Ruth Barnes to present dance performances and lecture during residency at UNC Asheville - Oct 17-20

Dancer, choreographer and educator Ruth Barnes will present a public lecture, a short solo performance, and a performance by UNC Asheville dance students she is working with during a residency at the university, Oct. 17-20.

Barnes’ lecture, Dancing Life, at noon on Tuesday, Oct. 17, will reflect on her life in dance, and how dance reflects world events and influences culture. The dance presentation of student work will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 19. Barnes also will perform part of her solo, Here, There and Everywhere, with talk back, at 11 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 20.

All events are free and open to everyone, and will take place in UNC Asheville’s Sherrill Center Dance Studio Room 351. Barnes’ residency is supported in part by the ongoing collaboration of UNC Asheville with the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center.

A New York City native, Barnes once taught at the Merce Cunningham Studio and is now a professor at Missouri State University where she coordinates the dance program. Her choreography includes mixed-media performance, aerial dance, and dance-text pairings, using a wide range of music genres. Her focus is modern/contemporary dance, and she is active in the United States and abroad.

In 2013, Barnes conceived, produced and first performed Here, There and Everywhere, a 50 minute solo, made in collaboration with five choreographers living in Scotland. She also is co-editor of Dance’s Duet with the Camera: Motion Pictures, a forthcoming anthology that looks at the interplay between live dance and the moving image. 

UNC Asheville’s Dance Program will present more performances this semester – the Fall Dance Happening on Nov. 16, and the Fall Dance Sharing on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.

For more information, visit dance.unca.edu or contact Celia Bambara, assistant professor and director of UNC Asheville’s Dance Program, at cbambara@unca.edu, or 828.250.2396.