At noon on Wednesday, February 24, Paley Library’s Beyond the Notes series will present the work of professor of dance Merián Soto and students of the Boyer College of Music and Dance in a performance with projected visuals. A native of Puerto Rico, Prof. Soto has received the BESSIE, the New York Dance and Performance Award, and the Greater Philadelphia Dance and Physical Theater ROCKY Award, among other acknowledgements for her skill in dance and choreography. One of her creations is what she calls Branch Dance, a slow-moving performance style about which she writes the following on her web site:

The dancer practices observing relational connections between breath, nerves, bones, viscera, heart, sound, memory, the present, ideas; the focusing of the mind; how light, temperature, sound, and vision affect experience-how the sensory organs can pull the body into action…how thought leaves pathways in the body…Maintaining energetic balance and flow in the body as it responds to weight, place, temperature, sound light, etc., allows the performer (and the viewer) to sense, imagine, and experience, conceptual and poetic relationships, meanings, and potentialities.

Critics have praised these performances as “reorganiz[ing] whole landscapes” of dance, a visceral, holistic experience for both dancer and audience. This is not a performance to be missed!

Learn more:

Prof. Soto’s website: http://www.meriansoto.com/

Branch Dances blog: http://www.branchdances.blogspot.com

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