'Women on Wednesdays'

JOHNSON CITY (March 29, 2018) – Choreography and dance artist Cara Harker will discuss “What Making Dances Means to Me” in the “Women on Wednesdays” lecture series at East Tennessee State University on April 11.

Harker’s talk was originally planned for March 14, but has been rescheduled due to inclement weather.  This free public talk, part of the ongoing 2017-18 lecture series sponsored by ETSU’s Women’s Studies Program, will begin at noon in the presentation room of the Multicultural Center on the second floor of the D.P. Culp University Center.  A light lunch will be provided.

Harker’s lecture will highlight how empowering, transcendent and cathartic dance can be.  Drawing on her broad national and international experience, she will give the audience a rare “behind-the-scenes” peek into the varied and unique process of making dances for the stage.  Connecting dance to life, Harker will reveal how, when done well, dance can hold audiences spellbound and inspire viewers to live life with greater intensity and zeal.

Harker is an associate professor of dance in the ETSU Department of Theatre and Dance.  She graduated from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University with an M.F.A. in theater performance in 2003.  Since that time, she has worked in theater and dance as a choreographer, director, writer and performer.

Her recent presentations include “The Art of the Solo Dance” at the International University Global Theatre Experience Conference in Leitring bei Leibnitz, Austria; “Choreographing through Constraints: Embracing Practical and Created Obstacles when Making Dances” at the University of Lincoln, UK; and “This Could be Habit-Forming: Finding Inspiration from Everyday Movement” at the University of Derby, UK.

The “Women on Wednesdays” series is designed to raise awareness about the research, scholarship and community engagement that women at ETSU are doing; to provide a venue where women on campus and in the community can discuss and support each other’s work; and to give students an opportunity to meet faculty who could become mentors for their studies.