Gill Wright Miller, chair of the dance department, will present the opening event in Denison’s new Knapp Hall Performance Lab (300 Ridge Road.) The concert, titled “Being Movement,” is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 5. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact 740-587-6712.

The Knapp Performance Lab was previously a lecture auditorium and later served the campus briefly as the large paint studio for the art department while the Bryant Center for the Arts was under construction. “Many will remember monthly faculty meetings in that lethargic pale green space with bolted seats,” Miller smiled. The transformation to Knapp Performance Lab, designed as a state-of-the-art digital lab for fine arts performances, was made possible with a grant and with funding from the Vail Program in the Arts.

“Being Movement” will feature choreography by Wendell Beavers and Erika Berland (Boulder, Colo.), Teri Carter and Caryn Heilman (Los Angeles, Calif.), Molly Shanahan ’90 (Chicago), Mark Taylor (Pittsburgh) and Julie Fox (Columbus, Ohio). The Taylor/Fox collaboration will be danced by three rising juniors: Olivia Gray Bé (Cleveland), Samantha Hyde (Akron, Ohio), and Madeline Skaggs (Okemos, Mich.).

“This is an incredible opportunity to initiate the new space with the highest caliber professionals in the use of digital arts,” said Miller. “Although the Lab is not yet completely outfitted, this performance gives us an opportunity to take it for a test-drive.” The concert is part of the Body-Mind Centering’s 25th annual conference, this year called Somatic Pedagogies, envisioned by Miller, and this year being held at Denison. “I am profoundly interested in the relationship between dance as an art form, embodied methodology as a research tool, and somatics as the lifelong practice that connects them. It has been my honor to create this conference and to initiate the new performance lab in this way.”

Calendar Listing:

CALENDAR LISTING, Denison University, Granville — Dance concert, “Being Movement,” at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 5, in the Knapp Performance Lab (300 Ridge Road). Free and open to the public. For more information, contact 740-587-6712 or visit www.denison.edu.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

For press inquiries:

Name

Barbara Stambaugh

Position Title

Director, Media Relations

Primary Email

stambaughb@denison.edu

Business Phone

(740) 587-8575