MEDIA CONTACT: Polly Burks
561-297-2595, pburks@fau.edu

Yvonne Rainer to Lecture at FAU

BOCA RATON, FL (January 3, 2006) - Film maker and performance and visual artist Yvonne Rainer will present a series of public programs at Florida Atlantic University. On Friday, January 20 at 4 p.m., Rainer will hold a screening of her production "A Film About a Woman Who . . ." A reception will follow the event. Then on Saturday, January 21 at 1 p.m., Rainer will lecture on her work. Both presentations, which are free and open to the public, will take place in the Performing Arts Building, Room 101 on FAU's Boca Raton campus, 777 Glades Road.

Rainer's art spans the worlds of dance, film, performance and visual art. When she made her first feature-length film in 1972, Rainer had already influenced the world of dance and choreography for nearly a decade. She is the winner of numerous nationally and internationally significant distinctions and awards including a 1990 MacArthur Foundation fellowship (the so-called "genius award"), two Guggenheim Fellowships, seven National Endowment for the Arts awards and the Filmmakers Trophy from the 1991 Sundance film Festival.

In the early 1960s, Rainer trained in dance with Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. Later, she began performing her own choreography and collaborated with other dancers, musicians and visual artists. By the early 1970s, Rainer became recognized as the leading choreographer emerging from the Judson Dance Theater, an experimental venue which often included works made with a wide range of artists. Rainer is currently the distinguished professor of studio art at the University of California at Irvine.

The public programs complement the exhibition "Yvonne Rainer: Radical Juxtapositions, 1961-2002" which is on display in the Ritter Art Gallery on FAU's Boca Raton campus now through January 21. For further information about the programs or the exhibition, call FAU's University Galleries at 561-297-2966.

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