Carolina Performing Arts Collaborates with UNC Women’s Soccer and Dorrance Dance in Latest Video

Series continues with team-up between midfielder Sam Meza and tap dancer Michelle Dorrance

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES, October 19, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Artists are Athletes and Athletes are Artists — on the soccer pitch, too.

Carolina Performing Arts (CPA) will debut the latest video in its “Artists Are Athletes / Athletes Are Artists” campaign on October 19 at Dorrance Field during halftime of the Carolina Women’s Soccer game vs. Notre Dame. The video stars UNC midfielder Sam Meza and tap dance trailblazer Michelle Dorrance, daughter of legendary UNC Women’s Soccer coach Anson Dorrance. Dizzying footwork and percussive kicks are set to an original score created in collaboration with Dorrance herself, including tap beats and sounds straight from the soccer field.

The video is the second installment of the campaign, which launched last January with a collaboration between UNC Men’s Basketball and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

“This initiative is a celebration of common ground between the sports world and the arts world,” said Alison Friedman, the James and Susan Moeser Executive and Artistic Director at CPA. “It underlines the synergies between our top-tier athletic programs and the global artistic icons we host. Excellence is woven into Carolina’s ethos, be it artistic or athletic. In this series, we bring this intersection to life, intensifying appreciation for both spheres. Game recognizes game!”

CPA and its partners will premiere the new video at halftime of Thursday’s matchup. The field, named for Coach Dorrance, is one of many recognizable Chapel Hill locations in the video, which also features Memorial Hall, CURRENT ArtSpace + Studio and UNC’s Bill Koman Practice Complex. The video was produced in collaboration with Myriad, a creative video agency based in Raleigh.

“From the start of production, we knew this video was a Carolina story through and through,” said Friedman. “It’s a display of determination and grace — traits we champion in every corner of the University. CPA is proud to be a part of this legacy, and we’re excited to support our athletes and artists in equal measure.”

“The phrase ‘artists are athletes, athletes are artists’ couldn’t be more true,” said Meza. “When I’m on the pitch, I’m able to express myself through my fitness, agility and strength, just like artists do with their craft. It was an honor working with Michelle to showcase the similarities between soccer and tap dance, and I encourage our devoted fans to support Carolina Performing Arts just as much as they do Carolina soccer.”

Michelle Dorrance, who grew up in Chapel Hill, had similar thoughts about the collaboration.

“I’ve always seen soccer players as brilliant, gritty improvisational dancers. And maybe that’s rooted in my mom being a beautiful former professional ballet dancer, now a teacher, and my dad, a ruthlessly competitive soccer player, now coach (both deeply musical by the way) — but regardless, I love that be our best, to have the quickest footwork and the most dynamic execution, Sam and I have to risk completely losing control. But it’s the pursuit of that great part of ourselves and our craft that makes it all worth it. I’m also a superfan of Sam Meza’s. This project was an absolute dream to be a part of for so many reasons but getting to collaborate with Sam on the field where I grew up watching some of the best women to ever play the game was unforgettable. I am so grateful to Alison and CPA for the vision to make this happen.”

CPA plans to continue the campaign with more videos and more unexpected collaborations between arts and athletics. The organization will also continue its work with Dorrance Dance later this year, when the company takes the stage at Memorial Hall for a one-night performance of Nutcracker Suite, a soulful tap dance take on a holiday classic. For more information about this upcoming performance, or the rest of CPA’s 23/24 Season, visit https://carolinaperformingarts.org/. To view the new video online, visit CPA’s YouTube channel any time after the match.

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About Carolina Performing Arts

Carolina Performing Arts is the leading multi-arts presenter in the American South, housed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Our mission is to spark curiosity and inspire community members to discover and more deeply engage with the world. We collaborate with artists from Carolina’s campus and across the globe to create performing arts experiences. In under two decades, CPA has presented thousands of performances and master classes by more than 450 artists from 56 countries and territories, commissioned 69 new works and hosted 48 world and U.S. premieres. Our performances, engagement efforts and campus partnerships have reached hundreds of thousands of patrons, students and faculty.

About Dorrance Dance

Dorrance Dance is an award-winning tap dance company based in New York City. Founded in 2011 by Artistic Director and 2015 MacArthur Fellow Michelle Dorrance, the company shares the incredibly dynamic range that tap dance has to offer through performance & education. Our goal is to engage with audiences on a musical and emotional level, and to share the complex history and powerful legacy of this American art form throughout the country and the world.

About Carolina Women’s Soccer

Twenty-two national championships include the most NCAA championships (21) by any women’s program in NCAA history and the 1981 AIAW title • Won 25 ACC regular-season championships and 22 ACC Tournament titles • Carolina returned to the NCAA College Cup in 2022 for the 30th time and has reached the Sweet 16 every year but two since the NCAA Tournament was first contested in 1982 • Hall of Fame head coach Anson Dorrance has led the program since its inception in 1979, leading UNC to a record of 930-86-51 • Five unbeaten and untied seasons (1981, 1991, 1992, 1993, 2003) • Nineteen different Tar Heels have won national player of the year awards 27 times, including three-time recipient Cindy Parlow (1996-98) • UNC players have earned 101 first-team All-America awards • Prominent players include Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Crystal Dunn, Tobin Heath, April Heinrichs, Shannon Higgins, Heather O'Reilly, Lindsay Tarpley, Tisha Venturini, Staci Wilson, Robin Confer, Carla Werden, Catherine Reddick and Janet Rayfield, among others • Hamm was named the Greatest Female Athlete in the ACC’s first 50 years in 2004 • Hamm set the UNC career scoring record with 278 points • Nearly 30 years after her career she is still ranked in the top four in NCAA history in goals, assists and points and is the NCAA’s single-season points leader with 97 in 1992 • Set an NCAA record for consecutive games without a loss at 103 from 1986-90 and had another 101-game unbeaten streak from 1990-94 • Has the four longest winning streaks in NCAA history at 92, 46 and 36 (twice) games • UNC student-athletes have represented U.S. Teams which won 1991, 1999 and 2015 World Cups and 1996, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics • Five members of the 2019 FIFA World Cup champion USWNT played for the Tar Heels (Dunn, Ashlyn Harris, Heath, Allie Long, Leslie McDonald) and England's Lucy Bronze won the Silver Ball award as the second-best player in the World Cup • Five Tar Heels competed in the 2020 Olympics (Dunn and Heath for Team USA, Bronze and Lotte Wubben-Moy for Great Britain and Katie Bowen for New Zealand).

About the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the nation’s first public university, is a global higher education leader. Carolina is passionately public, with a commitment to ensuring that every student who earns admission can come to Carolina and thrive. Addressing the greatest challenges of our time through innovative teaching, research and public service, Carolina is an engine of opportunity for the next generation of students, the economy and innovation in North Carolina and beyond. A member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, Carolina regularly ranks as the best value for academic quality in U.S. public higher education. More than 361,000 alumni of Carolina’s 15 schools including the College of Arts and Sciences live in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. Territories and 149 countries. Nearly 190,000 live in North Carolina.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Glenn Bertram
University of North Carolina
+1 803-743-6741
gbertra@unc.edu

Watch the Video here on 10/19 at 9 PM EST