Danielle Russo Performance Project

Ithaca! I hope you’ll join us for tonight’s closing performance of ＰＥＮＵＭＢＲＡ, this year’s Annual Spring Dance Presenting Series in the Department of Performing Arts & Media Arts. This one-hour showcase features nine student dancers performing in two original choreographies by Babatunji Johnson and me: Jolene Conti, Dahlia Gilinsky, Justin Junseok Lee, Shamara Nesarajah, Julia Nwokedi, Antonella Dapozzo Oviedo, Taylor Janeen Pryor, Amirah Ricks and Shanika Thomas. I’m super proud of each dancer and their growth—not only in their movement practice, but in developing their own artistic and critical voices. 

Tonight’s performance starts at 7:30 PM at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Although tickets are free, we strongly encourage you to reserve in advance and to arrive early.

ＰＥＮＵＭＢＲＡ presents two ensemble dance works that delve into the shadow self and the tensions between impulse, restraint, and the ego. Layers surface and recede as dancers move through the many selves they carry—some revealed, others concealed, held close or kept sacred as acts of survival during an era marked by fear, surveillance, and uncertainty. he title evokes the penumbra—the luminous edge of shadow—an image of the threshold where darkness thins and the possibility of light emerges, honoring the quiet persistence of our own.

Special thanks to PMA faculty Jeffrey Palmer and Sarah Bernstein and their students for their collaboration on the screendance and costume designs for the showcase.

ＰＥＮＵＭＢＲＡ is the culmination of ＤＡＮＣＩＮＧ ＨＯＭＥ／ＬＡＮＤ, which is a yearlong series of live performances and activations, guest artist residencies and symposia, and extra/curricular experiences that engages dance and performance artists, students, and communities in dialogue around memory, migration, and place—and where fantasy can serve as a site for reworlding belonging and futurity. 

Fabulous poster art by Jini Li

Ithaca! Please join us this evening for 𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘 & 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗢𝗗𝗬: 𝗠𝗨𝗟𝗧𝗜𝗣𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗘𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗠𝗘𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗬, a performance-lecture by 𝗞𝗔𝗬𝗟𝗔 𝗙𝗔𝗥𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗛 that will be taking place from 5:00pm to 6:00 pm at the Scwhartz Center for the Performing Arts, SB10 Theatre.

is a Black American choreographer and director merging dance-theater, filmmaking, narrative, and sound score through the lens of BIPOC folk stories and marginalized perspectives. Magical realism “dreams the gaps” among erased records of histories and lineages—unearthing, reckoning, and reimagining what was there, offering ode and remembrance, generating life in the in-between, and making way for the future. In conversation with Cole Arthur Riley, bell hooks, and Hortense Spiller, place and belonging, time and memory, and home and embodiment are studies on reclamation to return to self and community.
 
Kayla will also teach a 𝗗𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗮 workshop tomorrow, Wednesday, Mar 4, from 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm, in SB10 studio at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.

All events are free and open to the public

𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘 & 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗢𝗗𝗬 is curated by Assistant Professor of Practice Danielle Russo with the generosity and support of the Department of Performing & Media Arts at Cornell University and the 2025/26 PMA Dance Programming: 𝗗𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲/𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗱.

Photographs by Alex Diaz | Film by Garrett Parker

Still basking in the joy of returning to the studio with dearest at , where we steeped ourselves in creative research and development as part of their June retreat cohort. This also granted us the privilege of being in residence alongside an intimate community of artists, writers, and scholars, many of whom were immersed in similar research areas.

Much thanks to Kaatsbaan for their generosity and support of our creative praxis, and for the delicious time and space to dive in and to truly be/stay with the work.

Thank you to and for their support of our creative research in part with NYSCI, to be continued in NYC and Upstate.

Glimpses of Ingrid in rehearsal by