Alum/Staff Member Artistic Director of Dancers for Life, in Charge for a Good Cause
By Elizabeth Romero Student Intern CHASS College Computing
September 14, 2009
UCR is proud to display the work that alumni are bringing to the community. John Medina, a UCR Alumni and a staff member as Academic Personnel in the Departments of Art and the History of Art, has been working with Dancers for Life and Riverside City College to put on a dance benefit concert at the Landis Performing Arts Center. He has been the Artistic Director of Dancers for Life since 2007. This year, the concert will be on Saturday, October 3, 2009 at 8PM, with a pre-concert reception and silent art auction at 6:30PM.
This will be the 15th Annual Dancers for Life held at Landis Performing Arts Center. Dancers for Life 15...Dancing Beyond Borders is a benefit dance concert to raise awareness and funds for HIV/AIDS care, prevention and educational programs, while also promoting dance throughout the Inland Empire. Medina states that "This year, Dancers for Life is extending its reach to support HIV/AIDS programs globally. In collaboration with Loma Linda University Global Health Institute, all proceeds from Dancers for Life 15 will be donated to the Fuyang AIDS Orphan Salvation Association (AOS), a grassroots NGO in Central China that cares and provides education for children living with and/or are orphaned by HIV/AIDS. AOS also provides education in communities in which these children live and suffer from stigmatization and discrimination. AOS began its work by providing one HIV+ child with physical examinations in Beijing and securing anti-retroviral treatment, and now AOS supports over 600 children and their families, and the total scope of support extends to over 6,000 people."
In keeping with the theme Dancing Beyond Borders, Medina invited Lux Boreal Danza Contemporánea, a dance company based in Mexico, and recent UCR Ph.D. graduate in Anthropology Justine Lemos who will perform "Kalyani Pallavi" a choreography in the classical Indian Odissi style. The concert will also feature some of the most exciting established and emerging dance artists, choreographers and dance companies from Southern California, including Pennington Dance Group, Palindrome Performance Group, Lineage Dance, Vox Dance Theatre, BARE Dance Company. Tim Rubel, a student in the Dance Department's MFA program for Experimental Choreography will show one of his pieces from his upcoming MFA thesis show.
Organizing the concert during his spare time on a pro-bono basis, Medina states that "Community work is very important now, more than ever, and it would be fantastic for the UCR Community to find out about Dancers for Life and the good cause it's supporting."
Information in regards to Dancers for Life is as follows:
Ticket Information
$15 General Admission
$10 Students/Seniors/Children/RCC Staff
For ticket reservation, contact Landis Performing Arts Center at (951) 222-8100 or go to www.landispac.com.
Venue Information
Landis Performing Arts Center
Riverside City College
4800 Magnolia Avenue
Riverside, CA 92506
(951) 222-8100
Parking Information
Complimentary parking is available in lots A, B, E, and F, and in the new RCC Parking Structure on Magnolia and Terracina. For the convenience of our patrons, handicap parking is available in all of the lots and on Mine Okubo Avenue (accessible from Ramona/City College Drive) on performance night only.
Contact Information
