EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

Legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham to appear at U-M

DATE: 4-6 p.m.,
EVENT: "This is Your Brain on Dance" led by U-M Dance Professor Peter Sparling, including a conversation with choreographer Merce Cunningham, a presentation from Jill Sonke Henderson regarding dance and healing, and a discussion involving a panel of distinguished U-M scientists with interests in kinesiology, psychology, dance, and neurology.   This seminar will investigate the integration of dance, health, neuroscience and technology and their application to health and well-being.

Jill Sonke-Henderson is artist in residence at the Arts in Medicine Program at Shands Healthcare and the co-founder/co-director of the Center for Arts in Healthcare Research and Education at the University of Florida.

Cunningham, an internationally recognized choreographer, has received two Guggenheim Fellowships for choreography, in 1954 and 1959. In 1984, he was inducted as an Honorary Member into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1985, he received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors at the White House. Following his company’s residency in Arles in 1989, he was named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by President Mitterrand of France. For Cunningham’s 75th birthday, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani proclaimed
PLACE: Life Sciences Palmer Commons Building, Forum Hall (adjacent to the Life Sciences Institute); this event is the first formal use of the new Commons building in the Life Sciences complex

SPONSORS: The University of Michigan Life Sciences, Values and Society Program in partnership with the University Musical Society and the University of Michigan Health System Gift of Arts Program

CONTACT: Pamela Clouser McCann, project manager for the Life Sciences, Values and Society Program, (734) 647-4571, pclouser@umich.edu

WEB LINKS: To learn about the Life Sciences, Values and Society Program, visit http://www.lifesciences.umich.edu/values/index.html

For background on Cunningham: http://www.merce.org/