Dancing Back to Trinity: Alumni Residency by mayfield brooks ’95 Connects with Students
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 returned to Trinity this fall for an alumni residency that included interactions with student dance classes, a screening of their dance film, and an artist talk.
brooks is a Hartford native who earned a New York Dance Performance Award for their experimental dance film, Whale Fall. While at Trinity, brooks majored in English and participated in the Trinity/La MaMa study away program in New York City. brooks—who earned an M.A. in performance studies from Northwestern University and an M.F.A. from the University of California, Davis—has established a career as a choreographer, dancer, and vocalist who shares their work internationally. This recent return to Trinity marked their first offering in their hometown and at their alma mater since graduating.
Invited to Trinity by the Austin Arts Center and the Department of Theater and Dance, brooks was able to showcase their personal dance method, which they call Improvising While Black (IWB). While offering a workshop for the dance class, “Improvisation as Composition,” with Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Peter Kyle on November 11, brooks asked the students about what they had learned in the course and guided them through exercises based on their specific dance practice.
Kyle said that brooks offered the class a new point of view during the residency visit. “I always enjoy when students have an opportunity to gain additional or alternative perspectives on the kind of work we’ve been doing,” he said.
“It’s also always lovely to connect with the Trinity graduates and have them share some of their life journey with current students,” Kyle added. “I think that’s a great way for Trinity students to imagine how mayfield started at Trinity and wasn’t necessarily studying performance, but has gone on to have a really rich career in the area. I think it’s a testament to how what students are doing more broadly here at the college can serve them in ways that they can’t even imagine.”
brooks also visited a theater and dance senior capstone class taught by Rebecca K. Pappas, associate professor of theater and dance.
Deborah A. Goffe, the executive director of the Austin Arts Center and artist-in-residence in theater and dance, wanted students to take away more than just the classroom experience with brooks. “I hope they got a sense that what they’ve been learning can be applied in so many different ways,” Goffe said. “I hope they discovered some things about themselves; and I hope they also understand that dance study is even more vast than they thought.”
During the residency, brooks held a screening of their dance film Whale Fall, which was open to members of the Trinity community at Cinestudio on November 12. The film is based on brooks’s interest in the decomposition of whale bodies, along with broader themes of IWB. “Whale Fall is a perfect example of this life-giving cycle that comes out of the process of dying,” said brooks. Read more about the Whale Fall project in The New York Times.
After the showing of the film, Goffe engaged in a conversation with brooks about their experience not only with creating the film, but also with dancing more generally. “I work at a cross-section between movement, voice, and bringing in ecology,” said brooks.
This project was years in the making for brooks, who was asked about what keeps them going. “It’s not just me. There is a multiplicity to the story, and what I love about the whales and what they teach you is that we are pods. We have families that can extend beyond our blood,” said brooks. “The whales are so clearly teaching me that in order for us to survive, these familial configurations are necessary.”
Goffe added that she was grateful that brooks was able to return to Trinity. “It has been important to get mayfield back here,” she said. “I think what they do in the world of performance and the intersections they make with really important concepts is something Trinity should be proud of.”
See a video and more photos below.
Video by Helder Mira.
mayfield brooks ’95 Alumni Residency - Fall 2025
mayfield brooks ’95 Alumni Residency - Fall 2025
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 offered a workshop for students in the “Improvisation as Composition” dance class with Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Peter Kyle on November 11, 2025. Photo by Fiona Cunningham ’28.
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 offered a workshop for students in the “Improvisation as Composition” dance class with Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Peter Kyle on November 11, 2025. Photo by Fiona Cunningham ’28.
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 offered a workshop for students in the “Improvisation as Composition” dance class with Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Peter Kyle on November 11, 2025. Photo by Fiona Cunningham ’28.
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 offered a workshop for students in the “Improvisation as Composition” dance class with Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Peter Kyle on November 11, 2025. Photo by Fiona Cunningham ’28.
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 offered a workshop for students in the “Improvisation as Composition” dance class with Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Peter Kyle on November 11, 2025. Photo by Fiona Cunningham ’28.
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 offered a workshop for students in the “Improvisation as Composition” dance class with Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Peter Kyle on November 11, 2025. Photo by Fiona Cunningham ’28.
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 offered a workshop for students in the “Improvisation as Composition” dance class with Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Peter Kyle on November 11, 2025. Photo by Fiona Cunningham ’28.
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 offered a workshop for students in the “Improvisation as Composition” dance class with Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Peter Kyle on November 11, 2025. Photo by Fiona Cunningham ’28.
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 offered a workshop for students in the “Improvisation as Composition” dance class with Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Peter Kyle on November 11, 2025. Photo by Fiona Cunningham ’28.
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 offered a workshop for students in the “Improvisation as Composition” dance class with Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Peter Kyle on November 11, 2025. Photo by Fiona Cunningham ’28.
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 offered a workshop for students in the “Improvisation as Composition” dance class with Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Peter Kyle on November 11, 2025. Photo by Fiona Cunningham ’28.
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 talks with a theater and dance senior capstone class taught by Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Rebecca K. Pappas on November 12, 2025. Photo by Lilly Supples ’26.
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 talks with a theater and dance senior capstone class taught by Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Rebecca K. Pappas on November 12, 2025. Photo by Lilly Supples ’26.
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 talks with a theater and dance senior capstone class taught by Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Rebecca K. Pappas on November 12, 2025. Photo by Lilly Supples ’26.
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 talks with a theater and dance senior capstone class taught by Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Rebecca K. Pappas on November 12, 2025. Photo by Lilly Supples ’26.
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 talks with a theater and dance senior capstone class taught by Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Rebecca K. Pappas on November 12, 2025. Photo by Lilly Supples ’26.
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 talks with a theater and dance senior capstone class taught by Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Rebecca K. Pappas on November 12, 2025. Photo by Lilly Supples ’26.
Movement-based performance artist, vocalist, and writer mayfield brooks ’95 talks with a theater and dance senior capstone class taught by Associate Professor of Theater and Dance Rebecca K. Pappas on November 12, 2025. Photo by Lilly Supples ’26.
mayfield brooks ’95 (right) talks with Deborah A. Goffe, the executive director of the Austin Arts Center and artist-in-residence in theater and dance, after a screening of their dance film Whale Fall at Cinestudio on November 12, 2025. Photo by Lilly Supples ’26.
mayfield brooks ’95 (right) talks with Deborah A. Goffe, the executive director of the Austin Arts Center and artist-in-residence in theater and dance, after a screening of their dance film Whale Fall at Cinestudio on November 12, 2025. Photo by Lilly Supples ’26.
