This Weekend: Liz Lerman Dance Exchange

This weekend, the CFA hosts two performances by the outstanding Liz Lerman Dance Exchange that are not to be missed! The company returns to Wesleyan with brand new pieces using dance to comment on issues of food, land, and sustainability.

The performance features the work of two of the company’s younger choreographers. Cassie Meador is an award-winning dance-maker interested in the intersection of environmental issues and dance. Drift takes the audience on a humorous and wistful journey as a corn field in Cassie’s hometown in Georgia is first transformed into a Piggly Wiggly and then converted into a place of worship. Both the music and movement vocabulary draws on American popular forms of the past 100 years, and makes for a work of poetic and thoughtful dance/theater performed with the added nuances of a multi-generational company.

Meador will also perform excerpts from her newest piece, How to Lose A Mountain, a work designed to reconnect us with the sources of our energy by taking us from her home in DC to a strip-mined mountain in Virginia.

Finally, if you’re in the mood for an athletic, high energy movement piece then Blueprints of Relentless Nature, by Keith Thompson, is for you. Thompson danced with Tricia Brown for ten years – his choreography literally takes over every corner of the stage in a work that manages to be both abstract and celebrate the humanity of each of his dancers.

Liz Lerman Dance Exchange
Featuring Drift by Cassie Meador
Friday and Saturday, October 1 & 2, 8pm

CFA Theater
Pre-performance talk by Cassie Meador and Keith Thompson prior to Friday’s performance at 7:15pm in the CFA Hall
$21 General Admission, $18 Wesleyan Faculty & Staff/Seniors/Non-Wesleyan Students, $8 Wesleyan Students

Le Vent du Nord

What follows is a a blog entry by Wesleyan Senior Donovan Arthen:

If you are a music lover, then you are in for a treat this Friday night at 8pm; Le Vent Du Nord will be gracing the Crowell Concert Hall stage. The group is a Québécois folk band that plays traditional music from the region as well as contemporary compositions. They have been making music together since the summer of 2002, and have been wowing audiences all over since their debut.

Their members are all multi-instrumentalists and singers. Oliver Demers, initially a classically and jazz trained violinist who’s devoted the last ten years to mastering traditional Québécois folk technique, and brings a strong and melodic sound. Simon Beaudry is a guitarist who comes from a strong family background in folk tradition adds a driving rhythm to the groups music. Réjean Brunet has been playing traditional music since he was a boy and brings the harmonic sound of accordion style instruments. Finally, Nicolas Boulerice plays the piano and the hurdy-gurdy, a medieval era instrument that adds a unique and engaging sound to the group’s music.

I first saw them in the summer of 2008 at the Old Songs Music Festival in New York State, and I was thoroughly impressed by their energy, talent and personality both as a group and as individuals. Their performances are both beautiful and exciting. If you have even the slightest inkling to see what these fantastic musicians can do I encourage you to go to the box office and get a ticket for just $6 (which is practically stealing for a performance like this!) and maybe an extra one for your friend, and come to their 8pm performance in the Crowell Concert Hall! There is also another opportunity to experience this talented group, through an open jam session from 7-9pm in the Daltry Room (room 003) on the basement level of the rehearsal hall building (the short concrete building next to Crowell). Hope to see at both events! Come and get a taste of one of the richest folk music traditions in North America!

Le Vent du Nord
Friday, September 24, 8pm
Crowell Concert Hall
Pre-concert talk by Alec McLane at 7:15pm
$22 General; $18 Seniors/Wesleyan Faculty & Staff/Non-Wesleyan Students; $6 Wesleyan Students

Jam Session with Le Vent du Nord
Thursday, September 23 at 7pm
Daltry Room (Rehearsal Hall 003)
Free admission