Bryn Mawr College Sets 2015-16 Performing Arts Series

The Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series announces an eclectic season of dance, music and theater. The five-program 2015-2016 season features two nights of performances from the Trisha Brown Dance Company, three nights of performances from Annie Wilson, and one-night only events from Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture, Ronald K. Brown, and Imani Winds. Performances are held at various venues on the campus of Bryn Mawr College, located at 101 North Merion Avenue in Bryn Mawr, PA.

Regular and flex subscriptions to the five-program series are available for $90 each, $75 for seniors. Tickets to individual events are $20, $18 for seniors, $10 for students and Dance Pass holders, and $5 for children under 12. Tickets, subscriptions and more information are available online through Brown Paper Tickets, at brynmawr.edu/arts/series.html or by calling 610-526-5210.

"This season represents a fusion of forms and themes - dance mixed with theater, music with poetry. We want to expose our audiences not only to artists from different cultures but also to traditional art forms practiced in new ways," said Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series Coordinator Lisa Kraus.

The season opens with the Series Spotlight on Friday and Saturday, October 23 and 24 at 8:00 p.m. presenting Trisha Brown Dance Company during the group's final Proscenium Works Tour. Demonstrating the sweep of Trisha Brown's major works for the stage, the program includes Brown's most well-traveled dance, the beloved Set and Reset, with music by Laurie Anderson and full of bold partnering, If you couldn't see me, the final solo Brown choreographed for herself with music and visual presentation by Robert Rauschenberg, and Present Tense, revealing a career's worth of choreographic strategies in one piece, with music by John Cage and a vibrant set by painter Elizabeth Murray.

Next up is Words Adorned: Andalusian Poetry and Music from Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture on Saturday, December 5 at 8:00 p.m. Poetry comes to life when Al-Bustan Takht Ensemble, a classical Arab chamber ensemble, collaborates with the Philadelphia-based western choir The Crossing and renowned Lebanese vocalist Abeer Nehme to premiere two new compositions by Arab-American composers Kareem Roustom and Kinan Abou-afach, setting Andalusian poetry to music.

Bold. Hilarious. Fearless. Annie Wilson's Lovertits takes the stage for three performances Thursday through Saturday, January 28-30 at 8:00 p.m. This runaway hit of the 2014 Fringe Festival draws on Burlesque's pro-sex, body positive, over-the-top subversiveness, mixing it with post-modern dance. Lovertits looks at the evolving role of women in relation to their bodies, with performers turning their breasts into eyes, their vaginas into purses, and their bodies into landscapes.

The stage will burst with energy as Ronald K. Brown and his dance company Evidence perform Dance and the Spirit on Friday, February 26 at 8:00 p.m. Using a vocabulary drawn from many parts of the African Diaspora, Brown's movement is flexible, richly expressive and irresistibly kinetic. Featured on the program will be his signature work Grace, an homage and ode to God's grace and the legacy of Alvin Ailey, and the spiritually uplifting The Subtle One, a recent collaboration with jazz pianist Jason Moran.

The season concludes with the lush sounds of Imani Winds on Friday, April 1 at 8:00 p.m. Considered North America's premier wind quintet, the GRAMMY-nominated ensemble creates meaningful bridges between European, American, African and Latin American traditions. The program features works of Hector Villa-Lobos, Elliot Carter, and Thierry Escaich.

2015-2016 Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series Performance Schedule

Series Spotlight:

Trisha Brown Dance Company
Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24 at 8:00 p.m.
McPherson Auditorium, Goodhart Hall

Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture - Words Adorned: Andalusian Poetry and Music
Saturday, December 5 at 8:00 p.m.
McPherson Auditorium, Goodhart Hall

Annie Wilson - Lovertits
Thursday, January 28, Friday, January 29, and Saturday, January 30 at 8:00 p.m.
Hepburn Teaching Theater, Goodhart Hall

Ronald K. Brown/Evidence- Dance and the Spirit
Friday, February 26 at 8:00 p.m.
McPherson Auditorium, Goodhart Hall

Imani Winds
Friday, April 1 at 8:00 p.m.
Thomas Great Hall

The 2015-2016 Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

The presentation of Trisha Brown Dance Company is presented as part of the year-long project Trisha Brown: In the New Body. Major support for Trisha Brown: In the New Body has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

Words Adorned: Andalusian Poetry and Music from Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture is made possible largely by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture.

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