Memorial Drive: site-specific dance

Lauri Stallings will be on of the panelist of the upcoming Memorial Drive discussion on site-specific dance in Atlanta.Joeff Davis/CL FileThis Thurs., April 6, ArtsATL teams up with Emorybs Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library for the next installment of bMemorial Drive,b a series that explores Atlantabs cultural history. Thus far, the program has featured panel discussions on both the past of the Nexus Contemporary Art Center and the history of movie censorship in Atlanta. The latest installment, taking place in the Jones Room at Emory Universitybs Woodruff Library, is focused on Atlantabs history of site-specific dance.

Breaking the barrier between stage and audience, site-specific dance evolved out of postmodern movements in the 1960s with performances designed to occur in a certain location, placing dance outside of the context of the traditional stage. Local dance writer and ArtsATL contributor Cynthia Perry, who will moderate the panel, has studied the Atlanta Ballet collection and the work of its founder, Dorothy Alexander. During her research, Perry found Alexanderbs 1933 outdoor performance bHeirs of All Ages,b a site-specific project aimed to plant hundreds of trees with more than 3,000 school children in honor of notable Georgians. Written well before concepts like bsite-specific artb and its subsequent movements would take shape, the event marked a precedent that struck Perry as a key point for conversations around public movement-based art today.

Channeling her research into discussion, Perry will be joined by several other prominent members of the local dance community, including Lauri Stallings, artist and founder of the nonprofit glo; Lori Teague, associate professor of the Emory Dance Program; Lee Harper, artist, founder and director of Lee Harper & Dancers; and D. Patton White, artistic and administrative director of Beacon Dance as well as company manager of Core Dance. The panel will discuss the precedents that were set in early Atlanta dance history, as well as the philosophical and practical challenges of the movement.

Memorial Drive panel discussion: 7-9 p.m. Thurs., April 6. Emory Universitybs Woodruff Library, 540 Asbury Circle. www.artsatl.com.