The Department of Theatre and Dance Presents
Control / Shift
Fall Dance Concert
Wednesday, November 19 – Saturday, November 22, 2025
Vanderhoef Studio Theatre
Featuring a small ensemble of select dancers, the program is curated by Doria E. Charlson, visiting professor of theatre and dance, and showcases new works developed and performed by undergraduate students. Doria Charlson will create a new work for the company as will guest choreographer Meredith J. Charlson.
Choreographers
Doria Charlson
Visiting Professor, Choreographer
Doria Charlson
Doria E. Charlson research and scholarship is deeply informed by her decades of praxis as a dancer. She has trained with ODC/Dance, Mark Morris Dance Group, the Alvin Ailey School, the Joffrey Ballet School, L’École supérieure de danse de Rosella Hightower, and at Stanford University (with Diane Frank, Robert Moses and Aleta Hayes). Doria’s work on political economic systems and how the body moves in/as capitalism has been enhanced by her work as a professional chaplain. She completed her residency as an oncology chaplain at UCSF Medical Center and holds a certificate in Interreligious Chaplaincy from the Graduate Theological Union.
Doria is thrilled to be joining the faculty of the department of Theatre and Dance at UC Davis as a Visiting Assistant Professor. Doria earned her Ph.D. in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies from Brown University, from which she also holds MA degrees in History and Theatre Arts and Performance Studies. She also earned a bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in drama from Stanford University. Her manuscript project, “Consuming Crises: Migrant Labor, Spectacle, and Precarity in the 20th Century,” considers how the laboring body becomes mobilized during moments of economic and social crisis. The project uses rigorous archival work to question how particular modes of embodiment spectacularize migrant laborers in service of the reproduction of capital across various sites and decades. Her writing and scholarship can be found in TDR: The Drama Review, Women & Performance, and Dance Research Journal, as well as in African American Arts: Activism, Aesthetics, and Futurity (Rutgers UP 2019).
Meredith Joelle Charlson
Choreographer
Meredith Joelle Charlson
Meredith J. Charlson is a director/choreographer based in San Francisco. Favorite theater credits include Carrie: The Musical at the American Conservatory Theater’s Young Conservatory (Choreographer), Alice By Heart at Hillbarn Theatre, Teen Company (Director/Choreographer), Bright Star at Palo Alto Players (Choreographer), Into the Woods at the American Conservatory Theater’s Young Conservatory (Choreographer), Tinderella: The modern musical at Custom Made Theater Co. and FaultLine Theater (Choreographer), and the world premiere of A Walk on the Moon at the American Conservatory Theater mainstage (Assistant Choreographer). Meredith was a trainee for Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in Northern Israel, and is an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC).