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Liz Lerman

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Liz Lerman
Born1947
NationalityAmerican
Alma materBennington College
University of Maryland, College Park (BA)
George Washington University (MA)
Known forchoreographer
MovementDance Exchange
SpouseJon Spelman (storyteller)

Liz Lerman (born 1947 in Los Angeles, CA) is an American dance choreographer, founder of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, and creator of the Critical Response Process.[1][2]

Early life

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Liz Lerman was born in Los Angeles, California, on December 25, 1947. When she was 14 years old, she danced in Washington, DC, for President Kennedy as part of a group from the National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan.[3] She attended Bennington College, where she studied under Martha Wittman, who would later become a company member of Dance Exchange. She graduated with a B.A. in Dance from the University of Maryland and an M.A. in Dance from George Washington University.[3]

Career

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She founded the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in 1976 and led the company's multi-generational ensemble until July 2011, when Lerman was succeeded by Cassie Meador.[4] The company is now called Dance Exchange.[5][6]

Under Lerman's leadership, Dance Exchange appeared across the U.S. at venues including National Cathedral, Kennedy Center Opera House,[7] Millennium Stage,[8] Lansburgh Theatre,[9] Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center,[9][10] Harvard University,[11] and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.[12][13]

Lerman's early work focused on including older dancers alongside young performers[14] and using personal narrative.[15] Her later-career work has focused on questions of science from genomics,[16] high-energy physics,[17] and the physical and psychic wounds of war.[18] She and her dancers have collaborated with shipbuilders, physicists, construction workers, and cancer researchers.[3]

In January 2016, Lerman joined the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona as Institute Professor to lead programs and courses that span disciplines across ASU.[19]

Lerman was named a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow.[20]

Tools

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Lerman defines and shares the "tools" that result from her artistic process.[3] According to Lerman, a "tool" is a piece of information that is detached from other concepts and can be applied to many situations. To her, "tools" are often challenges or reminders, including “Rattle around in someone else’s universe”;[3] “Turn discomfort into inquiry”;[3] “Nothing is too small to notice”.[21]

Critical Response Process

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Lerman created the Critical Response Process (CRP), a method for giving and receiving feedback, in 1990 after realizing artists tended to apologize rather than ask questions when presenting unfinished work.[3] The concept was formalized in 2003 through the publication of the book "Critical Response Process: A Method for Getting Useful Feedback on Anything You Make, from Dance to Dessert"[22] which Lerman co-authored with John Borstel.

CRP has international institutional hosts including the Innovative Conservatoire,[23] the Federation of Scottish Theatres,[24] the London Sinfonietta,[25] the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Yorkshire Dance[26] in addition to US hosts such as the Yale School of Drama and the Tisch School for the Arts.[27] CRP facilitator-cohorts are in development in Scotland [28] and in Baltimore, Maryland.[29] In 2014, Yorkshire Dance developed a beta-version of an online adaptation of CRP called "respond."[30]

In 2022, Wesleyan University Press published Lerman’s second book on CRP, called “Critique is Creative,” also co-authored with John Borstel and included essays by CRP practitioners from around the world.[31]

Awards

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Publications

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  • Teaching Dance to Senior Adults, 1984[39]
  • Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process: A Method for Getting Useful Feedback on Anything You Make, from Dance to Dessert (co-author with John Borstel), 2003[40]
  • Hiking the Horizontal: Field Notes from a Choreographer, Wesleyan Press, 2011[41]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Who is the Dance Exchange?". www.danceexchange.org. Archived from the original on 2008-05-09.
  2. ^ "Liz Lerman Dance Exchange.(Lansburgh Theater, Washington DC)". The Kenyon Review. January 1, 2006.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Lerman, Liz. (2014). Hiking the Horizontal : Field Notes from a Choreographer. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 9780819575593. OCLC 888749068.
  4. ^ "The Dance Exchange Ponders Life After Liz Lerman - Arts Desk". Washington City Paper. September 2011.
  5. ^ Sarah Kaufman (January 24, 2011). "Liz Lerman set to move on from her namesake dance company". The Washington Post.
  6. ^ Mary Carole McCauley (January 24, 2011). "Liz Lerman to leave dance troupe in July". The Baltimore Sun.
  7. ^ Jackson, George (December 8, 1993). "Liz Lerman, on the move". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 26, 2012.
  8. ^ "Calendar | Kennedy Center". www.kennedy-center.org.
  9. ^ a b "All About Jewish Theatre - Liz Lerman: Looking Ahead, Looking Back". www.jewish-theatre.com. Archived from the original on 2007-10-28.
  10. ^ Traiger, Lisa (October 27, 2006). "Liz Lerman: Looking Ahead, Looking Back". Archived from the original on October 26, 2012.
  11. ^ "All About Jewish Theatre - Nuremberg in dance Choreography on Nazi war trials premieres in DC". www.jewish-theatre.com. Archived from the original on 2006-05-12.
  12. ^ "Liz Lerman Dance Exchange: Ferocious Beauty: Genome". Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Retrieved 2011-07-29.
  13. ^ "Performances (2011)". mcachicago.org.
  14. ^ Dunning, Jennifer (11 December 1996). "DANCE". The New York Times.
  15. ^ "LIZ LERMAN, GROWING BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS". Washington Post. 1995-06-07. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  16. ^ Dunning, Jennifer (3 April 2007). "One Troupe's Exploration of Big Ideas". The New York Times.
  17. ^ "'The Matter of Origins' preview: A lively science-themed show comes to Montclair". 18 March 2011.
  18. ^ "Liz Lerman's 'Healing Wars' provides unique theatrical experience - tribunedigital-baltimoresun". 2016-06-23. Archived from the original on 2016-06-23. Retrieved 2022-09-04.
  19. ^ Dance Exchange founder and MacArthur fellow to teach, launch Ensemble Lab (January 7, 2016). "Dance legend Liz Lerman to join ASU, Dance Exchange founder and MacArthur fellow to teach, launch Ensemble Lab". ASU News Now.
  20. ^ "Herberger Institute Professor Liz Lerman honored as 2023 Guggenheim Fellow | ASU News". news.asu.edu. Retrieved 2024-09-18.
  21. ^ Lerman, Liz (2003). Liz Lerman's critical response process : a method for getting useful feedback on anything you make, from dance to dessert. Borstel, John (First ed.). Takoma Park, MD. ISBN 0972738509. OCLC 53157339.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  22. ^ Lerman, Liz; Borstel, John (2003). Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process: A Method for Getting Useful Feedback on Anything You Make, from Dance to Dessert. Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. ISBN 0972738509.
  23. ^ "innovativeconservatoire.com". www.innovativeconservatoire.com. Retrieved 2022-09-04.
  24. ^ "Critical Response Process | Federation of scottish theatre". www.scottishtheatre.org. Archived from the original on 2014-04-15.
  25. ^ "London Sinfonietta". www.londonsinfonietta.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2015-09-23.
  26. ^ "Critical Response Process workshop with Liz Lerman — Yorkshire Dance". www.yorkshiredance.com. Archived from the original on 2016-06-10.
  27. ^ "Liz Lerman Guest Visit". tisch.nyu.edu. Archived from the original on 2016-05-02.
  28. ^ "Puppet Animation". www.puppetanimation.org.
  29. ^ "Critical Response Process (CRP) | Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance". Archived from the original on 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2016-05-15.
  30. ^ "Dealing with Holiday Stress with Aromatherapy". www.respondto.org.
  31. ^ "Critique Is Creative". Wesleyan University Press. Retrieved 2021-12-04.
  32. ^ "Liz Lerman - MacArthur Foundation". www.macfound.org. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  33. ^ "Widening the Circle with Liz Lerman - Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue - Simon Fraser University". 2020-08-08. Archived from the original on 2020-08-08. Retrieved 2022-09-04.
  34. ^ "2017 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award Goes to Liz Lerman; Innovative Choreographer, Performer, Writer, Educator, and Speaker". Jacob's Pillow. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  35. ^ "American Dance Guild". American Dance Guild. Retrieved 2022-09-04.
  36. ^ Tschebull, Johanna (6 March 2014). "PRESS RELEASE: Liz Lerman and D. David Brown to be Honored by Dance/USA". www.danceusa.org.
  37. ^ "Choreographer Liz Lerman: 2017 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award Winner". Jacob's Pillow. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  38. ^ "Herberger Institute Professor Liz Lerman honored as 2023 Guggenheim Fellow | ASU News". news.asu.edu. Retrieved 2024-09-18.
  39. ^ Lerman, Liz (1984). Teaching Dance to Senior Adults. C. Thomas. ISBN 978-0-398-04903-4.
  40. ^ Lerman, Liz; Borstel, John (2003). Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process: A Method for Getting Useful Feedback on Anything You Make, from Dance to Dessert. Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. ISBN 978-0-9727385-0-7.
  41. ^ Lerman, Liz (2014-08-09). Hiking the Horizontal: Field Notes from a Choreographer. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0-8195-7559-3.
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