Gesel Mason

Look what I found, or rather Rusty found 😱, at the dog park! Brought it to PetSmart. No microchip. Looking for owner. But..anybody want a/another a guinea pig? I would keep it, but my dogs might think it’s a chew toy. 🫣

Meet the Round 3 DFA Artist Fellows! Today we’re celebrating Gesel R. Mason (she/her).

Gesel R. Mason is a choreographer, performer, educator, and artist scholar who believes in the power of art to cultivate compassion, inspire dialogue, and ignite social transformation. She is Artistic Director of Gesel Mason Performance Projects and Professor of Dance at the University of Texas at Austin (@utaustintx ). Mason’s work spans performance, scholarship, and archiving, engaging dance as a means to question assumptions, challenge systems of inequity, and reimagine possibilities for connection and care. Committed to supporting and celebrating African American artists and communities, her current multi-year project, Yes, And, asks: “Who would you be, and what would you do, if as a Black woman you had nothing to worry about?” Supported by the National Performance Network (@npnarts ) and New England Foundation for the Arts (@nefa_1976 ), and Texas Performing Arts (@tpapresents ), the work premiered at @danceplacedc (Washington, DC) and @fuseboxlive (Austin, TX), and continues to evolve with communities across the U.S. and the Caribbean. A 2019 @rauschenbergfoundation Artist-in-Residence and 2026 @creative_capital State of the Art Prize winner for Texas, Mason’s choreography has been presented at the John F. Kennedy Center, @amerdancefest , @batesdancefestival , @jacobspillow , and at museums and cultural centers across the United States. Learn more about Gesel at @geselm .

Meet all the Round 3 DFA Fellows at the link in bio. 🔗

Supported by @dorisdukefdn . Image descriptions in the comments. #DanceUSA #DFAFellowships #SocialChangeThroughDance #MovementArtists #DorisDukeFoundation⁠

This conversation with @geselm opens into a larger practice. Mapping the Afterlives took place on December 13 at 1 PM EST. #ArchivingAsCare #MappingTheEphemeralPassage #BlackArchives #PerformancePreservation #ArtistsArchive #LivingLegacy

Flashback Friday to last year’s Dance Repertory Theater production of Cyphers! Which means Fall DRT ‘25 is up and running! Go check out “Rooted in Motion” produced by co-artistic directors @so_gaga and @elynngion . And if you come early on Saturday, you can catch our first year cohort in the “Meet the First Years“ showcase featuring choreography by @balnagneclo at 3pm! #uttad

Excited to be a member of this cohort!@danceusaorg We are thrilled to announce the 25 recipients of the Round Three Dance/USA Fellowships to Artists (DFA)! ⁠🎉 ⁠ The 2025 Dance/USA Artist Fellows are:⁠ ⁠ Tonya Marie Amos ⁠ Arthur Avilés ⁠ Leila Awadallah ⁠ Carol Bebelle aka AKUA ⁠ Rashida Bumbray⁠ Dakota Camacho⁠ Yanira Castro ⁠ Murielle Elizéon ⁠ Ani / Anito Gavino ⁠ Kevin Lee-Y Green⁠ Kayla Hamilton ⁠ India Harville⁠ Cal Hunt⁠ Umi IMAN ⁠ Quynn Johnson ⁠ Kwikstep aka DJ KS 360⁠ Kerry Lee ⁠ Gesel R. Mason ⁠ Lucy Salazar ⁠ Aguibou Bougobalo SANOU ⁠ Kenneth Shirley ⁠ Nadhi Thekkek ⁠ Sage Ni’Ja Whitson ⁠ Tamara “Ṣàngóbámikẹ” Williams ⁠ Pioneer Winter ⁠ ⁠ DFA honors dance and movement-based artists with sustained practices in art for social change. Selected by a national peer-review panel, each Fellowship includes a $31,000 grant that may be used at the artist’s discretion.⁠ ⁠ The DFA program is made possible with generous support from @dorisdukefdn . 🙏⁠ ⁠ Learn more about the 2025 Dance/USA Artist Fellows and their work at @danceusaorg ! 🔗⁠ ⁠ #DanceUSA #DFAFellowships #DanceArtists #SocialChangeThroughDance #MovementArtists #EquityInDance #DorisDukeFoundation⁠ ⁠ [Media Description: A carousel of eight graphics. The first three graphics contain a blue and green background with white lines and blue dots decorating the edges, as well as a white Dance/USA logo. In the middle of the graphics is white text containing information regarding the DFA finalists. The rest of the slides contain the same decorated outlines and logos, as well as headshots of each of the Round Three DFA finalists.]

