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Lesley
Farlow:
Assistant Professor of Theater
and Dance,
Investigator of the Human Spirit
“Dance and theater are
primarily an investigation of the human spirit,” explains Lesley
Farlow. “Movement is our native language. I look to create and
teach from that source.” Now in her fifth year at Trinity, Farlow
has performed with some of the world’s most notable dancers and
performance artists. She also coordinated the Oral History
Project at the Dance Division of the Library for Performing Arts
at Lincoln Center and created the AIDS Oral History Project.
Having worked as a
dancer, actress, and choreographer in Europe as well as the United
States, Farlow brings a performer’s perspective into the
classroom. She encourages her students to do as much as they can
during college to cultivate not only their technique, but also
their curiosity about the world. “That way you’ll have something
to make art about,” she says. “And then go out and do it. Wait
tables. Drive a cab. Do what you have to do to be fully engaged
as an artist. But if it’s not your passion, don’t do it. It is a
tough and demanding life.”
Farlow’s professional
resume is an impressive one. She is the founder and co-artistic
director of AKA Movement Theater, has worked Off and Off-Off
Broadway, and has danced with such notable performers as Phyllis
Lamhut, Douglas Dunn, Ann Carlson, Johanna Boyce and Martha
Bowers. She is a graduate of Smith College and holds a master’s
degree in performance studies from New York University. Trinity
is her first foray into academia.
In her own performances,
Farlow has developed solo works that explore the contemporary
relevance of such complex figures as Little Red Riding Hood and
Eve. “I create pieces that combine movement, text, and music.
They often center around a journey of some sort: the discovery of
a comet by a 19th-century astronomer, Eve leaving the garden, or
little Red Riding Hood’s emergence from the old, old story into
her own. I am interested in how the confluence of dance and
theater can more deeply express the personal, the political, and
the spiritual.”
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