SERVED

Building Community at Williams College

Created through a multi-visit residency with Forklift Danceworks beginning in the Fall of 2016, Served engaged staff, students, and faculty in a community-based art making process to create a site-specific dance performed by campus dining services staff which premiered in February 2018. Using a process of collaborative art-making honed by Forklift Danceworks over 15 years, choreographers Allison Orr and Krissie Marty curated movement and used tools of contemporary dance to highlight the virtuosic work life of campus staff as performed by the employees themselves. Crafted through a relationship-building process of listening to and engaging with campus employees, Forklift artists taught students about the principles of community-based art making, coached students in how to conduct ethnographic research and created a co-authored choreography with the participating employees.

Additional Campus and Community Engagement

Working closely with Dining Services Leadership, Director of Dining Bob Volpi, VP of Student Life Steve Klass, and Producing Director Randal Fippinger, Served also included additional campus opportunities, such as student positions as ethnographers and rehearsal assistants; panel discussion; participatory movement workshops; and town hall-style meetings to engage student groups, participating employees and their family members, faculty and other Williams staff.