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lizlerman · 7 years ago

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For the longest time, women have had a drawbacks in labor and work while men have had the upper hand. Just like any other profession, artistic and cultural related roles present women with various challenges (Roberts et al., 2004). For instance, women in art have been made to show nudity in an effort to sell their work. It has been deemed right and nothing to be concerned about due to its many occurrences – it has essentially been normalized. In modern art, less than 4% of the artists are women, but in nudes, 76% are women (Girls, 2016). This shows that women and art is a topic that needs more research and exposure so that it can help other women to be able to express themselves on the same levels as men. One way of doing this is by looking at successful women in art whom other women can take pride in and learn from. Great names and successful women in art are essential pillars in developing this pride and confidence. Women have played an essential role in uplifting the art industry, which shows the importance of women in labor arts. This blog post aims to portray various themes such as; women’s leadership, the role of women in making a change in the society, and challenges faced by women in work. To display these themes, the paper investigates the work of acclaimed choreographer Liz Lerman. (Liz Lerman- source: http://sandikleinshow.com/blog/liz-lerman-shares-her-me-too-moment-keynotes-women-dance-leadership-conference/)

Liz Lerman was born in 1947 in Los Angeles and loved to dance. She danced from her childhood, eventually became a go-go dancer, and then later became a well- known artistic figure. Lerman is a woman of many hats and she is an ideal representation of how girls can move forward and influence change through their artistic careers. Professionally, Lerman is a choreographer. Apart from choreography, she is also a performer, speaker, teacher, and writer. For the last four decades Lerman has been doing artistic research in order to present it to the world in a funny, intellectually vivid, and personal manner. In her artistic work, she tries to reach out and include everybody from physicists to shipbuilders, ballerinas to construction workers, making her work relevant, participatory, usable and urgent (Rossen, 2011).

(source: http://www.ballet-dance.com/200803/articles/Lerman20080214.html)

Liz Lerman’s most known work is founding her nonprofit company; the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in 1976 which later changed its name to Dance Exchange after she handed over the leadership to the next generation of artists. The company is based in Takoma, Maryland and engages and educates its multi-generational audiences in how to make art through dance (Parker, Pike, & Novara, 2016). The dance company thrives under the mission of igniting inquiry, inspiring change, and connecting people of all generations and cultures. They seek to educate through creative practices and dance-making. Dance Exchange invents their dances by asking four important questions. They ask: Who dances? Where does the dance happen? What is the dance is about? Why does the dance matter? The company performs dance trainings that are community-based, they explore traditional concerts, and they provide interactive performances to empower various communities. Lerman toured the world with Dance Exchange and educated both non-dancers and dancers through choreography and presentational strategies. The Dance Exchange archives have the most extensive dance collection in Special Collections in Performing Arts (SCPA) with audio items of up to 927, 1333 video items, and 150 feet in papers. Liz Lerman’s bold step to start an organization acts as an inspiration to women to broaden their visions for the world; especially in the sense that, as artists they are still not considered to be leaders because they are not as respected as men in the same roles. (Rossen, 2011).

(source: http://ballet-dance.com/200902/articles/focus_lerman_20090100_lerman.html)

Besides choreography, Liz Lerman has written various works, and one of the most known is her Critical Response Process (CRP). CRP is a four-step process which highlights the importance of inquiry and dialogue and the opportunity for artists to employ a degree of control in the criticisms directed at them and their work. After testing and refining the process, Lerman wrote and published a guide on the process to help people get useful feedback on anything they make. She does this for anything from dance to dessert with the help of her colleague John Borstel. The core steps of the process include statements of meaning, the artist as the questioner, neutral questions from responders, and permission opinions (Lerman, 2011).

(Critical Response Process by Liz Lerman and John Borstel - source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2018796.Critical_Response_Process)

Lerman also wrote another book “Hiking the Horizontal” which is a collection of a wide range of articles and essays that show an exploration of her career as a choreographer and dancer. The book shows the role of art in science, politics, motherhood, media, and community as a whole by describing the relationship between the art itself, the artist, and the society. The title came up in an attempt to show the integration of art with other fields rather than the straight line approach with art at the top. Lerman did so because she believed that any other approach, more traditional approach would defy the purpose of the research by excluding certain people (Lerman, 2011). The book portrays art in a way that everyone can relate whether you are artistic or not.

(Hiking the Horizontal by Liz Lerman - source: https://www.amazon.com/Hiking-Horizontal-Field-Notes-Choreographer/dp/0819574368)

Liz Lerman has worked with other key figures and philosophers of art such as Jowale Willa Jo Zollar. She is the founder of Urban Bush Women (UBW), a New York-based company with a mission of bringing out untold stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance. Together, Lerman and Zollar with assistance from UBW conceived and developed performance and project by the name; Blood, Muscle, Bone. The project examined questions of wealth, poverty, and inequality and how they affected the body while asking how the conditions are imagined and defined. The work was offered to the public through; teach-ins, stage performances, prayer breakfasts, cabarets, and workshops (Lerman & Zollar, 2015). As do all her other works, this project serves as a perfect example of how leaders in art, and artists or people in general, can use tools of art to bring positive change to people’s lives.

(Urban Bush Women - source: https://artscenter.vt.edu/performances/urban-bush-women.html)

Apart from choreography and writing, Lerman impacts women by being a speaker at various events and by giving lectures at various universities throughout the world. As a renowned performer, she has had notable performances such as the Hallelujah series. She has received different awards for her work such as the 2017 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award and the 2017 ADF Teaching Award (Nakajima, 2017).

Even though Lerman has been successful in her career as an artistic woman, she has had her fair share of challenges and obstacles. In 2011 she stepped down as the artistic director of Dance Exchange as a result of financial pressure to sustain the company which limited her independent and community-based projects (Duffy, 2016).

In conclusion, through her work and career, Lerman serves as an excellent example of a changemaker and influencer in art. She has been a pillar of the art industry and has served as a mentor for women, artists, and people alike. Lerman has also been very successful as a choreographer, writer, educator, and performer in which her influence and impact is evidenced time and time again. She is a representation of women in leadership both inside and outside the realm of art. Just as in any career, she has faced her fair-share of challenges. This is a lesson and that shows that success does not come easy, but that despite the setbacks, we should speak our truths and express ourselves through art in any form in order to inspire change and growth for women and men all around the world.

References available in post below.

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