Award-winning dance program to transform science building

"The two-story atrium in Indiana University Bloomington's Jordan Hall, home to the Department of Biology, is usually filled with displays related to scientific explorations. During ArtsWeek 2010, the atrium will form the backdrop for "Dancescience Lab," a contemporary dance performance designed specifically to relate to the architecture of the atrium and the content of the cases displaying life forms in varying stages of development.

It will be performed Thursday, Feb. 18, at 12:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., in the Jordan Hall atrium.

Selene Carter

Choreographer Selene Carter created the event, which received ArtsWeek's first annual Anya Peterson Royce Showcase Award for its artistry. The Royce award honors IU faculty member Anya Royce, under whose leadership the ArtsWeek winter festival was created in 1984. ArtsWeek is presently organized by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research in Bloomington.

Carter, a visiting lecturer in the IU Contemporary Dance Program, also has received a Fran Snygg Grant for Artistic Collaboration from the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs at IU Bloomington. This award honors the late Fran Snygg, professor of modern dance and associate dean of the faculties who founded IU's ArtsWeek.

The theme for this year's ArtsWeek is Arts and the Environment. The choreography of "Dancescience Lab" is generated from the movement patterns of living organisms, centering on humans. The intent of the piece is to reveal the universality of movement among all life forms on planet Earth. Visual and sound design will accentuate features of the atrium space and the dancers' clothing will relate to the biologic specimens displayed in the cases. Students from the IU Contemporary Dance Program will participate in performing the dance.

"Site-specific performance often transforms the viewer's relationship to the spectacle in the space," says Carter, who also created the ArtsWeek show "Body Politic," which transformed the Monroe County Courthouse atrium in 2008. "We believe the choreography in the space will enliven the viewers' awareness of their universal connection to movement. All human movement shares underlying patterns of organization and initiation with the biology of life.""

Full story here: http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/13335.html