Muhlenberg Theatre & Dance Welcomes Darvejon Jones to the Faculty
Jones, a multidisciplinary dance artist, will teach jazz technique and Dance Practice.Wednesday, April 10, 2024 03:54 PM
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Interdisciplinary dance artist Darvejon Jones will join the faculty in the fall as a tenure-track assistant professor. He will be teaching jazz technique and Dance Practices courses.
Darvejon (dar- vee - yawn) Anthony Jones, MFA (he/him), is from Carson, California. He is a father, a bicoastal interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary dance artist, a performer, a CultureBot performing arts contributor, a Movement Research and Performance Journal contributor, and a dance studies scholar.
His research, deeply rooted in the phenomenological hermeneutics intrinsic to Black dance, highlights the historical context of Blackness in the United States as a Western mechanism. Currently, he is engrossed in exploring embodied liberatory practices intrinsic to Black dance in the United States. This research, a cornerstone of his current dance praxis, holds significant implications for critical approaches to other cultural dance research studies. He eagerly looks forward to furthering this research and engaging in interdisciplinary collaborations with department faculty whose research aligns with and challenges his own.
Darvejon was trained and has performed works by the legendary tap dancers Paul and Arlene Kennedy (Universal Dance Designs), been closely mentored and performed works by master Horton Technique teacher Ray Tadio, performed works by Master Teacher/Founder/Former Director/and Co-Director of Institute for Dunham Technique Certification, Dr. Albirda "Bird" Rose, and performed works for Emmy Award-winning choreographers Ashley Roland and Jamey Hampton (BodyVox), as well as Brenda Way (ODC), Kimi Okada (ODC), Ar Vejon Jones, Christian von Howard, Oluyinka Akinjiola, Sara Parker, Bobby Fouther, Tere Mathern, Kendra Ross, Heidi Duckler, Maya Ciarrocchi, Jose Limon, Maiya Redding, and many others.
He has also trained extensively at Alonzo King LINES Ballet & ODC/SF. He is currently in process with Alethea Pace for her work between wave and water, a site-specific deep listening work that seeks to reclaim a historical African burial ground at Hunts Point in the Bronx, New York. Jones is also preparing his work antares for the La MaMa Moves! Festival in May 2024. His works have been shown at The McKenna Theatre, New Expressive Works, The Black Choreographers Festival, PUSHfest, La MaMa Experimental Theatre, The Kraine Theatre, The Kaye Playhouse, and BodyVox dance (Darvejon Jones Dance Ensemble).
Over the past two years, Jones has not only participated in but also contributed to the Dance Studies Association. His most recent intellectual endeavor was curating a podcast-style panel discussion for their symposium, Radical Acts of Translation, titled Dancing Together with Time. This discussion, which explored the connection between the ideologies of manifest destiny and the harmful practices of white supremacy disguised as contemporaneity on dance forms from historically disenfranchised cultural groups, showcased his thought leadership and intellectual prowess.
Darvejon is excited to contribute and learn from the distinguished dance faculty and hardworking students at Muhlenberg College as an assistant professor of dance.
For more: darvejon.com
About the Muhlenberg College Theatre & Dance Department
Muhlenberg offers Bachelor of Arts degrees in theatre and dance. The Princeton Review ranked Muhlenberg’s theatre program in the top twelve in the nation for eight years in a row, and Fiske Guide to Colleges lists both the theatre and dance programs among the top small college programs in the United States. Muhlenberg is one of only eight colleges to be listed in Fiske for both theatre and dance.
About Muhlenberg College
Founded in 1848, Muhlenberg is a highly selective, private liberal arts college offering baccalaureate and graduate programs. With an enrollment of nearly 2,000 students, Muhlenberg College is dedicated to shaping creative, compassionate, collaborative leaders through rigorous academic programs in the arts, humanities, natural sciences and social sciences; selected preprofessional programs, including accounting, business, education and public health; and progressive workforce-focused post-baccalaureate certificates and master’s degrees. Located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, approximately 90 miles west of New York City, Muhlenberg is a member of the Centennial Conference, competing in 23 varsity sports. Muhlenberg is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
