MetLife Foundation Awards $100,000

Grant to Liz Lerman Dance Exchange

Funds to Support Mixed-Abilities Performance and

Techniques for Collaborations Between Disabled and Non-Disabled Artists

TAKOMA PARK, MD,  May 31, 2007:  Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, the internationally recognized contemporary dance company, has been selected for a $100,000 grant from MetLife Foundation. The Foundation, which works throughout the U.S. to strengthen health, educational, civic, and cultural organizations, designated the funds to support the expansion of The Farthest Earth from Thee. Originally commissioned by VSA arts and based on the sonnets of Shakespeare, The Farthest Earth from Thee is a new dance/theater work and education program that brings disabled and non-disabled performers together on stage and in communities.

The Farthest Earth from Thee will premiere in Washington, DC with three performances on June 2 and 3, part of the six-month Shakespeare in Washington Festival that is engaging over 70 presenting and performing troupes in the D.C. area. Following this launch, with support from MetLife Foundation, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange will collaborate with partners in three other U.S. sites (to be announced) to mount the work in presentations that combine a touring cast with performers drawn from host communities.  In addition, the grant will allow the Dance Exchange to share some of the project’s techniques through enhancements to the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange Toolbox, an online resource that makes aspects of the company’s methodology and philosophy broadly available (toolbox.danceexchange.org).

With this key support from MetLife Foundation, The Farthest Earth from Thee will advance an innovative vision about inclusion, adaptation, and the compatibility of community impact with high artistic standards. Said Sibyl Jacobson, President of the Foundation, “From its earliest days working with senior adults, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange has promoted dance as an art form that can enrich all our lives. MetLife Foundation is proud to support this new initiative that will share that philosophy in a mixed-abilities context.”

“This generous support from MetLife Foundation will add a new chapter to our 30-year exploration of the question ‘Who gets to dance?’” said Peter DiMuro, Producing Artistic Director of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and lead choreographer on the project. “When audiences come to a Dance Exchange performance they expect to see a group of people on stage who look different from one another rather than all the same. Different is normal with us. In The Farthest Earth from Thee, we are informing our work with an approach that de-exceptionalizes difference across a wide range of physical and developmental abilities.”

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Liz Lerman founded Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in 1976. Its unique 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 span six decades, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange stretches the expressive range of contemporary dance. Its work consists of formal concerts, interactive performances, specialized community residencies, and professional training in the art of community-based dance. An artist-driven organization, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange employs a collaborative approach to dancemaking, administration, and implementation. Representing the multiple artistic voices of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, current choreographic projects include explorations of coal mining, genetic research, radical prayer and intergenerational LGBT communities. More information is available at www.danceexchange.org.