Eli Livne, Jinkyu Yang and Marco Salviato of Aeronautics & Astronautics honored

Three faculty members in the UW aeronautics and astronautics department have received honors recently, two from the American Institute for Aeronautics & Astronautics.

The institute has named the recipient of its 2021 , which is given every four years for “outstanding contributions to the understanding and application of aeroelastic phenomena.” The award is named for , a pioneer in aeroelasticity, a term referring to “the interactions of flight mechanics, structure, aerodynamics and active control of flexible aircraft.” Livne, the Boeing Endowed Professor of Aeronautics & Astronautics, headed the UW’s airplane design education program for years and continues to teach and research airplane design.

The institute has also named associate professor a member of its . This designation recognizes individuals who have done or overseen “outstanding contributions to the arts, sciences or technology of aeronautics and astronautics.” Yang researches the design and development of advanced materials and structures.

Also, assistant professor has received the 2020 from the American Society of Composites. DEStech Publications Inc. is an academic book publisher. The award honors an individual in the composites field who, early in their career, has “made a significant impact on the science and technology of composite materials through a sustained research effort.” Salviato researches the mechanical behavior of materials and structures to advance designs of lighter aerospace structures.

Read more about at the department .

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Daniel Enquobahrie of epid­emiology honored for excellence in teaching, mentoring

, UW associate professor of epidemiology, has received the 2020 Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring Award from the Coalition for Excellence in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology.

Enquobahrie was honored for “improving maternal and child health practice through excellence in teaching; training in the use of data, epidemiologic methods and applied research; and mentoring of students, trainees, fellows and early career professionals.”

“We are pleased to recognize the impact that you and your contributions have made on the health of women, children and families,” the coalition stated. Enquobahrie also has an adjunct associate appointment with the Health Services Department and directs the UW’s . He is also the associate program director of the online .

The , given every other year, were presented during the coalition’s national conference, held online Sept. 16-18.

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Dance Department lecturer Etienne Cakpo honored by state dance educators association

, a part-time lecturer in the Department of Dance, has been named 2020 Dance Educator of the Year by the Dance Educators Association of Washington. Cakpo teaches West African dance at the UW, and was also the during the 2018-19 academic year.

The association notes that “Etienne is a dynamic and gifted teaching artist and educator. He conveys joy for live through his dance work and his teaching. He deeply believes that dance resides in all people, and as an educator you get to coax that out of individuals, all the while getting them to drop their self-judgment, stop overthinking their movements, and embrace the beauty of experiencing their body in motion.”

Dance professor said of Cakpo: He gives students his own stunning and unique contemporary movement style. Etienne, quite literally, has helped to transform our department just by his presence. We would not be the same without him.”

Cakpo is also the director of the Seattle-based The award was presented during the association’s online conference Sept. 20.

For more information, visit .

A dance piece titled “Groundswell” — one of three to be performed — is an excerpt from a longer BANDALOOP work titled “Harboring” that involves eight dancers, four of whom are suspended low to the stage with ropes and harnesses.

The UW performance of “Groundswell” will mark the first time the piece has been performed on a regular stage.” The work was restaged by , UW assistant professor of dance, with guest artist Melecio Estrella, assistant artistic director of BANDALOOP.

Also in the evening, composer ‘s timeless Boléro is explored in choreography by assistant professor , aided and accompanied by two concert grand pianos.

For a piece titled “Begin Again,” associate professor and Dance Program director collaborates with digital artist Martin Jarmick and composer Paul Moore, aided by six projection screens that move to “continually create and destroy landscapes for the dancers to navigate.”

Costumes for the program were designed by Christine Meyers and Michelle Lesniak.

The UW Dance Program’s reimagining of BANDALOOP’s work is supported by the Mellon Creative Fellowship Initiative Project, through a from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Tickets to the concert are $10-$20 in advance, available online at artsuw.org, by phoning 206-543-4880 or at the ArtsUW Ticket Office, 1313 NE 41^st Street.

The dance piece “Draft,” created by famed choreographer Robert Moses in collaboration with ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý student and alumni dancers, is aptly named. It’s a work in progress — a draft indeed.

The movements audiences will see in the piece came from the dancers themselves, though encouraged and drawn out by Moses.

“They are carrying it with them,” said Moses. one of America’s leading choreographers, in a break between classes during his April campus visit. “I come to them and we start working, and the whole thing is on them, on their bodies. They already know. I just go and put it together — it’s a puzzle.”

This balance of ideas between dancer and choreographer seems to fuel Moses. He said, “I get 20 to 30 new ideas every day that I meet with these people.”

“Draft” is one of five dance pieces to be performed when , his dance troupe, performs in the Meany Studio Theatre May 29-31, presented by the . Three of the pieces are his; the other two are by Bliss Kohlmeyer (a 2011 UW Dance Program alumna) and Gregory P. Dawson, respectively. Eleven of the 16 local dancers in “Draft” are UW students, three are alumni and two are from the community and not affiliated with the UW. They will be joined by members of the Robert Moses Kin company.

