Calvin Professor to Study Alutiiq Dance in Alaska

June 6, 2006 == MEDIA ADVISORY
 
A Calvin College professor has earned a pair of grants that, combined with a
trio of Calvin grants, will help fund a project that will take her to Alaska
for a five-month journey.

Ellen Van'tHof, a dance professor at the college, earned $6,000 from the
Alaska Humanities Forum and $6,000 from Alaska's CIRI Foundation for a
documentary film she plans to produce called "Finding Their Own Dance:
Reawakening the Alutiiq Arts."

Those grants are in addition to funding from Calvin via a Mellema Western
American Studies Grant, a Calvin Alumni Association grant and a Calvin Research
Fellowship.

Van'tHof will work on the project from July through November 2006, based on
the Kenai Peninsula and Kodiak Island (located south and west of Anchorage).
She plans to partner on the documentary with Calvin graduate Rob Prince, a
professor at University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Their 55-minute documentary will illuminate the art of the Alutiiq people who
have lived primarily in south central Alaska and Kodiak Island for over 7,500
years.

Says Van'tHof: "Their culture has been shaped by their environment: rugged
coastal mountains, volcanoes, forests, rivers and especially the sea. Their
arts and dances, rich in symbolism and cultural significance, tell their
stories."

She also hopes to examine the generational interactions: what do the elders
consider most important to teach and preserve, how are they teaching the
younger generations and how does the younger generation feel about their
culture?

Contact Van'tHof at 616-526-6031 or evanthof@calvin.edu
For the full story see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2005_06/vanthof_dance.htm

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Received on Tue Jun 6 13:54:22 2006