Music, Theatre, Dance Faculty & Staff
Last Name
Page
First Name
Edgar L.
Email
pageed@gvsu.edu
Title
Dance, Assistant Professor
Website
www.edgarlpage.com
Office Address
PAC 1603
Office Phone
616-331-3116
About
Edgar L. Page comes from legacies celebrating the African Diaspora and Black Modern Dance traditions. Originally from Detroit, MI he began his dance training through the Detroit Public Schools system. A proud graduate of Cass Technical High School, he furthered his dance studies at the Alvin Ailey School, the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, and others before earning his BA in Dance from Western Michigan University as both a Wade H. McCree, Jr. Incentive Scholar and a Martin Luther King, Jr. Diversity Scholar. Upon graduation, Mr. Page spent a season with the Dayton Contemporary Dance Second Company before joining the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble where he toured domestically and internationally as a principal dancer. During his time with Cleo Parker Robinson Dance he also served as a choreographer, dramaturg, director of youth programming, and a dance and theory lecturer.
With a graceful prowess, Mr. Page has since shifted his focus towards curating his own work while enriching his community, establishing Edgar L. Page: Feel the Movement in June of 2018. This intersectional, multigenerational arts initiative offers an interdisciplinary embodiment of human creativity through movement-based mindfulness. His physical practice is rooted in building community through mentorship, education, and providing visibility to non-archetypal movers or those lacking access to formal training and performance opportunities. Within his creative practice, he centralizes storytelling and narration through African and Indigenous traditions while stewarding a creative incubator that employs the Africanist Aesthetic of Cool to inform a lush amalgamation of contemporary movement. Page’s work explores the non-linear evolution of identity in proximity to intimacy; the post-digital pursuit of love, happiness, and the rapidly morphing continuum of affection as influenced by technology. The resulting work embodies what he envisions as collateral damage found at the collision of these elements.
Mr. Page is the 2021 recipient of the Denver Mayor’s Award for Excellence in Arts and Culture for Innovation. In addition to being a 2020-2022 Artist in Resident with Redline Contemporary Art Center, he was a 2020 S*PARK Artist in Residence, a 2020 Dance/USA Institute for Leadership Training Cohort mentee, a City of Denver Cultural Partner, a Creativity Connects Fellow, A Next Stage NOW Artist, and the inaugural recipient of the Presenting Denver Dance Festival's Audience Favorite Award. He was voted the 2019 Readers’ Choice for Best Artist in the annual Top of the Town Awards presented by 5280 Magazine. Most recently, Mr. Page was featured in the 2021 YouTube Originals Black History Month program, “Black Renaissance: the Art and Soul of Our Stories,” in the segment UNARMED with collaborator Raafi Rivero. Page continues to choreograph and present work while concurrently directing the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Academy as well as Edgar L. Page: Feel the Movement. Mr. Page continues his endeavors towards curating equitable, protected spaces that center movement as a member of the inaugural CBCA Advancing Creatives Intensive, the 2022 Intercultural Leadership Institute, and the 2022 National Center for Choreography at the University of Akron Creative Administrative Research Program Cohorts. You can learn more by visiting www.edgarlpage.com.