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World Premiere of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange’s
Ferocious Beauty: Genome
At Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts
Friday and Saturday, February 3&4, 2006
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Unique interdisciplinary partnership with Wesleyan University results in a groundbreaking work.
(Middletown, Conn. December 19, 2005) – How we heal, age, procreate and eat may soon change because of genetic research happening right now. The world premiere of renowned choreographer Liz Lerman’s Ferocious Beauty: Genome explores this moment of revelation and questioning in an arresting theatrical work that combines movement, music, text and film. The piece, which will premiere at Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts (CFA) on Friday, February 3, 2006, is the result of an unprecedented partnership with scientists and ethicists to confront the promise and threat of a new biological age.
Liz Lerman Dance Exchange Residency and World Premiere
“The piece took a conceptual turn several times because of the contributions from the scientists at Wesleyan. And, the fact that one of the scientists is a dancer made the leap between the two disciplines easier.”—Liz Lerman, on working at Wesleyan
For the past three years, the CFA and Wesleyan faculty have partnered with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange (LLDE), led by Liz Lerman, to explore the ethical and social repercussions of genetic research. This partnership has resulted in Wesleyan serving as a lead commissioner (along with the Flint Cultural Center, Flint, MI) of Ferocious Beauty: Genome, which, after its Wesleyan premiere, will tour major performing arts centers such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and the Krannert Center for Performing Arts at the University of Illinois. The partnership has also resulted in the most comprehensive residency ever undertaken by a dance company at Wesleyan.
Through relationships with Wesleyan’s science faculty and students, Wesleyan served as a “laboratory” for Lerman’s development of the piece. This collaboration reflects both the Dance Exchange’s and Wesleyan University’s emphasis on interdisciplinary learning, as the project has initiated an unprecedented dialogue between scientists and artists. The outcome will be represented through a plurality of viewpoints, mirroring a dialogue among multiple voices—artistic, scientific and scholarly—in their varied perspectives.
Conversely, Lerman’s residency exposed students and faculty to the Dance Exchange’s methods and interdisciplinary approach, with the goals of refining ways to teach science to non-scientists, and to gain knowledge through embodied movement. Liz Lerman joined Wesleyan’s dance faculty as a visiting assistant professor for fall 2005. Students in her class had the opportunity to explore scientific, ethical and social issues related to genetic research.
Liz Lerman Dance Exchange
Liz Lerman Dance Exchange is a professional company of dance artists that creates, performs, teaches, and engages people in making art. The Dance Exchange creates groundbreaking new dance works with their cross-generational company, which are performed on major stages throughout the U.S. and abroad. The company offers classes, workshops and institutes for people who dance to make a living, people who dance to make a better life and people who have never danced before. Founding Artistic Director, Liz Lerman, received a MacArthur “Genius Grant” fellowship in 2002 for her visionary work. Her work has been commissioned by Lincoln Center, the American Dance Festival and The Kennedy Center, among others.
For more information on the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange visit: http://www.danceexchange.org/
All events have been made possible by grants from Wesleyan University’s Edward W. Snowdon Fund, Hughes Program, Fund for Innovation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.
Schedule of Events:
World Premiere of Ferocious Beauty: Genome
Friday & Saturday, February 3 & 4, 8p.m.
CFA Theater, Wesleyan University
283 Washington Terrace, Middletown, CT
Pre-show talk before Friday's performance, 7:15p.m. in Zilkha Gallery
$19 General, $17 Students and Seniors
Wesleyan University is collaborating with Liz Lerman Dance Exchange to provide programming designed to engage the public in actively grasping both the mechanics and implications of genetic science. Programs include:
Exhibition: Ellen K. Levy: evolutionn
Saturday, January 28 through Sunday, March 5
Ellen K. Levy’s “collaborations” with inventors transform and combine images and texts from registered patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office database to create a genealogy of inventions. These multi-media works, explore the intersections of several industries and offer a running commentary on the nature of capitalism, innovation, and our expansive desire to invent future worlds, leavened by poetry and wit.
Public Discussion: Lived Experience and the Human Genome Debate
Tuesday, January 31, 8p.m.
Most public discussions of the human genome project and stem cell research are focused on risks, possible negative outcomes and religious implications. What is often missing from this debate are the voices of people and families living with the diseases and conditions for which genetic research holds such hope and promise. This panel discussion will bring together those who live with disease and injury and give them the opportunity to share their experiences, hopes and fears with artists, ethicists, scientists and religious thinkers. Panelists willinclude Liz Lerman, and Wesleyan science faculty members Lori Gruen and Laura Grabel.
For more information and tickets
Box Office Phone: (860) 685-3355 Address: Wesleyan University Box Office
Box Office Fax: (860) 685-3935 222 Church Street
E-mail: boxoffice@wesleyan.edu Middletown, CT 06459-0001
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