Hour 10 – 7:00pm to 8:00pm
See featured performers below!
THOMAS WARFIELD
Thomas Warfield is a Senior Lecturer at NTID/RIT in Performing Arts Program in the Department of Cultural and Creative Studies – teaching dance and social science. He has performed, from stage to television to film, in more than 100 cities around the world as a singer, dancer, actor, model, composer, choreographer, director, producer, educator, activist and poet. His numerous performances have taken him to a variety of forums, including La Boheme at the Metropolitan Opera, concerts on Martha’s Vineyard, a circus in Japan, solo concert at the Franco American Institute in France, and three maximum-security prisons in the United States. Mr. Warfield has worked with AIDS patients in Thailand, blind students in Taiwan, the homeless in Utah, inner-city youth in North Carolina, elementary school children in Maui, Hawaii, community building through the arts in Idaho among thousands of others worldwide. The recent north-American tour of his original project AstroDance – combining dance and astrophysics was funded by the National Science Foundation. As a performing artist, his work has been praised by the New York Times, Hong Kong Daily Standard, China News, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Salt Lake Tribune, Raleigh, NC News and Observer, La Monde and many others. The British publication, The Morning Star, wrote that, his “…sensitive, superbly trained body filled every word and every movement with bitter meaning.” Mr. Warfield earned a BFA degree from SUNY Purchase, achieving the President’s Award for Excellence, and an MFA from the University of Utah in dance ethnology where he received a Research Fellowship. He studied at the School of American Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance Dance Theatre of Harlem, at Merce Cunningham, Limon and Alvin Ailey School. He’s performed with dance companies throughout the world including those from London, Sweden, Germany, France, Hong Kong and New York City.
He is the founder/artistic director of PeaceArt International—a local/global outreach not-for-profit organization utilizing the arts and the creative process to foster world peace. His numerous awards include: the National American Ethical Union Award, PBS Be More Award, National Dance Educators Award, Sankofa Community Award, the Individual Artist Award from the Rochester Arts & Cultural Council, the Volunteer Award from the United Nations Association, Unsung Heroes Award from the City of Rochester, National Dance Educators Association 2009 Award for service to the world of dance, 1999 Dance Award from the Community of Colors, Creative Community Service Award from the University of Utah, Outstanding Leadership and Moral Sensitivity Award from the Rochester Greater Community of Churches, National Dance Association Award, Diversity Trailblazer Award from RIT, the 2001 Off Off-Broadway Award for Choreography, the Jennifer Patterson Koon Peacemaking Award among others. His Global Poem In Praise of Peace has garnered global recognition in letters from composer Leonard Bernstein and Mother Teresa and hundreds of others. Mr. Warfield’s first solo album, Celebrate the Moment, has sold throughout the world and can be found on CDbaby.com and itunes.com.
Mr. Warfield serves on the boards of the ARTWalk outdoor museum (former board president, co-creator of ARTWalk Alive Festival), William Warfield Scholarship Fund at the Eastman School of Music (former president), MuCCC Theatre (vice president), Nazareth College Arts Center, GaredenAerial, Education for Peace (vice-president), Gateways Music Festival, Rochester Chamber Orchestra, China Millennium Council (vice-president), Genesee Center for the Arts & Education Diversity Advisory Council, ‘Shoulders To Stand On’ (LGBT History Film Project) board, YWCA Diversity Advisory Board and the New York Dance Festival (associate director). He formally served on the NY State Board of the Association of Teaching Artists and president of the Rochester Chapter, Rochester Arts and Cultural Council (chairing and founding the Cultural Diversity Initiative), the University of Rochester’s AIDS Vaccine Trails Unit (Victory Alliance) Community Advisory Board, Kaleidoscope Dance Theatre, PeaceWorks, Rochester City Ballet, the Rochester Mayor’s Advisory Council on Arts, Culture and Entertainment, Dance Rochester (Advisory Board), Young Audiences, Inc. (Arts Learning Advisory Board), and formally on the World Dance Alliance Founding Board (Hong Kong). He attributes his passion and blessings in life to the SPIRIT of love.