muldrow. A signature piano line from Rodriguez brims with energy as Muldrow's deep wail resounds with earthquaking intensity in a mantra-like motion. By breaking boundaries with "Evergreen," Rodriguez has lived up to the true spirit of jazz by ushering it towards the future freely.
Marcus R. Grant
Marcus R. Grant is a professional drummer, percussionist, musicologist and educator from West Chester, Pennsylvania. He is currently a Brown University Ph.D. candidate in musicology and ethnomusicology with a secondary certificate study in the Department of Africana Studies. Grant holds a bachelor's in jazz performance from Temple University, a master's in jazz performance, a master's in musicology from the University of Miami and a master's in musicology and ethnomusicology from Brown University. His research focuses on Black American protest music, which includes hip-hop, gospel and jazz studies. As a performer, Grant has shared the stage with Shelly Berg, Victor Goines, Warren Wolf, Dave Liebman, Nestor Torres, Ben Wolfe and Nicki Parrott, among others.
Guest Performers
Sabrina Naz Comănescu
Sabrina Naz Comănescu has helped cultivate the Calgary (Alberta, Canada) dance scene for over a decade as a performer, choreographer, filmmaker, dance instructor, volunteer and the artistic associate for the Diversity Performing Arts Club of Calgary. She has worked with Machel Montano, House of Dangerkat, Headly and The Hifi Club, and has opened for international acts such as Pop Caan, Sean Paul and Kes The Band. She is a 2015 Black Gold Award recipient for best dance act of the year and the 2017 Alberta Foundation of the Arts young artist prize winner. She is thrilled to be dancing in her ninth season with Decidedly Jazz Danceworks.
Kaja Irwin
Kaja Irwin is a Winnipeg-born dancer, choreographer and dance educator. After deciding to pursue a career in dance after completing her B.A. in political science, she studied in the professional training program offered at Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, developing her love of both jazz and the Calgary dance community. She loves to explore movement and collaborations across art forms, including mask, puppetry, clown and character work, as well as collaborating with Calgary jazz musicians developing improvised pieces for the stage. She is excited and dedicated to digging deeper and exploring the jazz art form and feels honored to be in her ninth season performing with Decidedly Jazz Danceworks.
Sebastian Garcia
From Wylie, Texas, Sebastián García (he/him) is an emerging professional dance artist based in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. He graduated from SMU Meadows School of the Arts in 2023 with a BFA in dance performance. Following graduation, he performed with Dark Circles Contemporary Dance for their 10th season anniversary in "TEN-GALLON," a world premiere choreographed by Joshua L. Peugh. His performance credits include works by Joy Bollinger, Brandi Coleman, Kimberley Cooper, Molissa Fenley, Bridget Moore, Matthew Neenan, Joshua Peugh, Pascal Rioult and Pat Taylor, among others. Immersed in the Dallas dance community, he has performed alongside Team Athena and in events such as HYPE Choreographer's Showcase and Agora Artists, and has also choreographed for local troupes such as Collin College Dance Ensemble and Chamberlain Ballet.
Talia Markowski
Originally from Colorado Springs, Colorado, Talia Markowski is a dance artist currently based in Dallas, Texas. In May 2023, she graduated with a BFA in dance performance and a B.S. in operations research engineering management from Southern Methodist University. She then continued her education at SMU, where she completed her M.S. in systems engineering in December 2023. She has performed works by Joy Bollinger, Mark Burrell, Brandi Coleman, Joe Goode, Michelle Gibson, Pascal Rioult and Pat Taylor, among others. She performs around the Dallas/Fort Worth area in showcases such as HYPE, Collin College Dance Ensemble and more while still teaching and choreographing in Colorado to stay connected to her dance roots.
