Darvejon Jones
Dance artist Darvejon Jones will be joining the Dance faculty in fall 2024 as a tenure-track Assistant Professor, teaching Jazz technique classes and Dance Practice 1.
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
