David Parker and the Bang Group, a nationally renowned New York dance company, will visit Northwestern University’s Evanston campus for a weeklong residency April 26 to May 3. The group will be co-hosted by the School of Communication’s Dance Program and the New Movement Project, a student group that organizes campus dance events.
During the ensemble’s residency, Parker and collaborator Jeffrey Kazin will teach dance and theater classes as well as stage two new works for Northwestern dance majors and minors.
In addition to dance and theater classes at the School of Communication, Parker and Kazin will teach in the Judd A. and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences with English department chair Susan Manning. The classes will include movement and composition as well as discussions and lectures. In the evenings, Parker will choreograph new works for dance majors and minors.
The following three May dance events are open to the public and will be held in the Marjorie Ward Marshall Dance Center’s Ballroom Theater, 10 Arts Circle Drive, or the University Library, 1970 Campus Drive, on Northwestern’s Evanston campus, as noted:
The Dance Program and New Movement Project will present David Parker and the Bang Group in a Studio Showing of company work at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 2 in the Ballroom Theater. Tickets are $10 for the general public and $5 for students with IDs. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Theatre and Interpretation Center Box Office at (847) 491-7282.
Dance Program students will perform two new dance works staged by Parker and Kazin during a free Residency Showcase at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, May 3 in the Ballroom Theater.
Pre-registration is required for a 1 p.m. Friday, May 1 guest lecture in a Gender, Sexuality and Performance course presented by Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences English Professor Susan Manning and The Bang Group’s David Parker. The free hourlong class has limited space and will be held at the University Library. To make a reservation, e-mail nu-dance@northwestern.edu or phone the Dance Program at (847) 491-3147.
Parker founded the Bang Group in 1995 as a choreographic laboratory in rhythm, rigor and humor. Pressing through boundaries that once separated high and low art, the Bang Group has developed a reputation here and abroad for its wit, innovation and ribald approach to gender and sexuality.
Parker was a finalist at the Fourth International Competition for Choreographers of Contemporary Dance in the Netherlands in 1994 and received a special citation from the Kurt Jooss Prize jury in Germany in 2001. He was cited as a notable emerging artist by the jury of the 2002 Nijinksy Awards in Monte Carlo. His collaborative work with Dutch designers Melanie Rozema and Jeroen Teunissen earned him a 2002 Bessie Award for Design.
For more information on David Parker and the Bang Group’s residency or the related public events, contact Molly Shanahan or Kendra Foss at (847) 491-3147 or e-mail nu-dance@northwestern.edu.
