MARLBORO — Two award-winning, cutting-edge artists will travel to Windham County to offer their unique perspectives on theater and dance, as Marlboro College and Vermont Performance Lab (VPL) host a week-long symposium from April 6-10 on the college's campus.
New York-based writer/director/performer Ain Gordon, and Northampton, Mass.-based choreographer/philosopher/performer Candice Salyers are the two artists selected for VPL's Lab Program. They will be paired with Marlboro College professors to publicly discourse the idea of “embodied learning” and other mind/body practices.
What is embodied learning? It is a way to transcend Cartesian [mind-body] dualism explore the idea that learning is a contextual, physical, and perceptual act where the mind and the body work together.
The talks, free and open to the public, will explore the artists' methods of finding inspiration amidst marginalized histories and gender theory when creating performance works.
Both Gordon and Salyers are developing fresh work through VPL's Lab Program, which allows them to develop their art in the unique setting of Vermont's southern Green Mountains over a year-long period.
On April 6 at 7 p.m. in Marlboro College's Ragle Hall, Salyers and Marlboro College philosophy professor William Edelglass will present “Choreography as Embodied Learning.”
As both a dance maker and a doctoral candidate in philosophy, Salyers brings a deeply-considered approach to contemporary issues in philosophy and feminism, creating intimate interactions with audiences, landscapes, and architectural spaces. Salyers and Edelglass will discuss movement as a thinking process that integrates brain, body, and world.
On April 9 at 3:30 p.m. in Marlboro College's Ragle Hall, “Public History/Collective Memory/Embodied Learning: A Conversation with Ain Gordon” will be presented.
As a theater artist, Gordon has gained national recognition for his works inspired by forgotten or marginalized histories, particularly as those histories reside in geographic “place.” Gordon will be joined by Marlboro College American Studies professor Kate Ratcliff to discuss his past work and how he is inspired by the stories of those less remembered.
For more information, visit www.marlboro.edu.