(MC)2 is a multi-cultural dance festival taking place May 30 - June 3, 2023 at Windmill Arts.
Curated by George Staib & staibdance, (MC)2 unites Atlanta based culturally rooted dance organizations under one roof for five days of classes, performances and community conversations. Join us for the most varied and diverse assembling of culturally rooted dance organizations in Atlanta!
Click to Learn more & Register for:
view the daily schedule
All classes, performances, panel discussions and community conversations will take place at Windmill Arts.
Questions? Email us at admin@staibdance.com
Participating Organizations
ADvisory Committee
Angela Harris
dancecanvas.com
FB: Angela Harris
IG: @angienikki1, @dancecanvas
Angela Harris is the Executive Artistic Director of Dance Canvas, Inc., a career development organization for emerging professional choreographers and youth. Through Dance Canvas, Angela has been a catalyst, consultant, and resource for numerous new dance organizations and artists, both locally in metro Atlanta, as well as nationally. Angela has developed programs for the City of Atlanta's Office of Cultural Affairs and Department of Recreation, recording artist Usher's New Look Foundation, and the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation. Angela is a graduate of The Baltimore School for the Arts and studied at Dance Theater of Harlem, School of the Hartford Ballet & The Eglevsky Ballet. She attended Mercyhurst College and City College of New York, earning a B.A. in Journalism, while on full ballet scholarship at Steps on Broadway in NYC. Angela danced professionally with The Georgia Ballet, Columbia City Ballet (SC) and Urban Ballet Theater (NYC). Her theatre credits include productions at the Alliance Theatre, the Aurora Theatre and Theatrical Outfit. Angela has choreographed for professional ballet companies and schools across the country. Her work has been performed by The Georgia Ballet, Ballet Lubbock, Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute and has premiered at the Rialto Center for the Arts and the Ferst Center for the Arts through her company, Dance Canvas. Angela has choreographed for professional theaters including Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theater, Actor’s Express, Aurora Theatre, Found Stages and for Kennesaw State University and Georgia Tech. Angela was one of five Inaugural National Visiting Fellows at the School of American Ballet. She was awarded a Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) Observership to work on Little Dancer, a new Broadway musical Lab, under the direction of Susan Stroman. Angela received the 2011 National Emerging Leader Award from Americans for the Arts and American Express and the 2012 Emerging Artist Award from the City of Atlanta. Angela served on the national Emerging Leaders Council for Americans for the Arts and was a member of the 2014 class of Arts Leaders of Metro Atlanta (ALMA). In addition to her work through Dance Canvas, Angela is on faculty at Emory University and is a ballet instructor at Dekalb School for the Arts and Academy of Ballet. She has also served on the faculty of the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute and has been a master class/guest instructor and lecturer at colleges and universities across the country.
Dr. Theresa Howard
Dr. Theresa Howard Is a native of New York and holds a Bachelor degree in Dance Theatre, a Masters degree in Dance-Movement Therapy, and a Doctorate in Education. She is an assistant professor of dance on the dance faculty at Kennesaw State and Emory Universities. Dr. Howard is a dance instructor at Ballethnic Academy of Dance, ArtsXChange, Aviation Community Cultural Center, and conducts workshops and classes throughout the United States. She has committed over 40 years in a career of combining Health and Human Services and the Arts.
Dr. Howard has performed with many prominent Dance Companies including Chuck Davis African-American Dance Ensemble, Manga, Giwayen Mata African Dance Ensembles, and has been a guest artist with Eleo Pomare, Joan Miller Chamber Arts, Abdel Salaam, and Ballethnic Dance Company (28th season) to name a few. She has been the founder and artistic director of Engele Dance, formerly Edeliegba Senior Dance Ensemble since 2005.
She choreographed several plays and the short film: “ I Snuck off the Slave Ship,” that was premiered in the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. She performed in the 1996 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, and is the recipient of numerous awards including The Joan P. Garner 2019 Community Service Award in the Arts.
Dana Marie Lupton
As an artist engaged in the creation, performance, and teaching of dance, it is my hope to address those issues which are relevant to the community in which I live, specifically as they relate to the individuals and groups with whom I work in partnership with. It is my intention to explore and assist others with the exploration of their intrinsic artistic expression, "giving voice" to pertinent social, cultural, and personal concerns. As dance combines visual, auditory, and physical elements, it is an ideal way to communicate those things that are not easily verbalized. Sharing and nurturing the spirit of dance is therefore an essential goal for my work, the avocation of a vocation, and the purpose with which I seek to experience art.
Sasikala Penumarthi
Sasikala Penumarthi is a senior disciple of Guru Padmabhushan Dr. Vempati Chinna Satyam. She is a recipient of the Master Artist Award from the Georgia Arts Council and the National Foundation for the Advancement of Arts. She serves as Artist Affiliate and Associate Faculty at Emory University, where she teaches full credit semester courses in Kuchipudi Dance. She is on the Georgia Council for the Arts state touring and teaching artist rosters, and performs/teaches all over the United States. Sasikala and her troupe, on behalf of the Academy of Kuchipudi Dance, presented several dance dramas to Atlanta audiences and other parts of the United States. Sasikala choreographed and produced seven dance dramas, over 75 dance items in Kuchipudi Style and presented 38 student graduation performances.
The Story behind (MC)2
The heart hungers for a home, well, mine does.
Inside the unspoken understanding among family members, the smell of that dish cooking and those particular instruments playing those particular chords resides the usher to our pasts and our current sense of belonging. You know it when you feel it, and you delight in the fact that you can’t describe it.
I came to know the pertinence of this sensation the more distant “my people” became. It's a longing that I forget exists until I am among the elements of my culture. When it’s stirred, it is all consuming - as though I want the world to know about this most precious and private DNA.
Sometimes I feel the need to quiet the otherworldliness of my history, and other times feel compelled to use it as a shield, my motive for being. All the while, whether dormant or active, the sensations of home can take on their full glory in the blink of an eye.
While you may never understand the embodied hand gestures, the odd grunts nor the oddball logic that moves an idea around my brain, you will always be welcome at any table I set.
This is (MC)2.
It is an opportunity to witness and celebrate otherworldliness in its pristine and gritty glory.
It is an opportunity for varied cultures to temporarily build their unique and beautiful homes on the same street.
It is a chance to join hands, sit at the table and bathe in the intimate and personal stories that define many people from many places.
Join hands with us,
George Staib
Funding for this program is provided by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs,
and Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta’s “A Place to Perform” fund.