Dancing with Florence: the citizen-artist proposes to create a site-specific dance performance that examines the architectural, historical, and civic aspects of the site through contemporary modern dance movement.  The questions this dance project will examine are:

• What civic lessons can we take from from this site and bring to our modern community of citizen-artists?
• How do we connect the significance and historical past of this site to the present through dance?
• What does it mean to be a global citizen-artist in this time period of increased isolation due in part to the Covid-19 pandemic?
• How has the pandemic impacted our ability to move together, literally and figuratively?
• What does it mean to be a movement artist connecting with other dancers through physical contact in this time of prescribed isolation?
• How will the audience member take in this this site-dance piece and process this work?

Artistically and educationally, we approach this site investigation through intellectual, physical, and creative modes of data collection:

• Researching the historical, cultural, and socio-economic aspects.
• Mapping the terrain of the site through physical, dance-based movement scores.
• Integrating the natural rhythm of activity in the site into the creative dance composition.

Dancing with Florence: the citizen-artist is an educational and artistic project co-sponsored by the Elon University Center for Research on Global Engagement, USA and Accademia Europea di Firenze, Italy. The lead choreographer of the project is a Professor of Dance at Elon University, NC, USA, and a professional choreographer with over 20 years of creating and producing dance in the United States, Italy, Belgium, and France.