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Dancer/Choreographer Elizabeth Streb to Speak at MIT
For Immediate Release: Sept. 24, 2004
Contact: Mary Haller, MIT Office of the Arts
(617) 253-4006, haller@media.mit.edu
Photo credit: www.strebusa.org/pages/company.html
Cambridge, MA.... World-renowned dancer and choreographer Elizabeth Streb will present the 2004 Abramowitz Memorial Lecture entitled "Outerlimits: The Analysis and Accomplishment of Wild Action and Real Moves" at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Monday, October 18, 2004 at 7pm in Room 34-101, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge. She will discuss the invention of new moves particularly contained in the act of pushing the body, always, to the outer limits of its present capabilities.
For more than 20 years, Elizabeth Streb has asked questions that challenge many widely accepted assumptions about dance. Her investigation of movement through the study of science and the human body has led her to make formal choices that vary from traditional norms. Aesthetics of grace, the use or camouflage of gravity, the presence or absence of transitions, treatment of gender, the nature of spatial and temporal dimensions as well as the use of sound in theatrical presentations have been primary areas of exploration.
Working in the Streb Laboratory for Action Mechanics, Streb the company has engineered a system that allows the body to execute the choreography — through the development of specific muscles and the unusual placement of the body parts, the dancers are able to explore time, space, air, and aim — all through the use of felt-timing. Streb’s creative process draws from the sciences and mathematics, requires the design and creation of beautifully engineered equipment, and demands an athleticism, fearlessness and precision from her dancers.
Streb's choreography, (she calls it POPACTION) intertwines the disciplines of dance, athletics, extreme-sports, and Hollywood stunt work into a bristling muscle and motion vocabulary that combines daring and strict precision in the pursuit of attempting to display publicly the aggressive and deep effect of 'pure movement.'
For more information on Elizabeth Streb and her dance company, please visit www.strebusa.org.
While at MIT, Streb will visit classes; give workshops; and share meals with faculty, staff, and students.
No tickets or reservations are necessary. Info: 617.253.2341
The Abramowitz Memorial Lecture, presented by the Office of the Arts, was established at MIT through the generosity and imagination of William L. Abramowitz '35 as a memorial to his father. It has been sustained since his death by the devoted interest of his wife and children. Since 1961, the Series has brought renowned performing artists and writers to MIT to perform, present public lectures, and collaborate with students in free programs.
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