ABOUT FOCUS
Focus is held over 6 days in Los Angeles and is open to dancers ages 11 - 18. All Focus dancers are cast in our original music video with a professional recording artist, earning themselves an IMDb credit for their resume! The music video is directed and choreographed by So You Think You Can Dance winner Lauren Froderman.
LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVSERITY
1 LMU DRIVE, LOS ANGELES, CA 90045
ABOUT THE SPACE
Focus takes place on the campus of LMU. Classes are held in the state of the art dance studios located within the Burns Fine Arts Complex & St. Roberts Hall. The Opening Ceremonies and Premiere will take place in Murphy Recital Hall. The music video shoot will take place offsite at a given location. And we have a room block set up at the Hotel June, just a 5-min ride or 20-min walk from LMU.
Returning for the second year, Delaney Renee Wilson is joined this year by Tristen Gressett as the first musical duo we’ve had at Focus!
Delaney Renee Wilson Bio
Originally a Massachusetts native, Delaney now lives in Los Angeles where she is pursuing her music career. After going viral from a secret recording of her singing, Delaney was invited onto American Idol to audition in 2022. She went on to Hollywood Week and the rest you could say, is history. Delaney regularly performs at festivals in the greater LA area and her first single, Why I Fall, is out now, with new music on the way!
Tristen Gressett Bio
Tristen Gressett joins Delaney this summer as our Focus 2024 musical duo. Living in California now, Tristen is currently from Alabama where his sounds of folk, blues, rock, and soul were born. In 2022 he was Top 11 on American Idol and has since continued to come out with new music regularly including an album dropping this summer. He regularly performs in the greater Los Angeles area and is a part of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
Liberate Artists brings in top-notch professionals from all over the country. From our production team to our videographers, everyone in the Liberation Nation has a dance background, making our staff truly unique.
*all faculty is subject to change
EQUITY STATEMENT
At Liberate Artists we value being kind, compassionate, and caring while building brave dance experiences that support folks of all races, genders, abilities, disabilities, shapes, and economic backgrounds. At Liberate Artists you don’t have to be a professional dancer but you do have to be a good human in society.
Every Liberate Artists experience includes an Access Check-In which, "allows people to share any access needs they might have if they feel comfortable." (Disability Intersectionality Summit)
We check in with our registrants to meet their needs and provide reasonable accommodations because all bodies are dancing bodies if they want and choose to be.
At every Liberate Artists experience, we create name tags with dancers’ pronouns and preferred names because every dancer should know that their identities are worth respect and acknowledgment.
Recovery is an important component of building strong and healthy dancers. We include rest during our longer experiences to allow dancers to recover from movement and partner with organizations such as Doctors For Dancers to further reduce the risk of injury.
We also partner with our sibling organization, Dance Education Equity Association, to ensure that our experiences are always growing to be safer, more equitable, and more inclusive. Our teaching artists go through training to reduce the risk of harm and we utilize the DEEA Safety Tipline as a resource for safety. It’s an anonymous (if you’d like) tipline where folks can submit any instances of harm they may have endured at a Liberate Artists experience. This tipline was created to reduce the risk of harm from bullying, racism, discrimination, othering, and abuse of any kind. We’ve implemented policies, inspired by transformative justice practices, to work with students who have been harmed and/or causing harm.