Carolina Performing Arts had strong, eventful year

Though “The Rite at 100” series has already come and gone, Carolina Performing Arts has proven that its on-campus presence is still as strong as ever.

In addition to its regular season shows, CPA hosted a centennial celebration of Vaslav Nijinsky and Igor Stravinsky’s controversial ballet, “The Rite of Spring,” which culminated in a riot in the middle of Paris when it first premiered in 1913.

By the end of its season, CPA had sold more than 39,700 tickets throughout the 2012-13 year, which includes numbers from its regular season. And CPA sold more tickets in its 2012-13 season than it had since its 2007-08 season.

“The Rite at 100” series included big acts, such as Bill T. Jones and Anne Bogart’s world premiere of “A Rite” in January and Joffrey Ballet’s reconstruction of the original “Rite of Spring” ballet in March.

Out of the 23 “Rite of Spring” performances, seven sold out, compared to only three sold-out regular season shows out of the 25 total.

In July 2013, CPA released its 2013-14 season, which had been in the planning stages since 2012.

This year, the performing arts group began implementing its Arts@TheCore initiative, which aims to promote collaboration between the arts and academics at UNC through a five-year, $800,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon foundation.

Arts@TheCore is designed help CPA receive recognition for its already-existing academic programs — such as courses and master classes.

The bulk of the grant funding is being spent on personnel for the initiative, specifically Mellon Distinguished Scholar and American studies professor Joy Kasson and postdoctoral fellow, Aaron Shackelford.

“We have to have the people on the ground, working with us in order to make this work,” said Raymond Farrow, CPA’s director of development.

Kasson is receiving $134,000 over the course of her two-year tenure to develop a faculty seminar and to facilitate faculty research.

“I don’t see it as myself just disseminating the ideas that I have, but finding out what ideas other people have and helping them share with each other,” Kasson said. “Ultimately, I hope we’ll have even more students at Memorial Hall.”

Shackelford works alongside Kasson, conducts research relevant to the goals of the arts integration program, teaches one course per year based around one or more performances and helps prepare materials for seminars and meetings.

“I really want to see students come to expect for the performing arts to become a part of their education here at Carolina,” Shackelford said.

The season opened with a performance from North Carolina natives and funk musicians Maceo Parker and George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic in September.

Groups such as Israeli dance company L-E-V and Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue are among the 10 groups that have performed at Memorial Hall so far.

Joe Florence, CPA’s marketing manager, said the “Rite of Spring” season was a follow-up for this upcoming year.

“There were ‘Rite of Spring’ classes, and we had tons of artists visiting classrooms and hosting master classes,” Florence said.

“For Arts@TheCore, we want to broaden that exposure, and just make it performing arts-focused versus just ‘Rite of Spring’-focused.”

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