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Brin Institute for New Performance

The Maya Brin Institute for New Performance gives resources to support the practice and scholarship of creative technologies in performance, advancing our role as innovators in the transdisciplinary field of arts and technology. 

The School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies is home to the Maya Brin Institute for New Performance. Students are exposed to emerging media formats such as immersive design technology and webcasts that enhance their creative projects and prepare them to push the bounds of theater, dance and performance studies. Emphasizing collaboration and experimentation, this work generates a dynamic research environment where rigorous creativity and discovery can thrive, putting the school at the forefront of education in the performing arts.

The Maya Brin Institute for New Performance is funded by Mathematics Professor Emeritus Michael and Eugenia Brin and the Brin Family Foundation to boldly reimagine the future of education in the performing arts. The funding is part of a series of significant university gifts from the Brin family, and this gift honors Michael’s late mother, Maya Brin. The Brin family immigrated to the United States in 1979, and Maya Brin taught in UMD’s Russian program for nearly a decade. The Maya Brin Institute for New Performance reflects her love of education, dance and theater.

Michael Brin also funds the Maya Brin Endowed Professor in Dance, held by Kendra Portier. The endowed professorship was established in 2020 in honor of his mother to increase training in ballet, foster connections among diverse concert dance forms and provide a foundation for performance and choreography through research and pedagogy.

Read the full announcement of the Maya Brin Institute for New Performance:
$9M Gift Founds New Institute for Performance and Technology in the Arts

The Maya Brin Institute for New Performance is part of UMD’s new Arts for All initiative. Arts for All partners the arts with the sciences, technology and other disciplines to develop new and reimagined curricular and experiential offerings that nurture different ways of thinking to spark dialogue, understanding, problem solving and action. It bolsters a campuswide culture of creativity and innovation, making Maryland a national leader in leveraging the combined power of the arts, technology and social justice to collaboratively address grand challenges.

Directors of the Maya Brin Institute for New Performance

Jared Mezzocchi

Associate Professor, Dance/Theatre Design and Production

2821 The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
College Park MD, 20742

(301) 405-7492

Kendra Portier

Assistant professor (Maya Brin Endowed Professor in Dance), Co-Director of the Maya Brin Institute for New Performance, Dance Performance and Scholarship
Head of MFA Dance Program, School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies

1939 The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
College Park MD, 20742

(301) 405-5883