Cornell Dance Program presents 'Scaling the Walls,' starting tonight

"Scaling the Walls," a multimedia performance, makes its premiere at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts tonight at 7:30.

The Cornell Dance Program will present "Scaling the Walls," a multimedia performance featuring dance, music, spoken word and sculpted paper installation, Dec. 5, 6 and 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the Class of '56 Dance Theatre in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $4 in advance and can be purchased by calling 254-ARTS.

"Scaling the Walls" is the result of a two-year collaboration among Joyce Morgenroth, associate professor of dance at Cornell; Patricia Alexander, professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art; and Ann McCutchan, visiting professor of writing and music at the University of Wyoming. McCutchan, a clarinetist, held a postdoctoral fellowship in Cornell's Knight Writing Program in 1999-2000. In addition to Morgenroth and McCutchan, the program's performers include dancer Donna Davenport, chair of the Hobart and William Smith Colleges Dance Department; dancer Karen Purcell of Ithaca; and percussionist Steve Barnhart of the University of Wyoming.

The interdisciplinary project was initiated in the summer of 2000, when Morgenroth, Alexander and McCutchan met to discuss their concerns as artists and to seek ways to bring new ideas and inspiration from various creative disciplines into their work. Among the products of their exchanges are "Take-Off," a solo dance by Morgenroth that pays homage to Trisha Brown; "Opening," a lyric essay by McCutchan that explores ideas of voice, body and musical life; and "Scaling the Walls," a dance by Morgenroth set within a changing series of sculpted paper walls by Alexander, performed to music for clarinet and marimba by American composer Frank McCarty.

Following the performance, Morgenroth, Alexander and McCutchan will host a discussion and invite audience members to wander among the paper walls.

After its premiere at Cornell, "Scaling the Walls" will continue in development for presentation in Baltimore in the spring of 2004.

"Scaling the Walls" is funded in part by the Cornell Council for the Arts, the Maryland Institute College of Art and the University of Wyoming Department of Music.

The Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts is located at 430 College Ave. For more information, call Joyce Morgenroth at 254-2744. For tickets, call 254-ARTS. Box office hours are 12:30-5:30 p.m., weekdays.