On September 5, T. Lang, MFA, associate professor of dance and the inaugural chair of the dance performance and choreography department at Spelman College, will be honored with the 2024 National Dance Educators Organization's (NDEO) Outstanding Dance Educator in Higher Education in the "Established" category award. The NDEO award, which acknowledges stellar, established (six years or more experience) dance educators who teach in
higher education and inspire and motivate their students to have a significant impact in their school community, is dance education/research's equivalent to theater's TONY award and the Oscars award in film.
Professor Lang, who holds a bachelor’s degree in performance and choreography from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a master’s degree in performance and choreography from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, teaches dance and performance, intermediate modern dance technique, dance improvisation and choreography II.
"As I reflect on my journey of becoming a professor in dance, I think of the students with whom I’ve engaged with over the last two decades,” said Lang. “These students greatly inspired me to ‘bring it, stay on top of it, and evolve it’ and because of their reciprocity of grit, service and love for dance – I have endured. This class, my first graduating class of outstanding students that I taught during my first year on faculty, helped shape me into the educator I am today."
T. Lang also creates, writes and teaches poetic expressions of dance, which illustrates deep, arousing investigations relevant to issues of identity, history and community. Through the vehicle of contemporary modern dance with emphasis on the interdisciplinarity, Lang’s work communicates perspectives with depth and a movement style that captures the attention of the viewer with its evocative physicality, technical range and emotional viability. Her work is inspired by the desire to invite audiences into personal and subjective experiences of inspiration, family stories, shared history; a fascination with the connections in between; and the desire to investigate them together on the dance floor.
After years of choreography, academia and performance, Lang continues to explore new mediums, such as AR and VR technology, and various modes of collaboration, to immerse audiences in what she hopes are powerful, transformative experiences. Lang connects dance, space, technology, and creative collaborators to move audiences into a greater understanding of our past, present and future.
With commissions from the High Museum of Art, Goat Farm Arts Center, Flux Projects and more Lang stays engaged with the next generation of movement artists through her summer dance intensive SWEATSHOP and Founding Director and owner of The Movement Lab ATL, an interdisciplinary incubator for creativity. She is also the 2022 Emory University Arts and Social Justice Fellow, and the 2023 recipient of Princeton University’s Collaboration and Research Grant award. Visit T. Lang Dance.
Formed in 2017, with over sixty student majors and minors, the Department of Dance Performance and Choreography is a critical and creative thinking laboratory that nurtures women of the African Diaspora. Students investigate intersections of experimental creative practices, cultural discourse, and technology.
The curriculum centers on the choreographic process through the lens of Black feminist theories, contemporary dance techniques, and interdisciplinary collaborative practice. Students engage with an exciting roster of visiting artists who explore and push boundaries through the departments signature programs like Spelman Dance Theatre and Inside the Dancers’ Studio. Faculty includes globally recognized working artists who mentor and guide students through scholarship, artistic production, and entrepreneurial strategies.