Hiking the Horizontal: Field Notes from a Choreographer

Award-winning choreographer shares insights and methods for making real art in the real world

The unique career of choreographer Liz Lerman has taken her from theater stages to shipyards, and from synagogues to science labs. In this wide-ranging collection of essays and articles, she reflects on her life-long exploration of dance as a vehicle for human insight and understanding of the world around us. Lerman has been described by the Washington Post as "the source of an epochal revolution in the scope and purposes of dance art." Here, she combines broad outlooks on culture and society with practical applications and accessible stories. Her expansive scope encompasses the craft, structure, and inspiration that bring theatrical works to life as well as the applications of art in fields as diverse as faith, aging, particle physics, and human rights law. Offering readers a gentle manifesto describing methods that bring a horizontal focus to bear on a hierarchical world, this is the perfect book for anyone curious about the possible role for art in politics, science, community, motherhood, and the media.

LIZ LERMAN is a choreographer, writer, educator and speaker, and the recipient of honors including a 2002 MacArthur "Genius" fellowship. She founded Dance Exchange in 1976 and led it until 2011. She teaches Critical Response Process, creative research, and the intersection of art and science at institutions such as Harvard, Yale School of Drama, and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. As of 2016 she is an Institute Professor at Arizona State University.