Photos

“Morning at UCLA” with Professor Victoria Marks

March 29, 2018

Victoria Marks is the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. She is also a Professor of Choreography in the Department of World Arts and Cultures.

Victoria Marks creates dances for the stage, for film and in community settings. As she began her presentation, she asked us “What is dance?” We responded with terms such as plié and first position. She told us that when current UCLA dance majors talk about dance, they are more informal and refer to what they do as “moves.” For them, their moves translate their ideas into dances with inner meaning and excitement. Professor Marks introduced us to some of the “modern” dance ideas of Martha Graham and Jose Limon. She discussed how Ms. Graham began her works with movements.

And then, we moved and “danced”. We moved our arms and bodies to express feelings of contraction and expansion, of lifting and falling, and of connection through touch and reciprocal movement with a “partner” sitting next to us.
A highlight of the program was a video Professor Marks choreographed where her dancers, including one in a wheelchair. The video flowed with great virtuosity. We were mesmerized by the movement and delighted by the presentation.