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Performance runs in conjunction with the Williams Center Gallery exhibit Nature (Re)Made: Genomics and Art
The Liz Lerman Dance Exchange will perform Ferocious Beauty: Genome 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14 as part of the Williams Center’s Footlights series. The show runs in conjunction with the Williams Center for the Arts Gallery exhibit Nature (Re)Made: Genomics and Art Nov. 1 – Dec. 7. Both the exhibit and performance are part of the College’s 10th biennial Roethke Humanities Festival.
Tickets are free for Lafayette students, $6 for students at LVAIC schools, $4 for faculty and staff, and $20 for the public. They can be obtained by calling the Williams Center box office at (610) 330-5009. Remaining series performances are the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Second Hand, Feb. 11, $25; Ballet Hispanico, Palladium Nights, March 25, $25; and The SpokenWorld with Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Feb. 6, $12.
Lerman’s Ferocious Beauty: Genome residency runs Nov. 12 – 14. Events are as follows:
Wednesday, Nov. 12
9 a.m. – Presentation to students in the evolution First-Year Seminar taught by Michael Stark, assistant professor of physics, in Hugel Science Center room 17
Noon – Conversation with Liz Lerman and Elizabeth Johnson for students in the evolution First-Year Seminar taught by Asma Sayeed, assistant professor of religious studies, in the Williams Center Black Box Theater; lunch served
Thursday, Nov. 13
11a.m. – Gallery talk by Liz Lerman for the modern art class taught by Robert Mattison, Marshall R. Metzgar Professor of Art History, in the Williams Center room 108 and Gallery, open to everyone
4:10 p.m. – Gallery talk by visual artist and curatorial advisor Ellen Levy: “Art in the Age of Biotechnology” in the Williams Center 108
Friday, Nov. 14
4 p.m. – Talk by Princeton molecular biologist Bonnie Bassler: “How Bacteria Talk to Each Other” in Hugel 103
7 p.m. – Pre-performance talk by Liz Lerman on the process of interdisciplinary learning and creativity in the making of Ferocious Beauty: Genome in the Williams Center room 108
Saturday, Nov. 15
10 a.m. – Movement class for adult dancers on the Williams Center stage
11 a.m. – Discussion led by Liz Lerman and Steven Lammers, Manson Professor of the English Bible, on issues raised by genomic engineering, aging, and medical ethics in the Williams Center room 108
A growing number of artists have sought inspiration in genomics and biotechnology, including choreographer Liz Lerman, whose piece Ferocious Beauty: Genome was inspired by the 2002 exhibition (Gene)sis at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle. Concerning mapping of the human genome, this multimedia piece explores the miracles of inheritance, genetic engineering, and medical ethics.
Described as “captivating, surprisingly funny, intensely moving, and thought-provoking” by The Chicago Sun-Times, the performance integrates elements of dance and theater with state-of-the-art recorded and live-feed video and multi-channel soundscape. Lerman’s multigenerational company brings scientific inquiry to life as it poses small and large questions currently being generated by scientific research.
The 2008–2009 Performance Series at Lafayette College is supported in part by gifts from Friends of the Williams Center for the Arts; by provisions of the Josephine Chidsey Williams Endowment, the J. Mahlon and Grace Buck Fund, the Croasdale Fund, the Class of ’73 Fund, the Alan and Wendy Pesky Artist-in-Residence Program, the James Bradley Fund, and the Ed Brunswick Jazz Fund; and by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Dexter and Dorothy Baker Foundation, and New England Foundation for the Arts. Special thanks to the F.M. Kirby Foundation for extraordinary support of the 25th anniversary season, and to Joan Moran and the Amaranth Foundation for support of the Ravi Shankar commission.