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| Wesleyan has
partnered with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange for several fall events. |
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| Posted 07.13.05 |
World Premiere of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange at Wesleyan
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For the past three years, the Center for the
Arts and Wesleyan faculty have partnered with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange
to explore the ethical and social repercussions of genetic research.
The Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, led by MacArthur Fellow Liz Lerman, has been
creating dance works that are metaphorical and powerfully visceral about the
issues of the time.
The Wesleyan-Dance Exchange partnership has resulted in Wesleyan serving as
a lead commissioner of “Ferocious Beauty: Genome”, which will premiere at
the CFA on February 3, 2006, before touring major performing arts centers
across the country.
The partnership has also resulted in the most comprehensive residency ever
undertaken by a dance company at Wesleyan or in Middletown, with Dance
Exchange members working throughout the fall semester with both science and
dance students as well as community members at the Green Street Arts Center.
The following Dance Exchange events are scheduled:
“The Making of ‘Ferocious Beauty: Genome’” will take place at 8 p.m.
September 20 in the CFA’s cinema. Enjoy an evening with Liz Lerman and Kathy
Hudson, director of the Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins
University. Admission is free.
Lerman will discuss her use of the dance medium to explore the meaning and
potential of new genetic science research. Hudson will provide an update on
the public policy issues raised by recent advances. Both women will share
their insights into the crossing of boundaries between art and science and
their growing understanding of creativity and inquiry in both fields.
“Challenging Nature: Biotechnology in a Spiritual World” will take place at
8 p.m. October 11 in the CFA’s cinema. Attend a lecture by Lee M. Silver,
professor of molecular biology and Public Affairs at Princeton University.
Admission is free.
Silver, author of “Challenging Nature: Biotechnology in a Spiritual World”
published by Ecco Press, will examine Catholic, Protestant, post-Christian
and Eastern spirituality's responses to the advances of biotechnology and
predict how these arguments will affect future scientific research.
The Double Helix: Law and Science Co-constructing Race” will take place at
8 p.m. November 10 in the CFA’s cinema. Attend a talk by Pilar Ossario,
assistant professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin.
Admission is free.
Ossario’s talk will explore the ways in which the law and guidelines
mandating inclusion have had the effect of re-animating a very simple-minded
set of arguments about race and genetics. Ossario is the former director of
the Genetics Section at the Institute for Ethics at the American Medical
Association. The event is sponsored by the Ethics in Society Project.
The World Premiere of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange “Ferocious Beauty:
Genome” will take place at 8 p.m. February 3 and 4 at the CFA’s theater. A
pre-show talk begins at 7:15 p.m. February 3 in the Zilkha Gallery. Tickets
cost between $8 and $19.
“Ferocious Beauty: Genome” is about how we heal, age, procreate and eat may
soon change because of genetic research happening right now. The Liz Lerman
Dance Exchange partnered with scientists and bio-ethicists to confront the
promise and threat of a new biological age. The show explores this moment of
revelation and questioning in an arresting theatrical work which combines
movement, music, text and film.
The planning committee for this residency includes Professor of Biology and
Fisk Professor of Natural Science Laura Grabel, Associate Professor of
Philosophy Lori Gruen, Adjunct Professor of Dance Susan Lourie, Green Street
Arts Center Director Ricardo Morris, Zilkha Gallery Curator Nina Felshin,
CFA Associate Director for Programming and Events Barbara Ally and CFA
Director Pamela Tatge.
In addition, Lerman has consulted extensively with Visiting Assistant
Professor of Biology Laurel Appel, Professor of Biology Michael Weir and
Professor of Chemistry and University Professor of Sciences and Mathematics
David Beveridge, among others, on the development of Genome.
Lerman will be making monthly visits to Grabel and Gruen's Reproduction in
the 21st Century course this fall, and is a fall faculty member of the Dance
Department, teaching the repertory class.
All events have been made possible by grants from Wesleyan University's
Edward W. Snowdon Fund, Hughes Program and the Fund for Innovation.
“Ferocious Beauty: Genome” is funded in part by the Expeditions program of
the New England Foundation for the Arts, which receives major support from
the National Endowment for the Arts with additional support from the state
arts agencies of New England and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
For more information or to order tickets, call 860-685-3355, or e-mail
boxoffice@wesleyan.edu. |
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| By
Olivia Bartlett, The Wesleyan Connection
editor |
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