James Frazier is an American dance artist, arts administrator, and Dean of the Florida State University College of Fine Arts.
A native of Florida, Frazier earned his BS in marketing in 1991 and an MFA in dance in 1994 from Florida State University in Tallahassee. [1]
Frazier earned an Ed. D. in Dance from Temple University in 2007, after beginning his studies 10 years prior.
During his dance career, Frazier performed and toured with Kokuma Dance Theatre Company, based in England and Dallas Black Dance Theatre.[ citation needed ] He was also a founding member of Edgeworks Dance Theater. Established in 2001, the Washington, D.C. based dance company was made up of four African American men, led by Helanius J. Wilkins. [2] Edgeworks focused on contemporary dance works that explored the lived experiences of black men in America. [3]
He has worked as a guest or creative collaborator with many others, performing nationally, including engagements at Jacob’s Pillow, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and Philadelphia’s Prince Music Theater, in the musical St. Louis Woman choreographed by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, among many others. His own choreography has been presented at numerous universities, but also at Washington DC’s Kennedy Center, The National Museum and the Carter Barron Amphitheater while serving as Associate Artistic Director of the Dance Institute of Washington, under the direction of Fabian Barnes.
He is a past recipient of the Virginia Commission for the Arts Choreographic Fellowship, and in 2009 he was commissioned to create a new ballet for the Richmond Ballet Company. [4]
Frazier joined the faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2001. There, he taught jazz dance and modern dance techniques, as well as dance history and theory courses. [5] Frazier’s career at VCU spanned 18 years. He became chair of the Department of Dance and Choreography in 2007, later serving as Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and faculty Affairs and Interim Dean. [1]
In 2010, Frazier was appointed co-dean of the American Dance Festival School alongside Gerri Houlihan, serving in that role through 2013. [6]
Frazier was named the incumbent Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Florida State University in 2018 [7] , assuming the role fully in 2019.
Frazier is a former secretary and president of the Council of Dance Administrators (CODA) and a former board member of the American College Dance Association. He is currently president-elect of the International Council of Fine Arts Deans (ICFAD), a multi-national alliance of arts administrators in higher education, where he has served on the organization’s board for several years, including two as secretary. [8]
George Balanchine was an American ballet choreographer of Georgian origin, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers of the 20th-century. Styled as the father of American ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its artistic director for more than 35 years. His choreography is characterized by plotless ballets with minimal costume and décor, performed to classical and neoclassical music.
Suzanne Farrell is an American ballerina and the founder of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Gawain Garth Fagan, CD is a Jamaican modern dance choreographer. He is the founder and artistic director of Garth Fagan Dance, a modern dance company based in Rochester, New York.
Daniel Lewis is a U.S. choreographer and dance teacher, currently the Dean of Dance at the New World School of the Arts.
Eugene Loring was an American dancer, choreographer, teacher, and administrator.
James Frazier may refer to:
The Florida State University College of Fine Arts, located in Tallahassee, Florida, is one of sixteen colleges comprising the Florida State University (FSU).
The Suzanne Farrell Ballet is a ballet company housed at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., and founded in 2000 by Suzanne Farrell, one of George Balanchine's most celebrated ballerinas, and a former New York City Ballet principal dancer. Until 2017, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet was a full-fledged company produced by the Kennedy Center and had performed there since 1999 in addition to presenting extensive national and international tours. In September 2016, the Center announced that the company would be disbanding at the end of 2017, citing "possibilities of new expansion" and indicating that Farrell would likely return to "full-time teaching."
Rudolph Weaver was an American architect, university professor and administrator renowned for various buildings that he designed in Florida, Idaho and Washington, many of which are academic.
Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which includes dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was considered to have been developed as a rejection of, or rebellion against, classical ballet, and also a way to express social concerns like socioeconomic and cultural factors.
Bill Evans is a choreographer, performer, teacher, administrator, writer and movement analyst. More than 250 of Evans' works have been performed by professional and pre-professional ballet, modern dance and tap dance companies throughout the United States, including his own Bill Evans Dance Company, Repertory Dance Theatre, Concert Dance Company of Boston, Ballet West, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Ruth Page Chicago Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theater, Stars of American Ballet at Jacob's Pillow, Chicago Tap Theatre, Rochester City Ballet, FuturPointe Dance and many other companies. He has also created works for companies in Canada, Mexico and New Zealand.
William Jonas Montford III is an American Democratic politician from Florida. He served in the Florida Senate from 2010 to 2020, representing parts of the Florida Panhandle around Tallahassee. Previously, he served on the Leon County Commission and as Leon County superintendent of schools.
Vladimir Mikhailovich Zakharov was a Russian choreographer, founder, Chief Choreographer and Artistic Director of Moscow National Academic Theater of Dance Gzhel and Moscow Ballet Academy Gzhel, Ph.D. in Study of Culture, Academician, Director of the University of Dance under the Academy of Slavic Culture, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, Honoured Artist of Dagestan Republic, People's Artist of The North Ossetia-Alaniya Republic.
Kyle Abraham is an American choreographer and dancer. He founded his own company A.I.M by Kyle Abraham in 2006 in New York City and has produced many original works for A.I.M such as The Radio Show (2010), Absent Matter (2015), Pavement (2012), Dearest Home (2017), Drive (2017), INDY (2018), Studies on Farewell (2019), and An Untitled Love (2021). Kyle has also been commissioned to create new works for international dance companies such as Untitled America (2016) for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, The Runaway (2018) for New York City Ballet, The Bystander (2019) for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Only The Lonely (2019) for Paul Taylor American Modern Dance and Ash (2019).
Val Caniparoli is an American ballet dancer and international choreographer. His work includes more than 100 productions for ballet, opera, and theater for over 50 companies, and his career as a choreographer progressed globally even as he continued his professional dance career with the San Francisco Ballet.
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Elizabeth Aldrich is an American dance historian, choreographer, writer, lecturer, consultant, administrator, curator, and archivist. She is internationally known for her research, performance, choreography, teaching, and lectures on Renaissance and Baroque court dance, nineteenth-century social dance, and twentieth-century ragtime dance.
Frances Ann Wessells is an American dancer, choreographer, and Associate Professor Emerita and founder of the dance department at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). She helped form the department of dance at VCU and was still teaching and dancing professionally in her late nineties.
David Roussève is an American choreographer, writer, director and filmmaker. He founded his company, David Roussève/REALITY in 1988 and has since choreographed, written and directed 14 evening-length works for the group. His latest work for REALITY, Halfway to Dawn premiered in October 2018 at REDCAT in Los Angeles before touring nationally and internationally. His work addresses issues of racism, sexism, and homophobia.
Reginald "Reggie" Alexander Montgomery was an American clown, actor and director. He was the first black clown to perform with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (Ringling). He was best known as the first African-American clown to perform in Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, though he spent only a year of his career doing so.