The Most Influential People in Dance Today: Liz Lerman

June 18, 2017

Pioneer Liz Lerman has reframed how dance can have meaning in the world. After exploring politics, the defense budget and her Russian Jewish heritage, Lerman became one of the first American choreographers to work directly with scientists and the first invited to CERN. As the founder of the Dance Exchange, Lerman helped lay the groundwork for creating art through community engagement and working with both multigenerational performers as well as non-dance populations.

No one was surprised when she won a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship in 2002, but this year her list of accolades grew considerably: the American Dance Festival’s 2017 Balasaraswati/Joy Anne Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching, the 2017 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award and being named an artist-in-residence at CultureSummit 2017 in Abu Dhabi. Now in her late 60s, she’s currently the first institute professor at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University, and is busy creating a new project with the working title Wicked Bodies, inspired by drawings of witches.


Read the rest of
Dance Magazine
‘s list of the most influential people in dance today.