The dance program at Northwest Vista College has received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for a project that will be launched this semester. Courtesy photo

Special to the Northwest Weekly

The dance program at Northwest Vista College has received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts’ American Masterpieces: Dance initiative administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts with Dance/USA. Northwest Vista College is the only community college in Texas, and one of only two in the nation, to receive such a gift.

The grant check was officially presented to the college by U.S. Rep. Charles A. Gonzalez.

“This recognition is very special. There is tremendous competition for every dollar these days and getting $10,000 is a lot of money, especially because for the longest time, we’ve had to endure cuts for NEA funding,” Gonzalez said, adding that he himself has always enjoyed dance because “it gives culture wonderful richness.”

Receiving the grant were: assistant professor and dance program coordinator, Jayne King, and her students, as well as Northwest Vista College President Jackie Claunch.

The grant is for a project that will be launched this semester to help Northwest Vista College students reconstruct an American Masterpiece, Frida, by Anna Sokolow, which is the last piece she choreographed prior to her death.

“It is interesting to note that the piece has never before been performed in Mexico, yet it was inspired by Anna Sokolow’s time spent in Mexico City in the 1930s,” King said. “The funding for this project will provide a rich cultural exchange for Northwest Visa College students to perform the piece in San Antonio and Mexico City.”

NVC students, who will travel to Mexico and partner with students from La Escuela Nacional de Danza Clasica y Contemporanea in Mexico City, will also visit the museum of Frida Kahlo and the Palacio Nacional de Bellas Artes, where Sokolow’s original company first performed in Mexico City.