From watching her mother teach dance classes as a toddler to performing powerful contemporary works at UNCSA, Candace Vann’s artistic journey has always been rooted in creativity, connection and growth.
Now preparing for graduation, this #UNCSAgrad reflects on the mentors, performances and community that challenged her to grow both as an artist and as a person.
See how UNCSA helped shape her next chapter at our link in bio!
Extended Emerging - Sunday, May 3rd 5:30pm and 7pm
Come to Studio A to see expanded works by Julianna Stonebridge, Madi Schneider and Caleb Chesson, AND a dance film by Angelina Brucculeri. No ticket required!
We’re incredibly honored and excited to share the work we’ve been creating this semester and it wouldn’t have been possible without our amazing dancers (who you should also come watch and support)!
And just like that… BASTA!
Showcase was a huge success, and we are so beyond proud and grateful for everyone who came out to support us- your energy meant everything!🌟💘🌈🌞
Endless thanks to our fearless leader @emilyanicolaou for your guidance, vision, and constant support throughout this process - we couldn’t have done it without you.🤍
And to our incredible UNCSA alum lighting designers, @garrettdeutsch_lighting & @dominickzriches , thank you for bringing these works to life on stage. Your ability to transform each piece through light elevated everything in ways we couldn’t have imagined.
So much love,
Pluck 2026
Current Tracking - an excerpt from Tracking 2020 (2004) by Ming-Lung Yang⚡️
After all the rehearsals and build-up, we finally get to bring this piece to the stage tonight at 7 PM. You don’t want to miss this.
📍 Ailey Citigroup Theater
It’s show day, and we can’t express how much we appreciate our peers and teachers- feeling all the love here in NYC.
Going into tonight with open hearts and so much excitement as we take our final bows as The Pluck Project. ❤️🩹
Ailey Citigroup Theater 7 PM Tonight
A final rehearsal glimpse of At the Well🌬️
This piece by Kate Jewett goes up tomorrow, and we’re so ready to finally share it with you.
Join us in NYC at 7 pm at Ailey Citigroup Theater.
Videography by @carolinebonnette
Rehearsal moments from Cognizance💡
This work by @kaylagilligann has been living in the studio and now it’s ready for the stage.
Join us in NYC:
📍 Ailey Citigroup Theater
🕦 Monday the 30th at 7 PM
Filmed and edited by @madiqschneider
“You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, that I might sing praises to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever!” — Psalm 30:11–12 (NLT)
If it had not been for the Lord on my side, I don’t know where I would be. Dance is more than movement—it’s a gift, my testimony, and how I praise. With every step, I give thanks and pray this art continues to uplift and bless every heart it touches. ✨🙏🏾
Director of Photography: @j.akinkuowo
Music: Christian Moody — Softly as It Fades (Cover)
Hallucinating a connection that has been lost. Time has tampered with the perception of what is the truth, with the reality leaving an empty space where there was once another.
A poem about the video:
I like to use an umbrella when it’s not raining. And I like to live in a house with no walls. And I like the validation that comes with performance. But I don’t like when people watch me perform. And I like to make wishes I know will never come true. And I like to watch myself slowly become someone else. And I don’t like when my face changes shape. But I like when I don’t have to be the .
I liked the house, so I filmed in the house. Outside of the house too. Then I chopped it up with a knife and stuck it back together all wrong. I made my own roof.
Thank you to special guest Caleb Chesson.
Thank you to my mother for filming.
Thank you for watching.
For those of us who can’t live without music, an ode to the rabbit hole we fall into and the stories we create in the wonderland of our own heads, sparked by the beauty of the world around us
Music “It’s Not” from Elixir the Album by the lovely Ava Strickland
Thank you
