Lights, camera, dance!: Marybelle Musco funds new contemporary series
The Marybelle Musco Contemporary Dance Series, which began on Nov. 4, highlights renowned dance groups from around the country. Photo by EMILY PARIS, Photo Editor
Marybelle Musco, the primary benefactor of the Musco Center for the Arts, has long been a champion of the performing arts at Chapman University.
This past summer, she donated $300,000, which has been used to fund the Marybelle Musco Contemporary Dance Series. The series kicked off in early November and brings dance groups from around the country to campus.
Musco Center for the Arts struggled to fund performances following the COVID-19 shutdown, but things are looking up with Musco’s donation.
The series began with the internationally renowned Mark Morris Dance Group, paying homage to the chart-topping songs of Burt Bacharach in a performance titled “The Look of Love” on Nov. 4.
The group, based in Brooklyn, New York, is led by acclaimed choreographer Mark Morris, who has been noted by the New York Times as “arguably the most successful and influential choreographer alive, and indisputably the most musical.”
Richard Bryant, the executive director for the Musco Center for the Arts, couldn’t hold in his excitement that the Mark Morris Dance Group was kicking off the series.
“There is so much to say about Mark — his 180 choreographic works, his successes in opera, his extraordinary Brooklyn-based dance center, his school, his work with people who suffer from Alzheimer’s, his 11 honorary doctorates and his scores of awards and accolades from around the world,” Bryant told The Panther.
He continued: “So yes, excited is an understatement. Having Mark Morris and his company here represents a pinnacle of contemporary dance that underscores and enhances the university’s achievements in building its new dance center and its ascendant academic programs in dance.”
“So yes, excited is an understatement. Having Mark Morris and his company here represents a pinnacle of contemporary dance that underscores and enhances the university’s achievements in building its new dance center and its ascendant academic programs in dance.”
The contemporary dance series continues in January with a performance by Camille A. Brown and Dancers titled “ink,” which is the final installment of Brown’s trilogy on Black identity. Tickets are available on the Musco Center website.
Musco’s passion for dance has led to her desire to support the arts at Chapman.
The Musco Center for the Arts, which first opened in the spring of 2016, can accommodate everything from full-scale Broadway-style productions to operas and presentations from the campus community. The center also showcases productions by Chapman University’s College of Performing Arts (CoPA), including the Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music, the Department of Dance and the Department of Theatre.
“Musco Center is thrilled to present the Marybelle Musco Dance Series this season,” said Jennifer Marchese-Ernst, the director of programs and public engagement for the Musco Center. “We are truly honored to be guided by Marybelle’s exceptional taste and passion for the arts, especially in dance. Chapman and really, Orange County as a whole, is truly fortunate to have some of the world’s best choreography and modern dance brought right to our front door.”
“Musco Center is thrilled to present the Marybelle Musco Dance Series this season. We are truly honored to be guided by Marybelle’s exceptional taste and passion for the arts, especially in dance. Chapman and really, Orange County as a whole, is truly fortunate to have some of the world’s best choreography and modern dance brought right to our front door.”
Musco’s donation has also directly benefited the College of Performing Arts. Through “Leap of Art” residencies, students have been able to interact with choreographers and dancers through master classes, which have included visits from singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash and violinist Lucia Micarelli in past semesters.
Julianne Pedersen, a dance professor who is also the chair of the dance department, said she is grateful for Musco’s continued support of dance at Chapman.
“Not only do students get to perform and choreograph in the astoundingly beautiful Musco Center for the Arts, but they have meaningful access to the greatest contemporary choreographers and dancers in the world,” Pedersen said.
Pedersen continued: “We just concluded the Mark Morris residency brought to us through Marybelle's generous gift, and I got to see all the touch points the department had with the company. Students hoping to become choreographers saw the intricacies of his craft at the performance and will be better choreographers for it.”
CoPA Dean Giulio Ongaro shared a similar sentiment about the opportunities for students.
“In the performing arts, we always benefit from this kind of exchange by learning new techniques and ideas, as well as by having models to follow,” Ongaro said. “Students and faculty are always excited about these residencies because, thanks to Mrs. Musco, we can bring in dance companies that are among the best in the world.”
“In the performing arts, we always benefit from this kind of exchange by learning new techniques and ideas, as well as by having models to follow. Students and faculty are always excited about these residencies because, thanks to Mrs. Musco, we can bring in dance companies that are among the best in the world.”
According to Bryant, Musco’s donation has also supported the Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music.
Beginning this semester, several classical music residencies were made possible, including the Australian Haydn Ensemble, Juilliard String Quartet and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as well as the employment of classically trained professional musicians to perform alongside students for the live concert version of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” held back in September.
Ongaro hopes CoPA's successes will allow the school to continue receiving donor support.