{"id":1388,"date":"2020-04-24T19:44:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T19:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=1388"},"modified":"2025-02-07T15:53:05","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T20:53:05","slug":"one-singular-sensation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2020\/04\/24\/one-singular-sensation\/","title":{"rendered":"One Singular Sensation"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.kadence-column1388_32fceb-5c > .kt-inside-inner-col{padding-right:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-left:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);}.kadence-column1388_32fceb-5c > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column1388_32fceb-5c > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column1388_32fceb-5c > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column1388_32fceb-5c > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column1388_32fceb-5c > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column1388_32fceb-5c > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column1388_32fceb-5c{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column1388_32fceb-5c > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 991px){.kadence-column1388_32fceb-5c > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column1388_32fceb-5c dynamic-main-col\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\"><style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1388_98436c-c1, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1388_98436c-c1[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1388_98436c-c1\"]{font-size:1.5rem;line-height:30px;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-family:proxima-nova;color:#808080;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1388_98436c-c1 mark.kt-highlight, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1388_98436c-c1[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1388_98436c-c1\"] mark.kt-highlight{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1388_98436c-c1 img.kb-inline-image, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading1388_98436c-c1[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1388_98436c-c1\"] img.kb-inline-image{width:150px;vertical-align:baseline;}<\/style>\n<p class=\"kt-adv-heading1388_98436c-c1 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading1388_98436c-c1\">A Dual-Credit Certificate&nbsp;can go a long way. Just ask this singer\/dancer\/director\/recruiter\/social activist and mentor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When he first arrived in New York City on August 1, 1989, Chris Davis admits, \u201cI was as green as I could be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having shaken the dust of his hometown, Lake Charles, Louisiana, Davis was a young man determined to become a professional dancer. While the odds against him were daunting, he did have a couple of things in his favor: singular talent as both a dancer and singer, and, thanks to finishing fourth in the Mr. Dance of America competition, a scholarship that provided a temporary home at the Marriott Marquis hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What\u2019s more, unlike many wide-eyed show biz wannabes arriving in the Big Apple, Davis had what he calls \u201ca survival job right off the plane.\u201d Through a Louisiana friend who worked at Taffy\u2019s Inc., he landed a sales position at the dancewear store then located at 57th and Broadway. (Although his stint there was brief, he did put Kathleen Turner\u2019s daughter into her first pair of ballet slippers. Davis calls the \u201cBody Heat\u201d actress \u201cvery imposing, but really cool.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His luck continued when, within two weeks, he scored his first audition \u2014 for a show on a Holland America cruise ship. It required dancing and singing, but Davis had no sheet music, not even a head shot \u2014 \u201cthat\u2019s how green I was,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"488\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.test.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Chris-Davies-1_RC-768x756-1-488x480.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15232\" style=\"width:300px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Chris-Davies-1_RC-768x756-1-488x480.jpg 488w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Chris-Davies-1_RC-768x756-1-250x246.jpg 250w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Chris-Davies-1_RC-768x756-1.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 488px) 100vw, 488px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But he had done \u201cA Chorus Line\u201d in community theater back in Lake Charles, and he dazzled the audition audience with a couple of numbers from that musical. He got a callback, and then, to his amazement, was offered the job: an eight-month gig in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With rehearsals starting two weeks later, he wangled a leave of absence from Taffy\u2019s, found an inexpensive apartment through a friend, and, a few weeks after that, flew out of New York for Tampa, Florida, and the cruise ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen we took off,\u201d he remembers, \u201cit was snowing \u2014 one of the first snows I had seen as an adult.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The flight from cold and snowy New York to sunny Florida could serve as a metaphor for a career that was about to get hot \u2014 a career that would eventually land him in Wilmington, where he has brought a touch of Broadway to a grateful arts community while finding time to earn a Dual-Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Wilmington University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">An Arts Influence<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Davis accumulated impressive credentials as a performer, with national and inter-national tours in such musicals as \u201cThe Wiz,\u201d \u201cZiegfeld: A Night at the Follies\u201d and \u201cGuys and Dolls,\u201d as well as seven Broadway shows, including \u201cMiss Saigon\u201d and \u201cPeter Pan\u201d (with Cathy Rigby).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also was chosen for a three-month stint in \u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d at Madison Square Garden, choreographed by Delaware\u2019s own Tony Award-winning Susan Stroman. He added some TV work and appeared in three movies, including \u201cCenter Stage\u201d in 2000. After a final national tour with Jimmy Buffet, he retired as a performer 17 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since then Davis has been even busier, if that\u2019s possible. He has retained a firm presence in the world of performing arts as a teacher, mentor, director and recruiter for arts organizations, while at the same time working with civil rights and social action groups, especially in the LGBT community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For several years after retiring as a performer, his base of operations was the place he knew best and where the action was: New York City. He served nine years as managing producer for Broadway Cares\/Equity Fights AIDS. Founded in the late \u201980s as the theater community\u2019s response to the HIV\/AIDS epidemic, the nonprofit raises funds for AIDS-related causes across the United States. He then joined Step One International, an organization incorporated in 2015 that caters to dancers from Andorra and Spain. Davis opened and became director of operations for the New York branch, which offers customized workshops for these Spanish speakers as they arrive in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Around this time, Wilmington \u2014 and, eventually, Wilmington University \u2014 entered the picture. He and his husband, Dennis Voorheis, whom he met while doing \u201cWest Side Story\u201d