Explore History Through Dance at Liberty Hall Museum this September

Liberty Hall Museum at Kean University has joined forces with Buggé Ballet for a one-of-a-kind event - the Liberty Hall Dance Festival. For the first time ever, guests will spend an afternoon walking through the scenic museum grounds, enjoying site-specific professional dance performances inspired by moments in history. Liberty Hall Dance Festival will be held on Saturday, September 16 from 1 - 4 p.m.

"We are excited to find a new way for audiences to experience history through dance," said Nicole Buggé, artistic director of Buggé Ballet who is organizing the dance festival.

Fifteen dance companies and choreographers from New Jersey, New York and Connecticut are participating in the Liberty Hall Dance Festival. Additionally, guests can participate in informal movement lessons themed around early modern dance styles, Ghanaian celebratory dance and Baroque court dances. Performances will take place at five different locations spread across the property of Liberty Hall. First floor tours of Liberty Hall Museum will also take place throughout the afternoon.

"Audiences will enjoy modern, contemporary, classical ballet, street dance and multi-genre pieces with blended choreography, and hear a vast array of music from Baroque to percussion and electronic music," said Lynn Needle, the founder of Art of Motion Dance Theater and one of the performers.

The dance festival is the latest innovation from Liberty Hall Museum at Kean University, which, in 2015, was the first museum in New Jersey to use augmented reality in an exhibition and is always looking for new ways to make history come alive for a modern audience.

"Nicole Buggé, artistic director at Buggé Ballet, reached out to us with the idea of blending history and dance together on the museum grounds, and we jumped at the opportunity to bring this unique experience to Liberty Hall. There is nothing like this in the area," said Bill Schroh, director of museum operations.

In addition to Buggé Ballet and Art of Motion, dance companies performing include Armada Dance Company, beat piece, BREAKTIME, Bridget Cronin, Brooklyn Contemporary Ballet Collective, Carolyn Dorfman Dance, Darrigan DeMattos, Humanistics Dance Company, Jackie McCreavy, Kennedy Dancers, Louisa Barta, Nikki Manx Dance Project and Q&A Productions.

"Carolyn Dorfman Dance is proud to participate in the first ever Liberty Hall Dance Festival. I look forward to presenting My Father's Solo, which pays homage to my father, Henry Dorfman, a Holocaust survivor who came to America to build a family and a new life. It speaks to his lessons of perseverance, generosity, dignity and hope," said Carolyn Dorfman of Carolyn Dorfman Dance.

Tickets for the Liberty Hall Dance Festival are on sale now and are $20.00 for adults and $12.00 for children ages 3 - 17. Admission includes access to all dance performances, classes and the first floor tour of Liberty Hall Museum. All ticket sale proceeds support both Buggé Ballet and Liberty Hall Museum. The rain date is Sunday, September 17. Reservations are suggested; tickets can be purchased by phone at (908) 527-0400 or online atwww.kean.edu/libertyhall/events.

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