Reflections on the @danceusaorg conference earlier this year..“Don’t count anybody out. From the 20-year-olds, to the babies, to our elders, and the people who are still making the work 50 years into it. Don’t count anybody out. Don’t count dance out.”⁠ ⁠ - @geselmason , Artistic Director of Gesel Mason Performance Projects and Professor of Dance at @utaustindance ⁠ ⁠ 📣 Join a community that refuses to count anyone out, where every voice, body, and story moves the future of dance forward.⁠ Learn more about becoming a member at @danceusaorg . 🔗⁠ ⁠ 🎥 @geselmason by @konstantkapture // #DanceUSA #DanceCommunity #DanceLeadership #GeselMason #GeselMasonPerformancceProjects #UTAustinDance⁠ ⁠ [Media Description: A 1-minute and 44-second video clip featuring Gesel Mason in a black dress and a unique brown beaded necklace, standing in front of a Dance/USA backdrop, speaking to the camera. There is white closed captioning at the bottom of the screen.]

The R in my middle name stands for my grandmother, Rebecca Carter Ellis Landix. She grew up in New Orleans and loved to swing dance. She wasn’t able to finish high school. . My grandfather, Thoyd Ellis Sr. graduated from Xavier University in New Orleans, LA. He was an elementary school teacher in Orleans Parish and was working on his Master’s degree when he died at 37, leaving my grandmother with two babies (my mom and uncle). I recently got to visit my grandparents burial site in New Orleans. . Mom @andreamason6097 put me in ballet as a little girl in Duncanville, TX. I never stopped dancing. Or learning: Booker T. Washington HS aka Arts, Univ of Utah (BFA), Univ of Colorado (MFA). . Becoming “Full Professor” was not on my bingo card. I just kept doing what I loved and was called to do. And I did not do it alone. I am my ancestors wildest dreams.💪🏽🤓

Introducing Faculty Spotlights: Gesel Mason! . Aptly described by The Washington Post as “a storyteller at heart, with a penchant for the theatrical,” Gesel R. Mason is a choreographer, performer, educator, and artist scholar who believes in the power of art to cultivate compassion, dialogue, and social transformation. She is Artistic Director of Gesel Mason Performance Projects and Professor of Dance at the University of Texas at Austin. Mason’s work spans performance, scholarship, and archival practices, engaging dance as a means to question assumptions, challenge systems of inequity, and reimagine possibilities for connection and care. She curated and performed NO BOUNDARIES: Dancing the Visions of Contemporary Black Choreographers for more than two decades, a project which honors the legacies of ten choreographers including Kyle Abraham, Rennie Harris, Dianne McIntyre, Donald McKayle, Bebe Miller, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. No Boundaries now continues as a pioneering digital archive co-directed with Rebecca Salzer (University of Alabama) with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her current multi-year project, Yes, And, was supported by the National Performance Network and New England Foundation for the Arts, and premiered at Dance Place (Washington, DC) and the Fusebox Festival (Austin, TX). Yes, And continues to evolve with communities across the U.S. and the Caribbean. A 2019 Rauschenberg Artist-in-Residence, Mason’s choreography has been presented at the Kennedy Center, American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, and at colleges and universities across the country.

Yes, And: Maine - Rest is Medicine is tonight! This Maine iteration, featuring a visual art installation by Vicki Meek and performance co-direction by me and Yunina Barbour-Payne, emerges from deep conversations with local residents. Who are you at your most rested and fully resourced? Their responses are woven into a tapestry of movement, sound, and visual art. Collaborators and participants have co-created a site-specific experience that blurs the boundaries between performer and witness, art and community. Stories, memories, and dreams of rest unfold in a series of performance activations, inviting audiences to pause, reflect, and imagine rest as both personal and communal medicine. Doors open at 5pm as a part of Lewiston/Auburn ArtWalk. We will cycle through 30 min cycles of performance, with 15 minute interludes to move about the space and check out the installation. See you soon!

Friends 🌻

Here at @batesdancefestival creating our first #yesand gallery installation @lewistonauburnarts and preparing for a showing July 25 with @ybpayne and @jlesliemonique . We’re working our butts off, but we’ve been treated to some very interesting sights. The hot air balloon descending into the neighborhood was surreal! This doesn’t even include the wild turkeys! we saw today!