in Switzerland, were invited to visit Wilmington by friends who also had a home in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe had a fun time and started thinking long-term and decided to look into Wilmington as an investment in our future,\u201d Davis says. \u201cReal estate is so expensive in New York, so Wilmington was obviously cheaper, and it\u2019s close to Philadelphia, so there is access to high quality arts and culture, which is my personal focus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They got a real estate agent, started a search, \u201cand a few months later, we had our home,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They bought their house in Brandywine Hundred 10 years ago as a second home while keeping an apartment in New York, which they now sublet, and moved here permanently in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe have dear friends in Philly, so this works socially, and we\u2019ve made some wonderful connections in Wilmington,\u201d Davis says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He found a job as a member services representative for AAA\u2019s office in Newark, Delaware, meanwhile immediately immersing himself in the local arts community, which has welcomed him enthusiastically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through his company, The Performing Arts Experience LLC (PAE), he contracts top-notch teachers for performing arts institutions in the Delaware Valley. He vets talent, writes and implements letters of agreement and contracts, and arranges transportation and payment for talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"559\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.test.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Chris-Davies-3-768x660-1-559x480.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15233\" style=\"width:300px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Chris-Davies-3-768x660-1-559x480.jpg 559w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Chris-Davies-3-768x660-1-250x215.jpg 250w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Chris-Davies-3-768x660-1.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 559px) 100vw, 559px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>PAE works with the Christina Cultural Arts Center (CCAC), Cab Calloway School of the Arts, Delaware Contemporary, and others. He serves on the Contemporary\u2019s 40th Anniversary Committee and the board of the Bruce Montgomery Foundation for the Arts, based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. He also teaches at Wilmington Ballet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cChris is a fresh, much-welcome addition to the Wilmington arts circle,\u201d says Michelle Kramer-Fitzgerald, owner of Arts in Media. \u201cHis energy is simply infectious. He brings us a wealth of ideas, talent and experience of his own, but he also has incredible relationships with national and international artists that he generously connects with our local arts organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kramer-Fitzgerald says that last year, Davis helped to bring Jeremy McQueen, artistic director of the Black Iris Project, to the CCAC for a contemporary ballet workshop for students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cChris even hosted his own workshop there last year on how to properly prepare for auditions,\u201d she says. \u201cHe\u2019s quite a gem for this community to treasure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Davis was introduced to Wilmington University three years ago at a charity event at Longwood Gardens, where he met Bevin Hileman, assistant to the vice president of Student Affairs and Alumni Relations, coordinator of Special Projects and an adjunct instructor. She invited him and his husband to the Green and White Scholarship Ball in both 2018 and 2019. Through Hileman and others at the University, he learned about WilmU curricula that dovetailed with his career aspirations. Result: He was soon enrolled in WilmU\u2019s Certificate in Nonprofit Management program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The seven-week, 18-credit certification teaches concepts and methods, and lays the groundwork for the student to become an effective and creative leader of a nonprofit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hileman, who teaches the program\u2019s Fundraising course, says of Davis, who has become a friend: \u201cHe is extremely thoughtful, and his energy will make you want to try harder for yourself, your friends, and your community. His philanthropic heart bleeds for a better world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide wu-blockquote-row is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-ad2f72ca wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote wu-blockquote-simple is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Davis\u00a0is extremely thoughtful, and his energy will make you want to try harder for yourself, your friends, and your community. His philanthropic heart bleeds for a better world.<\/p>\n<cite>\u2014 Bevin Hileman<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>A graduate of McNeese State University (Mass Communications) in his hometown and Cornell University\u2019s Johnson Graduate School of Management, Davis has enjoyed his return to academia. \u201cThe University has been great,\u201d he says, \u201cespecially the ability to study online, which has fit into my very busy schedule \u2014full-time job, serving on two boards, bringing in teachers, going to the gym, teaching two classes a month at Wilmington Ballet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He received his certification in March, and he hopes to find a management position with a nonprofit \u201cthat engages people in terms of arts and culture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With an apartment and friends in New York, Davis continues to stay in touch with happenings there. But he and Voorheis have settled into a comfortable if sometimes frenetic suburban lifestyle. With frequent forays into the city (often Market Street\u2019s Merchant Bar) and Greenville (Pizza by Elizabeths), the former song-and-dance man has become a true Wilmingtonian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to my next chapter,\u201d he says \u2014 \u201cin this area.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Dual-Credit Certificate&nbsp;can go a long way. Just ask this singer\/dancer\/director\/recruiter\/social activist and mentor. When he first arrived in New York City on August 1,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[632],"class_list":["post-1388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","tag-magazine-spring-2020"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":135,"label":"MAGAZINE"}],"post_tag":[{"value":632,"label":"Magazine Spring 2020"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Chris-Davies-2-739x480.jpg",739,480,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Rebecca Slinger","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/author\/rebecca\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":135,"name":"MAGAZINE","slug":"magazine","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":692,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":431,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":135,"category_count":431,"category_description":"","cat_name":"MAGAZINE","category_nicename":"magazine","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":632,"name":"Magazine Spring 2020","slug":"magazine-spring-2020","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1189,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":17,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1388"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15235,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388\/revisions\/15235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}