August 20, 2024 Social with Pottery, Dancers, and Photography

August 21, 2024

Thanks to our Summer Social Presenters

Aja Madsen has been a dancer for a lifetime– true love lasts forever. She started in BYU's Young Dancemaker program and kept going until she graduated with a dance degree from Brigham Young University. Then wanderlust took her to New York City where she had many awesome dance experiences. She is happy to call Cedar City home and has enjoyed teaching ballet and creative dance at Little Leap Frogs studio right here in the Johnson Center. Creating dance has always been a Top 5 joy for her. She is excited to curate more experiences for adults and children to dance and is looking forward to her next adventure.Project description:

Picture presentation of Dance in the Desert project where I led a dance class through some mindful movements in nature and taught them some new ways of seeing their body in space.

Russell Wrankle is a professor of art at Southern Utah University (SUU) and the proprietor of “Shape Theory Ceramics Community Studio.” With over 35 years of experience as a ceramic artist, he is deeply passionate about the art form.

"If my memory serves me right, I took my first ceramics class when I was 24, and now that I’ve just turned 60, I realize I've been at this ceramics thing for quite a while. That first class was in college, and it didn’t take long for me to get hooked. I spent every extra moment I had in the pottery studio, often at the expense of my other classes.

Eventually, I started making sculptures as well, but it was the wheel that truly captivated me. I would stay in the ceramics studio until security kicked me out, and even found ways to subvert the rules, staying past the allotted hours and sneaking in on Sundays when the campus was closed. I might have neglected my other classes, but I consistently earned A’s in ceramics.

After a long day in the studio, I’d ride a creative high. My favorite thing to do after a full day at the wheel was to come home to my tiny apartment, light a candle, turn on some mellow tunes, and reflect on what I had made. I’d lie there, basking in the dopamine rush from spending hours in the flow.

I still get really excited about working with clay, even though I no longer "vibe" with candles and music. But when I can immerse myself in clay for long stretches of time, that’s when I’m happiest.

This sense of creative well-being that I’ve experienced over the years is something I want to share with my Cedar City community, which is one of the reasons why I’m opening the community studio."

Nancy Dobbs Owen:

Nancy Dobbs Owen, MFA (Choreographer/Director, Dancer, Dance Educator, Writer) began her

professional career with the Joffrey Ballet and danced with numerous ballet and modern

companies. National Tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera. Television and

film work: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, American Princess, VEEP, Ratched, Deadwood, and Music. LA

Stage Highlights: John Adams’ Nixon in China with the LA Philharmonic, the Production

Company’s award-winning Sweeney Todd, and The Bridge Club at Deaf West Theatre.

Award Winning Stage Direction and Choreography credits include Skeleton Stories, Have You

Seen Alice, and Welcome to the White Room at Theatre of NOTE, Assassins with Sight Unseen

Theatre, M. Butterfly, Sweeney Todd, Working, and Enron, at the Production Company, The

Snow Queen at the Fremont Centre Theatre, Where's Charley for 42nd St. Moon, War Bride at

Sky Pilot Theater, I’d Rather Be Right at the Hudson Theater, Dolls! at the Santa Monica

Playhouse and Pacific Opera Project's The Mikado. She was the resident choreographer for the

Marina Del Rey Symphony’s Summer Dance Concert, creating four original ballets. She has

received award recognition from the Ovations, Stage Scene LA, and BroadwayWorld.com

Film, TV, and Film Choreography highlights include the feature Hollywood Fringe, the viral

sensation Lullaby, a Zombie Musical, Too Many Bodies, and Floating, Falling, Flying; A Dance

Film. Her work has been seen at over 40 film festivals with numerous choreography and

directing honors.

She currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Dance at Southern Utah University. She is a

staff writer for LA Dance Chronicle and serves on committees with Corps De Ballet International

and Women in Dance.

CCAC Board Members at the Summer Social

Tanisa Crosby and April Richardson provided music

It was a good Summer Social and we are excited about the projects presented plus the updates from the arts community. Thanks to everyone who participated.