Tap to Togetherness: Under the leadership of SMTD Associate Director Julie Pentz, the K-State Tap Dance Ensemble has partnered with Manhattan School District’s “Parents as Teachers” program to bring local families a series of tap dance classes. Participation included Parents as Teachers participants with children over 12 months of age.
Program goals include enhanced self-esteem; increased positive discipline; assessment and improvement of body movement coordination; identification of sensory needs and discovery of ways to meet children’s sensory needs through tap dance sessions; examination and enhancement of family relationships (bonding and communication between parents and children).
Early in the fall 2015 semester, the university officially celebrated the opening of the new Purple Masque Theatre located in West Stadium. The first production in the Purple Masque, No Exit, opened on April 16.
The thrust theatre seats 130, and includes catwalk system, new AV system (2016), electrical pathways under deck, and bi-parting main curtain. The space is used primarily for second stage productions, but occasionally used for Mainstage. Also, the space is used for directing scenes and various lecture courses.
This spring, Wayne Goins, Professor of Music, was named a University Distinguished Professor. This is a lifetime title and the highest honor the university bestows on its faculty members. Distinguished professors are appointed following an annual university-wide competition conducted by the provost.
Goins is a versatile jazz guitarist and a renowned researcher in the field of music education. He is the director of jazz studies at Kansas State University, where he conducts big bands and teaches combos, private guitar lessons and jazz improvisation courses.
Goins plays, jazz, blues, pop, funk, rock and reggae. He has recorded more than 20 albums for Ichiban Records and started his own music label, Little Apple Records, for which he recorded six albums under his own name, as well as producing several others for his students.
Goins has delivered 54 lecture presentations and also delivered thousands of music performances at international, national, regional and local venues. He has performed with such luminaries as alto saxophonist Bobby Watson, organist Jimmy McGriff, tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano, trumpeter Mike Metheny, guitarist Kenny Burrell, and vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, among many others. His music has been performed with Pearle Cleage in the Broadway play, “Blues For an Alabama Sky,” and his guitar work was used for August Wilson’s hit Broadway play, “Seven Guitars.”
Since coming to the university in 1998, Goins has written 30 articles, 18 CD reviews and numerous columns for magazines such as Pure Guitar Magazine, Jazz Ambassador Magazine and Jazz Improv Magazine. He also has published 12 peer-reviewed articles and eight books and book chapters on jazz.
Goins is leading Hale Library’s Jimmy Rogers Archive Project, which is an exhibit of approximately 2,500 items related to Rogers’ career and performances. Goins wrote the 2014 biography “Blues All Day Long: The Jimmy Rogers Story.” Goins has been chosen to write the definitive biography on legendary blues musician Taj Mahal for the University of Illinois Press.