Performing Arts Series

This panel discussion features performing artists from Small Island Big Song to discuss the impacts of climate change and explore how the arts can influence our relationship with the environment. Small Island Big Song is a collaborative multi-platform project uniting indigenous musicians across the Pacific and Indian Oceans through song in the face of climate change and cultural loss.

Moderator: BaoBao Chen (Taiwan), Producer/Manager, Small Island Big Song

The Dance Company of Middlebury, directed by Professor Lida Winfield is joined by several special guest artists:
Artistic Director Sydnie L Mosley and six Creative Partners, including alumna Jessica Lee ‘13.
SLMDances is a New York City based dance-theater collective that works in communities to organize for gender and racial justice.
Professor Jeff Buettner’s Sing the World into Place Winter Term course.
Music created by Professor’s McLean Macionis and Matthew Taylor and Lighting design by Bert Crosby.

The Dance Company of Middlebury, directed by Professor Lida Winfield is joined by several special guest artists:
Artistic Director Sydnie L Mosley and six Creative Partners, including alumna Jessica Lee ‘13.
SLMDances is a New York City based dance-theater collective that works in communities to organize for gender and racial justice.
Professor Jeff Buettner’s Sing the World into Place Winter Term course.
Music created by Professor’s McLean Macionis and Matthew Taylor and Lighting design by Bert Crosby.

Observe a world-class string quartet in rehearsal as they prepare for the evening’s performance of classical and Nordic folk music.

Free. Open to Middlebury College students only. Must present ID at the door. Many thanks to the Rothrock Family Residency Fund for sponsoring this event.

Learn more about the artists: www.danishquartet.com

Watch a video: https://youtu.be/ddDy8FJhsfs

See the premiere of choreographer Christal Brown’s evening-length dance and installation, inspired by the writings of poet Remica Bingham-Risher, as well as Brown’s caregiver journey with Alzheimer’s and dementia and her explorations of legacy. The artists’ bodies become instruments that question, connect, and dismantle the tangible and intangible histories present in us all. This soulful, profound performance is a physical examination of the capacity of human life and the intricacies of the mind.

The Global Body in Conflict: Movement Matters series welcomes INSPIRIT, a dance company. INSPIRIT’s newest work, “What We Ask of Flesh” sees flesh as the veil between the world and the soul, and explores what people hold, relinquish and collect to create an identity. “What We Ask of Flesh” is about navigating the spaces between our internal and external existence.

The Global Body in Conflict: Movement Matters series welcomes INSPIRIT, a dance company. INSPIRIT’s newest work, “What We Ask of Flesh” sees flesh as the veil between the world and the soul, and explores what people hold, relinquish and collect to create an identity. “What We Ask of Flesh” is about navigating the spaces between our internal and external existence.

Meet the composer! Learn more about the work “Spiral Galaxy” in a free pre-concert lecture by composer David Ludwig, Dean and Director of Music at the Juilliard School.

In this lecture/demonstration, Dreamers’ Circus covers the important role that Nordic traditions play in the trio’s music-making. They will discuss how an understanding of their own folk heritage informs their contemporary approach to the music and performance. By exploring links between past and present, the trio demonstrates the contemporary vitality of the folk culture of Northern Europe. 

Open to Middlebury College students, PASS members, and MCMC families. Sign up here

“Song of Rapa Nui” tells the story of Mahani Teave, who left Rapa Nui (Easter Island) at age 9 to pursue her dream of becoming a classical pianist. At age 30, on the brink of international success, Teave gives up her career to pursue a new dream; a free music school for the island’s children. Teave hopes to shape a bold future for Rapa Nui and inspire change on Earth, our island home.  Enjoy the screening in advance of Teave’s Middlebury concert on Friday. A brief Q&A with Teave will follow the film.