Ride the Culture Loop

FIT Student Performance and Collaboration

Submitted by:
Eleanor M. DiPalma, Adjunct Associate Professor, Film, Media and Performing Arts

Collaborators:
Eileen Karp, Assistant Professor and Chairperson of the Department, Fashion Design
Ellen Lynch, Professor, Accessories Design
Michael Cokkinos, Professor, Advertising and Marketing and Communications
Jim May, Artistic Director, Ana Sokolow Dance Theater Ensemble
Wendy Perron and Jennifer Stahl, editors, Dance Magazine

This project enables FIT students to work collaboratively with members of a professional dance ensemble on the production and performance of two dance pieces for the Sokolow Theater Dance Ensemble in Spring 2014 and again in Spring 2015.

FIT students receive guidance in their dance, fashion design, and film projects from FIT faculty and special direction from Jim May, artistic director of the ensemble. Dance students perform in Ride the Culture Loop with ensemble dancers. FIT's Fashion Design students design costumes for the dance, which depicts a New York City bus route extending from the Village to the Upper East Side. For Preludes, premiering in spring 2015, FIT Fashion Design students will design the dancers costumes. The premise of this project is to give students the opportunity to work an atmosphere of inclusion with professional dancers, artists and student peers and to perform the themes of cultural diversity inherent in the works of modern dance pioneer Ana Sokolow.