Dancer/choreographer Flora Wiegmann will present a unique outdoor dance performance on the Occidental College campus on Wednesday, November 2 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Stemming from her interest in landscape and architecture and inspired by architect Myron Hunt's designs and Beatrix Farrand's original landscaping for Occidental, the work will utilize multiple campus spaces as a stage through the use of a singular movement score.
The qualities of the various settings (such as the Quad, Gilman Fountain and the Remsen Bird Hillside Theater) will shape the way the score unfolds, defining the amount of space in which the bodies have to dance. The work is designed to be both something that may be "happened upon" while students and faculty go about their day, and as a formal performance that can be viewed for long periods of time and followed to its various locations.
"I am thrilled to bring Flora Wiegmann to the Occidental College campus for this unique and site-specific event," says Deena Selenow, director of Oxy Arts. "Flora has been working closely with Oxy Arts and Special Collections to organize this immersive event. Flora's research into Myron Hunt's early architectural drawings of the College campus has inspired her interest in exploring a repeating movement score in various campus locations as a means of encouraging the viewer to experience these spaces in a new way."
The event will be livestreamed on the Global Crossroads Media Wall in the McKinnon Center for Global Affairs as well as on the Oxy Arts Facebook page. The performance will begin in the Quad, move to the olive grove between Thorne Hall and Samuelson Pavilion, to the Remsen Bird Hillside Theater, to the steps between Johnson and Fowler halls, and finally culminate at Gilman Fountain. Approximate times for each location will be available on the Oxy Arts webpage and Facebook page and via a limited-edition map given out on site to the first 50 audience members, as well as available online.
Flora Wiegmann is a Los Angeles-based dancer and choreographer who works in both live performance and film. Her projects have been presented at the ICA, Philadelphia; Whitney Museum of American Art and The Kitchen, New York; California Biennial and LA>
This collaboration is made possible by generous support from the Pasadena Art Alliance.