Festival Curators
Brandi Coleman
Brandi Coleman is an assistant professor of dance at Southern Methodist University, where she teaches Jump Rhythm Technique – a jazz-rhythm-based movement approach that transforms the moving body into a rhythm-driven percussion instrument. She was a performing member, rehearsal director and associate artistic director of Jump Rhythm Jazz Project (JRJP), a Chicago-based dance company founded by Billy Siegenfeld. She received an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Excellence on Camera/Performer" for her work in the documentary "Jump Rhythm Jazz Project: Getting There" and has toured with JRJP to Finland, Italy and Canada. As a teaching and creative artist, she has led more than 40 choreographic and teaching residencies at universities nationwide and internationally. In 2022, she was commissioned to create a new work for Decidedly Jazz Danceworks in Calgary (Alberta, Canada), which was presented on their 2022 Family of Jazz concert series. Recently, along with jazz dance creator, educator and scholar Lindsay Guarino, she co-curated the first Jazz Lounge at Ochre Court in collaboration with drummer Marcus Grant and student dancers. Her writing, "Performing Gender: Disrupting Performance Norms for Women in Jazz Dance Through Gender-Inclusive, Human-Centric Choreography" is included in "Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-First Century" (University Press of Florida, 2022).
Kimberley Cooper
A jazz dance artist based in Calgary (Alberta, Canada), Kimberley Cooper is the artistic director of Decidedly Jazz Danceworks (DJD), founded in 1984 to create awareness of and encourage respect for the integrity, spirit and traditions of jazz through performance and education. She has been with DJD since 1989, as a dancer (1989-2013), resident choreographer/artistic associate (2002-2013) and artistic director (since 2013). She was named emerging artist of the year by Alberta Dance Alliance in 2002. Since then, she has created over 20 full-length works for DJD. She served as artist in residence during Calgary, Cultural Capital of Canada in 2012 and with Fall for Dance North (Toronto, Canada) from 2020-2022. She was awarded Dance Victoria's Crystal Dance Prize in 2015 for research in Brazil. Cooper has contributed chapters to "City of Animals" (University of Calgary, 2017) and "Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty First Century" (University Press of Florida, 2022).
Lindsay Guarino
Lindsay Guarino is a jazz dance artist, educator and scholar. As professor and chair of the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance at Salve Regina, she has been on the faculty since 2006 and has grown the dance program from a minor to a vibrant B.A. focused on jazz and justice. She directs Salve Regina's dance company and seeks to honor jazz and its creative spirit by presenting works that are rooted and uphold the communal values of the jazz language. Most recently, she collaborated with jazz dance artist and scholar Brandi Coleman and jazz drummer and ethnomusicologist Marcus Grant on the first Jazz Lounge at Ochre Court – a performance event celebrating the shared language of jazz music and dance through choreography, improvisation and spoken word. Her creative and scholarly research lives at the intersection of jazz history, Africanist aesthetics and pedagogy, and she has presented her research across the U.S. and Canada. She edited and published her research in "Jazz Dance: A History of the Roots and Branches" (2014) with Wendy Oliver and the award-winning "Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-First Century" (2022) with Carlos R. A. Jones and Oliver, both published by University Press of Florida. She holds a BFA in dance from the University of Buffalo (SUNY), where she will be the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award in October, and an MFA in dance from the University of Arizona.
Carlos R. A. Jones
A strong advocated for the arts, Carlos R. A. Jones has enjoyed a vibrant career as an educator, performer, director, choreographer and scholar. He is professor and chair of the Department of Dance at SUNY Brockport. Before landing at Brockport, he served on the faculty at Chapman University, Loyola Marymount University, UCLA, St. Cloud State University, UC Irvine and Buffalo State University, where he was also associate dean and interim dean of the School of Arts and Humanities. His research and scholarship are in Black American dance with a focus on the jazz dance continuum. This has been realized in several dance compositions and two groundbreaking publications. His writing can be found in "Jazz Dance: A History of the Roots and Branches" and the award-winning "Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanists Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty-First Century," of which he was also co-editor. He spent his early career working as a performer, director and choreographer in concert dance, musical theater, television and film. His professional credits include "Dance With Me," "Uptown Girl," "The Nanny” and "The Drew Carey Show." He has worked with entertainment luminaries Ellen Cleghorne, André DeShields and Carol Burnett. Along his artistic and scholarly journey, he has remained active in the community with his leadership in LGBTQiA+ youth advocacy and the promotion of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in higher education.
Jazz Dance at Salve Regina University
Jazz dance is thriving at Salve Regina University through an undergraduate program concentrated in jazz dance and social justice. We acknowledge and honor jazz as a historically Black American art form best understood through awareness of one's own identity and culture. Community is at the heart of our dance program, with an environment that encourages and supports individuality, personal creativity, dynamic exchanges of energy, risk-taking and resilience - all enduring values within the jazz aesthetic.
