David Roussève, a professor of choreography at UCLA, has been appointed interim dean of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, effective July 1, according to an announcement made today (June 9) by Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh.
A choreographer, writer, director, filmmaker and performer, professor Roussève joined the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance in 1996. He served as its chair from 2003 to 2006, and he was named the school’s associate dean for academic affairs last year.
Roussève will succeed Christopher Waterman, who became acting dean of the School of the Arts and Architecture in 2002 and dean in 2003. In 2013, Waterman announced his intention to step down as dean on June 30, 2015, following more than 12 years of distinguished leadership. He will return to the faculty in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance.
Roussève is artistic director of David Roussève/REALITY, a dance/theater company that he founded in 1989 to perform his works that uniquely meld African-American traditional and pop cultures with experimental dance and theater. Working within a deeply multicultural and interdisciplinary aesthetic, he has written, directed and choreographed for the company 13 full-length works, which have toured nationally and internationally, including three commissions for the Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Reflecting Roussève’s dedication to bringing boundary-pushing performance to new audiences, the presentation of these works has always involved extensive outreach into local communities. In addition to 11 commissions for other dance companies, his third short film was screened in 2012-14 at 55 festivals internationally. The film has either won or was a finalist for 13 festival awards, including five for Best Short.
His other awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a “Bessie” (New York Dance and Performance Award), three Lester Horton Awards, seven consecutive National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and a Herb Alpert Award in Dance. Professor Roussève’s writings have been published in collections by Bantam Press and Routledge. From 2004 to 2007, he was the first artist to serve on the board of directors of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters.
Roussève is a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University and has served on the faculties of Princeton, Columbia College, Randolph-Macon College and UC Berkeley Extension, among others.
A search committee will be formed next year to identify candidates for a permanent dean.
