CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA – When she needed inspiration for her newest choreography work, Winthrop University Assistant Professor of Dance Gabby Tull looked to two places: her home and Uvalde, Texas.
Tull’s resulting piece, “Fight or Flight – Maternal Prowess,” was selected as one of only 12 dances to be featured in the American College Dance Festival Southeast Regional Conference earlier this March. In fact, it was the first time Winthrop had a piece selected for the event in nearly a decade.
“Fight or Flight – Maternal Prowess” performers included dance majors Brandon Barrientos, LeNyah Bryan, RJ Lee, Josh Pringle, Kayelyn Wilburn, psychology major Madalin Beam and recent alumnus Anthony Rowe ’24.
Adjudicators raved over the performance, with comments such as:
·“The emotional response was visceral for me. I found myself having a hard time writing because I was wrapped up in watching it.”
· “There were so many different images that supported the journey we were on about the time we're living in right now. It was painfully beautiful.”
“The piece is about Angeli Rose Gomez, a mother who saved her two sons, despite direct police retaliation and defiance, from the mass shooter at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022,” Tull explained. “This work is a direct reflection of her bravery, vulnerability and transparency as a mother in such a dangerous situation, which I related to as a new mom, having just had my son in 2024.”
Tull is referring to the tragic events of May 24, 2022, in which a former student at Robb Elementary School fatally shot 19 students and two teachers along with injuring many others. Angeli Rose Gomez’s mother called her and told her something was going on at her sons’ school. Gomez immediately sped to the school, and despite warnings from officers on the scene, entered the school and evacuated her two sons.
Other student work
Madalin Beam’s work, “Seraphimity,” was also represented in the event. Adjudicators noted her piece’s “opening image was striking” and drew the audience in, and they “appreciated the movement invention.”
About Gabby Tull
Tull serves as an assistant professor of dance and the program coordinator for dance
education at Winthrop. She earned an M.F.A. from University of North Carolina – Greensboro
and an M.Ed. in divergent learning from Columbia College.
She is one of the founding members, and grant facilitators of, the South Carolina
Dance Educators Network, a professional organization that provides equitable access
to quality professional dance education resources in the state. She’s also presented
at dance conferences across the United States.
Artistically, Tull has performed with professional companies including The Power Company, Argentine Tango Troupe, Terrance Henderson Inc. and more. She previously served as a high school dance instructor and company director at Irmo Performing Arts High School and International Baccalaureate Magnet.
Her scholarship in the Afro Diaspora foundations in jazz technique was awarded the Artist Express Grant, funded by the Virginia Commission of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, in 2021.
For more information, contact Nicole Chisari, social media manager, at chisarin@winthrop.edu or 803/323-2403.
