Hello and welcome to my website. Please see the “read me” section to learn more about my professional pursuits. I am a creative human being and I love learning about people, places, movement and the body.
PERFORMANCE OF SOAR PROJECT-INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION BETWEEN VISUAL ARTIST HEATHER HERTEL AND DANCER/CHOREOGRAPHER URSULA PAYNE. FEATURING CREATIVE CONTRIBUTIONS FROM GUEST ARTISTS LINDSAY VIATORI, SAM ELIZONDO, KATIE KULASA, NATALIE GOFORTH, AND OLIVIA NELLIS.
Site-Specific performance inside the Bayfront Maritime Museum in Erie. Sailcloth Art and Dance Collaboration project.
This hour long site specific work was performed in September 2017 at the Tall Ships Erie festival. This series of works expands my artistic practice beyond the theater stage and it provides a symbiotic relationship of art-inspired dance and dance-inspired art.
This dance was created in collaboration with my repertory class to explore contemporary women’s protest movements, representations of women around the world in protest, and n particular the women’s protest march on Washington, DC in 2017. Gestural symbols used to communicate protest ideas were embedded within the movement vocabulary of this dance.
This dance was created to explore contemporary women’s protest movements and gestural symbols that communicate protest ideas.
This version of SOAR was adapted for the proscenium stage and performed in the Slippery Rock University Faculty and Guest Artist Concert at the BCCC Succop Theater in Butler, PA.
Photo Credit: Ben Viatori.
October 2018
This site-specific performance was presented at the Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska in Lincoln, NE. This is a photo of Ursula Payne taken by Harry Sanchez.
October 2018
This is an image of Ursula Payne in Soar taken by photographer Michael Reinmiller.
October 2018
Group surrounding a tree outside of the Sheldon Museum of Art on the campus of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, NE. Photo Credit: Michael Reinmiller
Spring 2018
Trio against the wall of the Sheldon Museum of Art on the campus of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, NE. Photo Credit: Michael Reinmiller
October 2018
Adapted for the concert dance stage. This photo features the group with Ursula Payne crossing downstage. Photo Credit: Ben Viatori
October 2018
Under Lock and Key is a 25-minute dance for four commissioned by Labco Dance Company in Pittsburgh, PA. This work examined aspects of women’s relationships including passive abuse that can lead to violence within domestic relationships. At the time I was making this work I had completed a 40 hour domestic training course through the Crisis Shelter of Lawrence County in New Castle. This dance premiered in Pittsburgh, PA at the New Hazlett Theater. The photo features Gwen Hunter Ritchie, and SRU Alumni Rachel Renock and Meredyth Casey. Choreography by Ursula Payne
This is a photo of Ursula Payne in rehearsal with members of Dance Alloy for their 35th anniversary celebration.
This is a photo of Gretchen (Moore) Hurd performing in the piece, Things You Miss, for Dance Alloy’s 35th anniversary celebration.
The solo Invisible Dialogues was made possible through a Pennsylvania Council of the Arts Fellowship Award of $5,000. Original Sound Score composed and performed by Dave Eggar. This dance was inspired by my travel Ethiopia, Egypt and Brazil, in addition to my research into African folkloric traditions, and cultural/gender based dialogues that are passed on from generation to generation.
This photo was taken in performance at the Ailey Theater in NYC.
Ursula Payne performing for Mills and Payne Dance in NYC.
August 1997
Photo Credit: Tom Mills
Students learning Motif Notation at a community college in Kampala, Uganda.
Photo Credit: Ursula Payne
The movement development was informed by my travels to Rio De Janeiro, Salvador da Bahia, and Cochoeira Bahia, Brazil to study Afro-Brazilian dance forms such as Capoeira and Samba. Investigating black women’s spirituality as expressed through the Irmandade de Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte, Sisterhood of Our Lady of the Good Death festival and Candomble worship of Iyas, female spirits of African ancestors. This sisterhood represents African secret female societies and is recognized as the oldest organization for women of African Descent in the Americas.
This was a twenty minute solo that was performed to live music and choreographed by Temple University Professor Eva Gholson and performed by soloist Professor Ursula Payne. This dance was presented on a shared concert with Philadanco in Philadelphia, PA.
This is a video of my Master of Fine Arts in Dance project which featured the staging of Donald McKayle’s Rainbow Round My Shoulder from Labanotation Score.
