Liz Lerman Dance Features Area Performers

Media Contact:

Kristen Gleason
Director of Marketing
The Paramount Theater
215 East Main Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902
434.979.1922 ext. 103
kristen@theparamount.net

For Immediate Release

May 10, 2006

The final act of The Paramount Theater's 2005-2006 Season will feature both an internationally-acclaimed dance ensemble and Charlottesville-area dancers in a performance by the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange on Saturday, May 20 at 8 pm. The group, which performed their Bobcat Ballet for The Paramount's 2002 groundbreaking ceremony, is known for creating, teaching, performing, and engaging people of all ages and backgrounds in making art.

Based in Takoma Park, Maryland, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange is currently celebrating its 30th Anniversary season with a series of performances, residencies and institutes around the country and in the Metro DC area. Their Charlottesville performance of mixed repertory works includes Dances at a Cocktail Party, set to music of Leonard Bernstein; Still Crossing, commissioned by Dancing in the Streets as part of the Liberty Dances festival honoring the Statue of Liberty centennial; and Hallelujah: In Praise of Animals and Their People, which features "dancing" dogs onstage, and is excerpted from the company's three-year Hallelujah project that created dances "in praise of" topics vital to fifteen host communities.

Nearly forty members of the greater Charlottesville community will complete a week-long rehearsal period with the company, and take part in the May 20 show. The following performers, who range in age from four to sixty-plus, will be featured in the works Still Crossing and In Praise of Animals and Their People: Caitlin Alexander, Judy Bazin, Felicia Clark, Anwyn Cook, Chloe Cook, Carole Corcoran, Cheyenne Corcoran, Stephanie Freed, Lindsay Howerton, Luke Hudnall, Casey Leech, Deborah Marshall, Chelsea Massey, Kimberly Maurice, Amber McDonald, Ruby Moon, Margo Moskowitz, Calais Mustoe, Gail Mustoe, Oliver Mustoe, Douglas Olson, Peggy Brown Paviouor, Sonja Paviouor, Elena Faith Peterson, Lisa Peterson, Zachary Taylor Peterson, David Ross, Debra Ross, Ella Ross, Madison Ross, Hannah Sizemore, Stu Smith, Jonathan Toomey, Meredith Townsend, Becca Van Cleave, Charlotte Von Lilienfeld, Ashleigh Welch, and Honey Williams.

Liz Lerman founded Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in 1976. The company's brand of dance/theatre breaks boundaries between stage and audience, theater and community, movement and language, tradition and the unexplored. Through explosive dancing, personal stories, humor, and a company of performers whose ages range from twenty-five to seventy-two, the company stretches the expressive range of contemporary dance. With work consisting of formal concerts, interactive performances, specialized community residencies, and professional training in the art of community-based dance, the artist-driven organization employs a collaborative approach to dancemaking. Current choreographic projects representing the company's multiple artistic voices include explorations of coal mining, genetic research, radical prayer, alternatively defined families, and intergenerational LGBT communities.

Seats for the May 20 performance are $30, $27, and $24. Youth/Child prices of $27, $24, and $21 apply to those 18 and younger. Tickets are available online and through The Paramount's Box Office at 434.979.1333. For more information about Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, please visit www.danceexchange.org.