Parsons Dance closes out '08 Encore season

parsons medium jutner med

Parsons Dance (left) and filmmaker Barbara Martinez Jitner will both
appear at Northwest in March at the Performing Arts Center. Parsons Dance performs
at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 13, as part of the University's Encore series. Martinez
Jitner, who served as an executive producer for PBS' "American Family: Journey of
Dreams," will deliver a Distinguished Lecture at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 18.

The 2008 edition of Northwest’s Encore performing arts series will come to a dramatic and contemporary close at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 13, in the Performing Arts Center with an appearance by the world-renowned Parsons Dance.

Tickets, available at the Student Services Center on the first floor of the Administration Building, cost $25 (orchestra), $23 (balcony) and $12 for children under 12. To order tickets by telephone and online, call 660.562.1212 (ext. 1212 on campus) or go to www.nwmissouri.edu/tickets.

Millions have thrilled to choreographer David Parson’s work during the company’s performances on PBS, Bravo, A&E Network and the Discovery Channel. As the year 2000 dawned, one of the largest television audiences in history watched Parsons Dance perform live in Times Square during the 24-hour Millennium New Year’s Eve broadcast.

Based in Manhattan, the 10-member company tours more than 30 weeks a year and has danced at some of the world’s most prestigious theaters and festivals, including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Maison de la Danse (France), Teatro La Fenice (Italy) and Teatro Municipal (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

At home in New York City, Parsons Dance has been featured at The Joyce Theater, City Center, New Victory Theater, Central Park Summerstage, the Guggenheim Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is the only dance company in history to have performed at all three Spoleto Festivals -- Italy, Australia and the United States -- in a single season.

With a performance history spanning 30 countries on six continents, Parsons Dance maintains a repertory of more than 70 works, 20 of which feature commissioned scores by composers as diverse as jam band star Dave Matthews, avant-garde master Michael Gordon and Brazilian music icon Milton Nascimento.

Widely recognized as a performer, choreographer and dance educator, David Parsons is the recipient of many honors, including the 2001 American Choreography Award. Formerly a leading dancer in the Paul Taylor company, he established Parsons Dance in 1987.

Distinguished Lecture by Barbara Martinez Jitner

The final event in this spring’s Encore/Distinguished Lecture line-up is a presentation by Barbara Martinez Jitner, a noted writer/director/producer whose work focuses on the lives and contributions of Latin American women.

Martinez Jitner will speak at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, in the Performing Arts Center. Admission is free.

As an executive producer, she played a major part in the creation of PBS’ “American Family: Journey of Dreams.” The series, which debuted in 2002, was the first Latino family drama ever broadcast on a major U.S. television network.

Martinez Jitner also created and directed “La Frontera,” a documentary about Latina factory workers on the United States/Mexico border that served as the inspiration for the feature film “Bordertown” starring Jennifer Lopez.

A popular campus speaker, Martinez-Jitner gives her audiences a moving and personal look at the poverty and gender discrimination that have too often plagued the Latino women sometimes described as an “expendable workforce.”

For more information, please contact:

Anthony Brown,
News Bureau Manager
E-Mail: abrown@nwmissouri.edu
Phone: 660.562.1704
Fax: 660.562.1900

Northwest Missouri State University
219 Administration Building,
800 University Drive
Maryville, MO 64468

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