The University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of the Arts (presenter) welcomes Litza Bixler as the spring 2021 interdisciplinary artist. Litza Bixler is a choreographer, filmmaker, movement director, visual artist and writer. She has produced work on stage, screen, galleries and mountains. Bixler works across the spheres of art, performance and film, and has been a working artist and educator since 1995.
For the spring semester, Bixler is teaching the 3-credit course Creativity, Collaboration and the Creation of Self. The first part of the course will focus on examining creativity in context. The second part is devoted to exploring creative collaboration and culminates in a live and/or virtual public exhibit of films, sound and images. Both parts will draw on theory and practice through lecture and discussion, creative labs and workshops, as well as research and participation in the creative process. The aim is to help students grow as creators and thinkers, and to practice communicating their ideas in an intensely collaborative environment. For a short video about Litza Bixler and the course, click here. She is also teaching a 1-credit course focused on creativity.
The final collaborative piece for this course examines the movement of people across borders and boundaries. Students will explore diaspora, geography and immigration as essential and positive sources of identity and ask what it means to be “from” a particular place or country. Students will explore how we move: literally, metaphorically and culturally, and examine the subtext of the question, “where are you from?”
Bixler and the students in her course will start interviewing campus and community members starting March 20 for their final event currently scheduled for May 7. If you are interested in being interviewed, please email iarp@arts.wisc.edu. The maximum time commitment will be an hour.
From March 4 to 7, the UW Cinematheque will present a free view-at-home engagement of Edgar Wright’s The World’s End (2013) and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927). In addition, the Cinematheque will provide a new episode of their official podcast, Cinematalk, featuring Litza Bixler discussing her collaborations with Edgar Wright, including The World’s End (choreographer), and the influence of Metropolis on her work. Further information on how to access these free programs will be available on the Cinematheque’s blog beginning March 3 or sign up to receive free email notices about Cinematheque programming here when you subscribe.
The Spring 2021 Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program (IARP) is presented by the UW-Madison Division of the Arts and hosted by the Dance Department with Professor Li Chiao-Ping as lead faculty. Co-sponsors include the Art Department and Department of Communication Arts.
The UW–Madison Division of the Arts’ Interdisciplinary Arts Residency Program (IARP) brings innovative artists to UW–Madison to teach semester-long, interdepartmental courses and to publicly present their work for campus and community audiences and is funded through the university’s Office of the Provost.