Throughout its 30 year history, the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange has defined dance as a multi-disciplinary art form encompassing movement, music, imagery, and the spoken word.
Founded in 1976 by choreographer Liz Lerman, the Takoma Park-based company specializes in a unique brand of dance-theatre with a focus on breaking down boundaries between the stage and its audience, theater and community, movement and language, as well as tradition and the unexplored.
Through explosive dancing, personal stories, humor, and a diverse group of performers whose ages span six decades, the Dance Exchange continually stretches the expressive range of contemporary dance. Its work consists of formal concerts, interactive performances, specialized community residencies, and professional training in the art of community-based dance.
As an artist-driven organization, the Dance Exchange employs a collaborative approach to dance making, administration, and implementation. Current choreographic projects include explorations of coal mining, genetic research, radical prayer, human rights, particle physics and geology.
About Liz Lerman
Liz Lerman has received numerous honors, including the American Choreographer Award, the American Jewish Congress “Golda” Award, and was a recipient of the Washingtonian Magazine’s “Washingtonian of the Year” Award in 1988.
In 2002, her work was recognized with a MacArthur Fellowship by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In addition, she was recently honored with the National Foundation for Jewish Culture’s Achievement Award and inducted into the University of Maryland’s Hall of Fame.