Moses is presented as part of the UW World Series’ new , which is dedicated to showcasing emerging and influential artists and providing interactive educational opportunities for students. The series is sponsored by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.

“‘Draft’ is just that — it is a work where each collaborating dancer has one hour to develop material in collaboration with Robert,” said Michelle Witt, UW World Series director. “Its style and purpose are fluid and somewhat improvisatory. Some dancers work in groups, some individually, and the material is very much based on the movement possibilities and range of the individuals in the room.”

Founded in 1995 in San Francisco, Robert Moses’ Kin, his company, has won praise for its eclectic styles and subject matter. The troupe has used dance to explore urban and African-American culture, parentage and identity and even a biography in movement of author James Baldwin. A choreographer-in-residence at Stanford University since 2005, Moses has taught on college campuses across the nation.

He was assisted in this work by Todd Eckert, the Kin troupe’s artistic associate and rehearsal director.

Student Hilary Bowen, an undergraduate double majoring in dance and English who will perform in “Draft,” called the process “very collaborative, but it’s also extremely guided.

“The choreographers knew very much where they wanted to go with the movement, so they would take our individual movement styles and vocabulary and mold it to fit what they were looking for.”

Bowen said she loved the process of “constant change in movement” that Moses and Eckert offered: “During rehearsal we would go through maybe three or four genres of music, all with the same movement material. It was a challenge, but very interesting to learn to keep the integrity of the movement with different audio.”

Jennifer Salk, associate professor and chair of the , said such workshops with visiting artists have “a huge impact” on students for a relatively short time commitment. And that’s helpful, since most student dancers double-major and are very busy,

“It also allowed for some of our students who are just getting to know the department to be involved in a creative process with a choreographer even though they are just joining us,” Salk said. She said the dance program is grateful for such opportunities provided by the UW World Series. “It is essential students get exposure from a broad swath of artists from all over the world.”

The dancers performed “Draft” three times in late April. Bowen said there may be subtle differences between the performances, “but it is still Robert Moses’ piece and as he was fond of saying to us, ‘you can do anything you want with the movement except break it.'”

What can audiences expect from “Draft”?

“If you are coming to see someone you know, you’re going to see a side of them that you didn’t know,” the choreographer said. “And ideally, the performers will do that as well.”

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Here is a video about “Draft” produced by UWVideo for the UW World Series.

The controlled chaos of improvisation was the source for “Pony,” a dancer’s duet featured as part of this year’s Faculty Dance Concert, being performed Jan. 22 to 26 in the Meany Studio Theatre.

“Pony” was created by Rachael Lincoln, the newest faculty member of the ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý’s , together with student dancers Siena Dumas Ang and Hannah Old. The annual faculty dance concert features dance students performing choreography designed by faculty members.

Lincoln has the “courage” part down pat — she is a longtime member of , a group that defies gravity with “vertical dance” performances hundreds of feet in the air.

“Pony” is one of four pieces — including “May and June,” a film written and directed by Lincoln — that comprise an eclectic evening. The other dance works are “Beats Me,” choreographed by Jennifer Salk, associate professor and dance program director; and “From Here,” choreographed by Jürg Koch, assistant professor.

Lincoln said improvisation in dance can range from totally freewheeling to somewhat directed. The “do’s and don’ts” vary depending on the piece.  “To me, skilled improvisers are always exceptional listeners — to themselves, to those around them, to the space, to timing and to context. Improvisation involves constant decision-making and a very alive mind and body.”

Lincoln said the process of creating “Pony” began with free improvisation by the two dancers, then grew more specific through her suggestions until it became a set piece. By the time dancers and choreographer had brought the piece to its final form, Lincoln said, “it became unrecognizable from the initial direction.”

But even as they perform, Lincoln said, the dancers are free to change things a bit. “The dancers have autonomy within the performance to continuously listen, modify, change and tweak — it keeps them on their toes.”

Also on the program:

• In “Beats Me,” choreographed by Salk in collaboration with musician Paul Moore and the dancers, three on-stage musicians will serve as referees as dancers compete in a series of games — some fun, some competitive.

• “From Here,” was choreographed by Koch with technology and text created in collaboration with composer Doug Niemela and actor/writer Dylan Ward. The performance weaves overlapping layers with movement and words and was created with the ideas of “universal design” and the aesthetics of disability theater in mind. Eleven dancers will perform. There will be American Sign Language interpretation by Andrew Scudder.

“This year’s faculty concert appears to have more collaborative elements with dancers than in some years,” said Salk. Noting that faculty focused their efforts in this concert on the dancers’ strengths and creative contributions, she added, “As choreographers in a research/teaching institution we try to merge our own artistic desires with something that is educational for our students.”

Tickets for the 2014 Faculty Dance Concert are available online at and from the , 1313 NE 41^st St., or 206-543-4880.