“Sometimes I Kiss Flowers”

Presentation Abstract:

Sometimes I Kiss Flowers is an introduction to the landscape that supported the growth of a life in the arts. It introduces three different nominations of the artist: Billy, Bill, and William and charts the developmental details that allowed them to manifest themselves in the field of choreography. This lecture also documents the artists relationship with nature and as they who already at a young age, were asked to examine and question the nature of reality.

Choreographer William Forsythe will be introduced by Prof. Lisa Portes of UC San Diego.

William Forsythe is the 2024 Kyoto Prize Laureate in Arts and Philosophy. He is a choreographer whose work extended ballet to a dynamic contemporary art form. Forsythe studied at New York’s Joffrey Ballet, later dancing and choreographing for Germany’s Stuttgart Ballet and Ballet Frankfurt. In 2005 he founded The Forsythe Company and served as its director until 2015. Between 2015 and 2021 he served on the University of Southern California’s faculty, where he helped establish the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. Forsythe deconstructs the style of conventional ballet, integrates ballet with other arts, and develops his improvisation techniques. His projects include installations and films presented in numerous museums – as well as dance documentation and education. Forsythe holds an honorary doctorate from New York’s Julliard School and is an Honorary Fellow at London’s Laban Centre for Movement and Dance.