"Second Sundays" Program for November 2013: Talk by Joellen Meglin with Performance by Jennifer Conley

For The Noguchi Museum’s “Second Sundays” program in November, Dr. Joellen Meglin, Associate Professor of Dance at Temple University, will deliver a talk entitled Skyscrapers, Sacks, and Sticks: Ruth Page’s Experiments with Abstraction in the Early 1930s. She will discuss American avant-garde dancer and choreographer Ruth Page and her collaborations with Noguchi and other visual artist/designers that explored the body as it moved in space amplified by portable sculptures, sculpted fabric, props, and masks. Meglin is currently writing a book, funded by the New York Public Library, the Newberry Library, and Temple University, on Ruth Page and is co-editor of Dance Chronicle.

After the talk, Jennifer Conley will perform an excerpt from her choreography Pieces of Pele. Artistic director of GeoDance Theatre and a former member of the Martha Graham Dance Company, Conley dances with fabric in sculptural ways to evoke geologic processes.

This talk has been organized in conjunction with the Museum’s special exhibition Space, Choreographed: Noguchi and Ruth Page, on view through January 26, 2014. Comprising more than thirty objects including drawings, photographs, correspondence, and a performance video, the exhibition explores the personal relationship and professional collaborations of Noguchi and Page.