5 Noteworthy Aspen Ideas Performances

Memphis Jookin’ dancer and 2014 Harman-Eisner Artist in Residence Charles “Lil Buck” Riley ended a discussion about the intersectionality of 21st century dance with a showcase of his work, but it was a highlight of a whole hour of beautiful performance and insightful conversation:

World-renowned choreographer Alonzo King, and four artists from his international touring company, demonstrate “what the body is” and how ideas can be communicated through physical language. They offer new insights into artistic obsession and the emphasis on the mind and the heart dancing the bodily instrument.

For more than three decades, artist Carrie Mae Weems has created a body of work — including photographs, fabric, text, audio, and video — that probes the fault lines of race, gender, class, politics, and power. In this clip, the Prix de Rome and MacArthur Fellowship winner stages a collaborative performance of her work:

Arts Strike is a dialogue between artists, schools and communities first piloted by Yo-Yo Ma and Damian Woetzel in 2010. Watch a demonstration from the Aspen Ideas Festival that highlights the unique power of the arts to educate and engage our children:

What possibilities unfurl when a symphony reaches Skid Row? How does music create healing on a street corner? Los Angeles Philharmonic violinist Vijay Gupta and internationally renowned soprano Camille Zamora are expanding access to classical music through their organizations Street Symphony and Sing for Hope, which bring music out of symphony halls and into the spaces of underserved communities: