By Jazmin Conner
Adriane Fang, dancer, choreographer, and assistant professor at the University of Maryland was sitting in her office reading and responding to emails when she received the news.
She had been awarded the University of Maryland Creative and Performing Arts award (CAPAA), a competitive grant that financially supports faculty research, scholarship and creative activity. This was her second time applying and she had to wait an additional three years to do so because faculty are only eligible to apply for a CAPAA grant every three-year period.
Euphoric, she ran outside to tell any colleague that would listen. “Nobody was around,” Fang said laughing, so she went back to her office celebrating her achievement silently to herself and sending emails to friends to inform them of the good news.
“It was a moment of sort of elation and then okay we have to start planning for this,” she said.
The second time applying for the grant Fang worked with Leslie Felbaine, an associate professor and faculty mentor at the University of Maryland. She gave her some pointers about certain parts of her application that could be made clearer. “I was not at all certain about getting this award,” said Fang. “She helped me to shape my application to a really high degree, so I think really it was Leslie’s help.”
Fang first started dancing when she was four to help with her gymnastics. She wasn’t in love with dance in the beginning and considered it a sport that she was tasked with. In junior high she quit, convinced that her dance teacher’s constant critique was a sign of dislike rather than a compliment of talent.
It was this break from dance that Fang said marked a pivotal point in her relationship with the sport. It didn’t take long for her to return. “Something about it being a conscious choice rather than you’re a kid and you just do whatever the thing is that you’re told,” she said.
Since then Fang has majored in dance and psychology in her undergrad, and now is an experienced choreographer in the field.
She plans to use the stipend from CAPAA to create a new dance duet with her longtime colleague and collaborator, Colleen Thomas. In the current political climate of the #MeToo movement, the duet will delve into concepts such as the inequitable reality that women so often have to move backwards in order to move forward and how women both support and get in each other’s way.
“I have just been so acutely aware because of teaching young women that the issues we are confronting are resonant. They aren’t just applicable to us but to every person that we come in contact with,” said Fang when referencing her inspiration behind the duet. “It’s always thee ‘it’s not going to happen to me syndrome’ that happens for young ladies that come on campus.”
Some of the grant money will go to towards paying collaborators and supplying costume materials, but most if it will fund traveling. Fang and her team will construct the duet completely from scratch creating a new devised work, so as of now they are still unsure of the details of the piece.
Her first rehearsal is planned for April and scheduled to be in Maryland. Then in July she plans to travel to New York for another group of rehearsals. Depending on how the first two meetings go Fang will plan more meetups. She also applied for a show at the Dance Place presenting arts venue in D.C. and is waiting on a response.
“I’m excited to see where [Colleen and I] both are, what that collaborative dynamic is in the studio now,” said Fang. “I’ll have also our collaboratives with us so it’s going to be a different experience.”