Time Lapse Dance performs Sept. 23 at Lied Center

Experimental dance, circus arts and mesmerizing fabric-and-light spectacles will impress audiences at the Lied Center for Performing Arts when Jody Sperling's Time Lapse Dance performs on the main state at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 23.

The performance is presented by the Interdisciplinary Arts Symposium in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts, in collaboration with the Lied Center.

Time Lapse Dance was founded in 2000 by choreographer Jody Sperling and fuses many types of dance, theatre and entertainment as she re-imagines the swirling, sculptural style of modern-dance pioneer Loie Fuller. Fuller was an American-born choreographer who used her experience in vaudeville, burlesque and circus acts to create new work from the late 1800s up to her death in 1928. Her work received great acclaim in Europe, particularly in Paris.

Inspired by Fuller's work, Sperling creates dance works that draw on genres including stilt-walking, hula-hooping, flag-dancing, partner acrobatics, contortion acts and vaudeville routines. This fun, family-friendly program features the original work, "Clair de Lune, Forms of Dilemma," an essay on the interplay of light, shadow and movement, and "Bang for the Buck," a comic circus-collage.

In addition to the Sept. 13 performance, Sperling will deliver a free public lecture at 5:45 p.m. Sept. 20 at UNL's Van Brunt Visitors Center, 313 N. 13th St. Her topic will be "Loie Fuller and Early Cinema," discussing the emergence of Fuller's unique aesthetic, from its origins in the music-hall skirt dance to its developments into new technological media. The lecture is accompanied by a slide show of more than 50 visually arresting images and concludes with a showing of movie clips. The lecture is part of a three-day UNL residency for the dance company.

"We are so excited to have Jody Sperling and Time Lapse Dance here at UNL," said Petra Wahlqvist, director of community engagement and learning at the Lied Center. "Not only will the company put on an amazing performance at the Lied Center, but Jody's residency will also include a public lecture, work with UNL dancers and students, and an assembly performance at Lincoln Public School's Goodrich Middle School. It is a thrilling project."

The Interdisciplinary Arts Symposium is sponsored by the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts, presented in part by the Lied Center for Performing Arts, and funded in part by the Hixson-Lied Endowment. The Time Lapse performance and residency are supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. More information about the IAS program can be found at www.unl.edu/ias.

Tickets for Jody Sperling's Time Lapse Dance are $25 for adults and $12.50 for students/youth. For tickets and information, visit www.liedcenter.org or call (402) 472-4747. For more information about Time Lapse Dance, visit www.timelapsedance.com.

The Lied Center for Performing Arts, 301 N. 12th St. [map] is a state-of-the-art performing arts facility. Opened in 1990, it is Nebraska's "Home for the Arts." The facility offers major regional, national and international events designed to attract, entertain and inspire a statewide audience. The Lied Center and its programs are made possible through the generous 2010-11 season support of Christina Hixson and the Lied Foundation Trust, Friends of Lied, Ameritas and Union Bank.

WRITER: Shannon McClure