Lichtung/Clearing
A collaborative visual/sound/movement environment--three elements in three dimensions

Thursday, February 3, 2011
8 pm, UMBC Theatre

Contact: Thomas Moore
Director of Arts Management
410-455-3370
tmoore@umbc.edu

This release is available as a pdf file.

UMBC presents the Liz Gerring Dance Company for one performance only on Thursday, February 3rd, 8 pm at the UMBC Theatre. The Company will perform Lichtung/Clearing, an evening-length dance set within a layered visual and sound environment in which the artists explore the relationship among movement image, sound image, and projected image. Conceived and choreographed by Liz Gerring, Lichtung/Clearing is a collaboration between Liz Gerring, Ursula Scherrer (video set design) and Michael J. Schumacher (multichannel electronic score).

"You watch Lichtung/Clearing much as you do Cunningham's RainForest (1968): a drama where the feral, the primitive and the civilized all interconnect. Steps keep dissolving into through-the-body gestures, and every part of the physique is given a fresh inflection. There are other choreographers from whom Ms. Gerring has learned, notably Trisha Brown (those peripheries!). But Ms. Gerring seems unencumbered by any such debts. Her immediacy is her own; Lichtung/Clearing, which I recall as both psychodrama and zoological reportage, is a major achievement."
--Alistair Macaulay, The New York Times

Liz Gerring has choreographed and developed new works with her own company since 1999. The Company numbers seven dancers including Liz Gerring herself and regularly presents performances in venues throughout New York City and beyond. Liz Gerring was born in San Francisco in 1965. She grew up in the Los Angeles area and began studying dance at age 13 and later at the Cornish Institute in Seattle. In 1987 she received a B.F.A. from the Juilliard School where she studied with Kazuko Hirabayashi and Doris Rudko. She has been working as a choreographer in New York since 1993. In March 1998, she presented her first piece, a four hour movement installation. Since then, the Liz Gerring Dance Company has presented work at Jacob's Pillow, and in New York City at Danspace Project, the Connelly Theater, the Kitchen, Engine 27 and other venues. In 2001, she and her longtime collaborator, composer Michael Schumacher, founded the non-profit organization Tonal Motion Inc., dedicated to the creation and presentation of movement and sound art. Its activities include Diapason Gallery and the Liz Gerring Dance Company.

Admission
General admission: $20.00. Students and seniors: $10.00.
Box Office: MissionTix at http://www.missiontix.com or 410-752-8950.

Public Information
UMBC Arts website: http://www.umbc.edu/arts

Images for Media
High resolution images for media are available online:
http://www.umbc.edu/newsevents/arts/hi-res/
Photos: Julieta Cervantes

Directions
- From I-95 between Baltimore and Washington take exit 47B. Take Route 166 toward Catonsville and then follow signs to the Commons Garage, then follow pedestrian signs to the Theatre.
- From I-695, take Exit 12C (Wilkens Avenue) and continue one-half mile to the entrance of UMBC at the roundabout intersection of Wilkens Avenue and Hilltop Road. Turn left and follow signs to the Commons Garage, then follow pedestrian signs to the Theatre.
- Online campus map: http://www.umbc.edu/aboutumbc/campusmap/