Salve’s roots with the Newport Jazz Festival grow through music and dance programs
Photo by Steve Benoit.
Summer 2025 sees the return of Newport Jazz Summer Camp and “Bridging the Gap: A Jazz Dance and Music Festival”
Newport Jazz Summer Camp – high school, Salve students build their chops
At Newport Jazz Summer Camp at Salve Regina University, high school students from all over the world get an opportunity to discover the depths of their talent. In official partnership with the Newport Festivals Foundation, the camp offers a playing-intensive experience that includes combo performances, instrumental master classes and workshops focused on jazz history, active listening, music theory and improvisation. Students learn directly from experienced music educators and festival artists, culminating in a final performance. The week concludes with each student taking the stage at the legendary Newport Jazz Festival.
“Salve’s involvement began around 2010,” said Peter Davis, senior lecturer and coordinator of Salve’s music program. "We started developing jazz workshops for high school students and Salve students around International Jazz Day, which is in April. At the request of George Wein, founder of the Newport Jazz Festival, we joined with the University of Rhode Island to put together a camp in Newport that would serve high-school-age jazz musicians. In 2022, the festival’s education director approached Salve to run the summer jazz camp, and we’ve been doing it ever since.”
In addition to continually expanding the programming for high school students, Davis has built great opportunities for Salve students into the summer camp initiative.
“Salve music and music education majors and alumni work as paid camp counselors. The experience helps them connect the dots and take a holistic approach to music, from the classroom to lessons to performance,” said Davis.
The University also extends opportunities to students through the Compass program. This summer, four students who have taken courses in filmmaking will produce a documentary short about Newport Jazz Summer Camp. They’ll interview student campers, peer counselors and performers and learn about the legacy of the Newport Jazz Festival, capturing footage of the whole experience and turning it into a short film.
Davis said that Salve will continue expanding and improving the jazz summer camp along with the Newport Festivals Foundation. “This camp is great for high school students, it helps build our community in Newport and it gives Salve students valuable experience towards teaching and a window into the music business.”
Newport Jazz Summer Camp at Salve Regina runs from Friday, July 25 through Saturday, Aug. 2. Registration is open until Wednesday, July 23. For more information and to apply, go here.
Bringing jazz dance and music back together at “Bridging the Gap”
As jazz lovers arrive in town for the Newport Jazz Festival, they may also find kindred spirits at “Bridging the Gap: A Jazz Dance and Music Festival” at Salve. The event, taking place Monday, July 28 through Monday, Aug. 4, aims to close the rift that is often perceived between jazz dance and jazz music.
“Jazz dance and jazz music were born at the same time, in the 1920s and ’30s. In the ’40s and ’50s, that relationship fractured and jazz dance became more commonly associated with Broadway and film. With 'Bridging the Gap,' we highlight the shared histories and values between jazz dance and jazz music,” explained Lindsay Guarino, jazz dance artist, scholar, professor and chair of Salve’s Department of Music, Theatre and Dance.
The Salve dance program has a unique focus on jazz year-round. Students train in rooted jazz styles, learn the history and work with jazz musicians in studio classes and performance. Through the Compass program, dance majors can attend a no-cost week-long summer session in which they explore their identities as jazz artists and activists, working with established guest artists in studio classes, choreography and community dialogue – and attending the world-renowned Newport Jazz Festival. “Having the Newport Jazz Festival right in our backyard is an incredible gift,” said Guarino.
The first “Bridging the Gap” festival was held in 2024, to amplify the jazz tradition of the Newport Jazz Festival by showing how jazz dance is in conversation with the music and the music with the dance.
The 2025 “Bridging the Gap” festival celebrates with a week of performances and public lectures curated by One Jazz Collective, a group of like-minded jazz musicians, jazz dancers and scholars. A highlight is the Jazz Lounge at Ochre Court, where the ocean-front mansion is transformed into an immersive club. This year’s show, “Moving on Common Ground,” features Marcus Grant and the Movement, with the music made visual by One Jazz Collective and special guest Orlando Hernández, a celebrated New York tap dancer and choreographer. The performance is co-directed by Marcus Grant, musician, musicologist and adjunct faculty member in the department, and dance program graduate Trinity Leite ’25.
Leite said, “Marcus and I have developed this performance with music as foundational to the movement. The process allows dancers to gain a deeper understanding of music, including form, context and structure. Understanding music is essential to engage in jazz dance and vital for movement within the jazz continuum.”
“Moving on Common Ground” will also highlight Cuban youth ensemble Primera Linea, which is spending the week at the Newport Jazz Summer Camp. Hernández, Grant, Guarino and other dance artists, musicians and educators will present talks and lectures that are open to the community. Leite is offering youth jazz dance classes at the Boys and Girls Club of Newport County that same week.
"I returned to ‘Bridging the Gap’ because I believe so deeply in its mission to realign the processes of Black American music and dance. Knowledge of music leads to freedom, liberation and joy, and I want to share that discovery with as many dancers as possible," said Leite.
"Bridging the Gap: A Jazz Dance and Music Festival” is made possible by support from Amica Insurance and BayCoast Bank. For full details, including artist profiles and links to purchase tickets to the Jazz Lounge at Ochre Court and reserve spots for the community events, go here.