When: 
Tuesday, November 10, 2020 - 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Where: 
Online, through the Williams Center for the Arts
Presenter: 
Williams Center for the Arts
Price: 
Lafayette students – free; Lafayette faculty and staff - $10; General public - $15

Monica Bill Barnes & Company

The Running Show – Behind the scenes of the work in progress

Part 1 – Fall 2020

A seven year old falls in love with dance at her first recital; at 40 she practices every day to stay in the game; at 70 she keeps moving. This fall, choreographer Monica Bill Barnes is working with an ensemble of dancers here in the Lehigh Valley ranging in age from twelve to 75.  Through virtual movement classes and interviews, Barnes and documentary theater artist Robbie Saenz de Viteri will teach the choreography and capture the dancers’ stories.  The Running Show gives the audience an unprecedented look into the life of a dancer as a new kind of sports hero, one who keeps moving against all odds.

In Part 1 of the work in progress, we’ll share a unique, behind-the-scenes look at the making of The Running Show and introduce you the artists and their work.

Part 2 of The Running Show – the full performance – will take place live at the Williams Center for the Arts in the 2021/22 season, or at the earliest possible date for safe public performance.

Monica Bill Barnes & Company was founded in 1997.  Their mission – “to bring dance where it doesn’t belong” – introduces audiences to the immense variety of movement accessible to everyone, professionals and laypeople, alike. Recent projects include The Museum Workout, a guided exercise tour of art museums; Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host, in collaboration with Ira Glass; and Happy Hour, an immersive office party dance show. In 2019, Monica Bill Barnes created the movement and dances for the major motion picture release Little Women, directed by Greta Gerwig.

 

"You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive."—Merce Cunningham

 

 

Sponsored by: 
Williams Center for the Arts