The University of Iowa’s Hancher will present Healing Wars by Liz Lerman Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 13-15, at 7:30 p.m. at Space Place Theater in North Hall on the UI campus. Liz Lerman is the founding artistic director of the Dance Exchange and recipient of a MacArthur “Genius Grant.”
See Student work is showcased in Worth Fighting For Pop Up Museum at Library Learning Commons for information about events related to Healing Wars.
Healing Wars is Lerman’s newest work, a piece of dance theaterwhose characters migrate from the American Civil War to contemporary battles in Iraq and Afghanistan. The piece questions how we experience and recover from war. It follows the experiences of women (as nurses and fighters), soldiers returning home from battle, and the publics’ reaction to healthcare, veterans, and much more. The work was instigated as part of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
Lerman has been an artist-in-residence throughout the fall semester at the UI, visiting campus in September and October in preparation for her November performance week. She has worked with faculty, staff, and students in a number of departments including arts management, dance, history, International Writing Program, music, nursing, Public Policy Center, religious studies, rhetoric, theater, studio art, and veteransaffairs.
Called “the source of an epochal revolution in the scope and purposes of dance art” by the Washington Post, Lerman is highly regarded as a choreographer, writer, and thinker, as well as for her creative process focused on research, intensive collaboration, and utilizing ideas from a variety of disciplines. Several of her recent works focus specifically on scientific themes including The Matter of Origins, inspired by the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and Ferocious Beauty: Genome, based on genetic research. Her work has been commissioned by Lincoln Center, the American Dance Festival, BalletMet, the Kennedy Center, and Harvard Law School, among others.
The presentation of Healing Wars is part of the larger Worth Fighting For project, which has included an extended residency this semester. A Pop Up Museum in the Library Learning Commons will be open to the public November 7-11.
There will be post-performance talkbacks with the cast following each performance. Those who plan to attend Healing Wars are advised the production contains brief nudity and atmospheric effects including haze and simulated explosions.
Tickets are available from the Hancher Box Office and are $40 for nonstudents, $36 for senior citizens, and $10 for college students and youth.
The Hancher Box Office, located on the first floor of the south end of the Old Capitol Town Center near the parking ramp, is open for phone (319-335-1160 or 800-HANCHER) or walk-up business from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays. Tickets may be ordered online at the Hancher website.Any remaining tickets will be available for sale one hour before show time at Space Place Theater.
This project was made possible by the UI Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Alma Miller Ware Nursing Endowment Fund of the College of Nursing. Additional support comes from the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The project is also supported by the Hancher Partners and gifts to the Hancher Circle through the UI Foundation.
Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, contact the Hancher Box Office in advance at 319-335-1158.