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Brown Theatre & Julie Strandberg Present Brown Festival of Dance 2008

PROVIDENCE, RI: Brown Theatre and Julie Strandberg present Brown Festival of Dance 2008, May 1, 2, 3 at 8 PM and May 4 at 2 PM at Stuart Theatre in the Catherine Bryan Dill Center for the Performing Arts, 77 Waterman Street, Providence, Rhode Island.  Tickets available online at www.brown.edu/tickets or call 401-863-2838.  The Festival offers a thrilling and diverse evening of choreography including new work by MacArthur genius Liz Lerman, and a classic piece from the repertory of world-renowned Pilobolus.

"Madame Sand" - Donna Jewell
"Beirut at Dawn" - Carol Abizaid
"Give Thanks" - Meida McNeal
"Radical Acts of Prayer" - Liz Lerman Dance Exchange
"Ciona" - Pilobolus
"Bloodlines" - NewWorks/Michelle Bach-Coulibaly

Highlights of the program include "Ciona," created in 1974 by Pilobolus and "Radical Acts of Prayer" created by the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in collaboration with the performers. The program also includes Donna Jewell's 1992 signature work, "Madame Sand," and new works by Michelle Bach-Coulibaly, Meida McNeal, and Carol Abizaid.

Donna Jewell's "Madame Sand" was inspired by writer Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupine (1804-1876) whose pen name was George Sand. The social climate of the time made it necessary for her to present herself in public as a man in order to gain acceptance as a writer. Her tumultuous relationships with artists, including Frederic Chopin, are perhaps as well-known as her literary works. This abstract depiction of her life, set to Chopin's music, explores the many facets of this intriguing woman.

"Beirut at Dawn", a reflective work by Carol Abizaid, addresses the elements of chaos and personal loss, and the beauty found in grief and sadness the morning after the violence of war in Lebanon. These aspects are negotiated through the Islamic and Christian beliefs of people indigenous to the country, and speak to how they manage, rationalize, and mourn sudden loss during war.

"Give Thanks" (2008) is based on "Househedz" (2007), an earlier collaborative dance theater work that explored the significance of Chicago house music/dance culture as a critical social utopia. From one vantage point, house echoes plantation drums, chain gangs/work songs, gospel and blues. Yet this pastiche musical lexicon also includes influences such as funk, disco, Euro-pop, salsa, Afro-beat and industrial percussion. An evocation of both the sacred and the profane, "Give Thanks" explores house's connections between the invincible spirit of historical black music traditions and house's contemporary conditions. Here, house becomes an example of an urban folk practice and experience.

"Radical Acts of Prayer" is part of a large, multi-year initiative by Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and explores the intersection between activism and contemplative practice, Created during a two-week residency with Dance Exchange members in January 2008, "Radical Acts of Prayer" is a moving blend of individual stories and movements.