Transcript of Byron Suber and Madeline Silva video

Byron Suber (00:00):
Hi, I'm Byron Suber. I'm on the dance faculty here at Cornell and the Department of Performing and Media Arts, have been here for a few decades. I'm with my student Madeline if you would talk a little bit about yourself. 

Madeline Silva  (00:12):
Yep. I'm Madeline Silva. I am a senior studying design and environmental analysis. I’ve been dancing with PMA since my freshman year. I started with modern and then moved on to ballet with Byron, and I've been working with choreographers in our performances since then.

Byron Suber (00:26):
Basically we're a program that focuses on contemporary dance, modern dance and ballet from a very contemporary point of view. And we do choreography. The students are quite involved in that process. 

Madeline Silva (00:39):
If you come from a more traditional dance studio background, like I did it, it's definitely a big transition to suddenly have the freedom to, to choreograph yourself. But it's also, I think really rewarding and really empowering to have that responsibility and to be able to create something yourself, working with other dancers and with the instructors. 

Byron Suber (01:00):
What we're trying to do here is that we're trying to teach a dance that asks you to question what you've done before, rather than, than just confirm or reiterate what you've done before. And you can minor in dance, which a lot of people do. It’s really good as an entering freshman to kind of check in on what that is so that you can get started on that early. So it doesn't conflict with your other work and you could also major in dance. It’s actually PMA. You're majoring in Performing and Media Arts with a focus in dance. 

Madeline Silva (01:28):
And, everybody comes from different dance backgrounds, but you can all kind of find some things to relate to here. So I think that's possibly my favorite part about dancing is the people.

Byron Suber (01:37):
So we do two concerts a year that are connected. We work all during the fall semester and produce what's called the Mini Locally-Grown Dance concert. And then we continue working on that into the spring semester and we do on the proscenium stage, we do a concert called the Locally-Grown Dance, which is fully produced on a big proscenium stage with, costumes added and the pieces at a, at a different level of completion

Madeline Silva (02:02):
And working with other dancers in PMA is I think my favorite part, I've made some of my closest friends right in the studio. And it's really wonderful to see what you and what other people can all do as Cornell students still dancing.

Byron Suber (02:16):
Hopefully, we'll see some of you and we'll be able to work with you in that way.

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