Indiana University Bloomington

Liz Lerman Dance Exchange

Transcript

Bringing artists and scientists together, this was really a major goal  of Onia and mine.  Both of us, having worked in both the arts and the sciences,  the creative process is so similar.  It totally is.  It really is, and so we have much to learn from each other.  How many of you are interested in making dances?  There's a certain expectation there that there's  going to be some collaboration in the repertoire.  When you're learning reps sometimes there's an adjustment  that you start to get to have your voice.  When the scientist talk about a creative scientist  I think they mean by that someone who's not just counting numbers.  I think they mean the nature of interpretation and the relationship to research.  And that got me thinking about you know talking about a creative artist is not redund  Like the two are not redundant.  Yep, they're not.  And it's the same in our field.  When a creative thing comes in the intersection of interpretation  and also all that hard rigor: get your leg here, do this, do that,  and how we foster that.  I've known Liz Lerman for many years and I thought I had retired.  I was 58 and I thought, you know, time to quiet down  but Liz invited me to come join her company  so I thought, well I'll try this maybe for a year  and it's been 12 years since then  but I've really enjoyed the work that's been tremendous.  My job in coming here is to choreograph the work  with the dance students but we're making it with them.  What we're doing really is giving them assignments in movement and things to explore  so they are physically generating a lot of movement material.  My job is to shape the whole thing, to drive the whole thing.  [background noise] A lot of times when a choreographer starts to work on you you are  of like an instrument for their vision.  And with the Lerman piece it's more that we're actively engaged in creating material  and then they're taking the material and developing it and defining it  so I feel a lot more personally engaged in the material and in the process of creatin  I can't wait to see Martha's piece.  I just love Martha's work and I'm dying to see it and I feel like we have a really,  really good match between Martha and the other team of exchange  and the students here and support from the university.  So I think that we're going to get something that's really valuable.  [background music] It's not just the product.  The product is great, I don't even worry about the product  but the process for our students is so valuable.  They don't get to see the work, they're in it.  But to have a guest come in and make something is a really special thing  and I think this is something that really will influence their careers.  [ Music ]  [ Silence ]