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Tuesday, September 10, 2024 |
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National Portrait Gallery names Diana Movius its next Choreographer-in-Residence |
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Choreographer Diana Movius. Photograph by Brandon Dozier of Cinema Black.
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WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonians National Portrait Gallery has announced Diana Movius as the museums next choreographer-in-residence. During the 18 month residency, Movius will create new works inspired by the Portrait Gallerys collection and exhibitions. The new dances will be performed by the Washington, D.C.-based Moveius Contemporary Ballet in the museums Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard. Movius will also participate in public discussions about art and dance.
The residency will launch with a world premiere of Seasons inspired by Rachel Carson whose portrait is in the museums Forces of Nature: Voices That Shape Environmentalism exhibition (on view through Sept. 2). Set to a modern musical rendition of Vivaldis The Four Seasons, the new ballet contemplates Carsons transformative book Silent Spring and her love of birds. The program will also include Apocrita, an athletic and energizing ballet that pays homage to biologist Edward O. Wilson and the fascinating and often overlooked lives of ants, wasps, and bees. The performance will take place July 21 at 4 p.m.
Im thrilled to collaborate deeply with the National Portrait Gallery as the next Choreographer in Residence, Movius said. The upcoming exhibits are exciting and reflect the types of timely issues that inspire my dance works. The Kogod Courtyard is such a fantastic venue for dance performancesits large and striking with an outdoor feel yet fosters closeness to the audience.
Movius is an environmental expert who addresses critical issues through choreography. Movius lived and worked in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest from 2005 to 2006 while earning her masters in environmental anthropology from Stanford University. From 2007 to 2023, she worked at leading climate-change think tanks and policy shops in Washington, influencing U.S. and international negotiations on ambitious climate and rainforest policy while building her professional dance company.
In 2010, Movius established Moveius Contemporary Ballet and is the artistic director of the dance company. The company tackles big ideas pertaining to environmental and economic justice through choreography. Its performance season highlights choreography by local women, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ choreographers and the city-wide dance community. Most recently, Movius collaborated with the National Portrait Gallery in April 2024 to honor Earth Day with a performance of GLACIER: A Climate Change Ballet at the museum. Movius is also the founder of the Dance Loft on 14, a theater and dance center in Washingtons Petworth neighborhood, dedicated to providing affordable studio space and dance education to Washington arts professionals and the local community.
Movius is the Portrait Gallerys second choreographer-in-residence. In 2016, the Portrait Gallery established the first residency of its kind for the Smithsonian with fellow Washington-based choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess. Burgess and his namesake dance company developed eight commissioned performances during his residency: Margin (2016); After 1001 Nights (2017); I Am Vertical (2017); Silhouettes (2018); A Tribute to Marian Anderson (2020); a suite of three duets El Jaleo, Egyptian Woman and Madame X (2020); El Muro/The Wall (2022); and A Tribute to Maya Lin (2023).
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