Web communications staff win 3 national awards

Longwood’s web communications staff received three national awards in January 2011.

In the eighth annual Service Industry Advertising Awards (SIAA) national competition, the web staff received a Bronze Award for Student Blogs in the New Media category, a Merit Award for Trend Line in the New Media category and a Merit Award for WhyLongwood.com in the website category.

The student blogs (studentblogs.longwood.edu) site—featured on Why.Longwood.com, the admissions website—follow the lives of six students through blogs integrated with Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. The site was designed by CRT/tanaka, a Richmond-based marketing firm, in coordination with the web communications team.

Trend Line (www.longwood.edu/trendline) is a series of online videos that contributes Longwood voices to the online conversation, sharing expert perspective on the day’s news, societal issues, popular culture and other topics trending across Google, Twitter and YouTube.

The award in the Website category was for the redesign of the WhyLongwood.com site, implemented in August 2010.

The SIAA competition attracted nearly 2,000 entries from more than 400 advertising agencies and 1,000 institutions from all 50 states and Canada.

Renowned dancer shares talents with Longwood students

Desmond Richardson, who has danced to unstinting critical acclaim throughout the world, taught three two-hour classes Jan. 19-21 at Longwood.

Desmond Richardson, who has been called “one of the great modern dancers of his time” by the New York Times, shared his talents with Longwood students in January 2011.

Richardson taught three two-hour classes to the Longwood Company of Dancers at the invitation of Rodney Williams, the company’s director.

Richardson is co-founder and co-artistic director of Complexions Contemporary Ballet in New York City. He was a principal dancer with the famed Alvin Ailey Dance Theater for seven years and was the first African American to join the American Ballet Theatre as a principal dancer. Richardson has performed with Michael Jackson, Prince, Aretha Franklin and Madonna, and has worked in television, film and video. Some of the Longwood students were familiar with Richardson through his work on “So You Think You Can Dance” on the FOX network.