Professor Sparling shares his late-career discovery of painting and how it has become a seamless translation of everything he’s learned as musician, poet, dancer/choreographer, and video artist. Six years ago, he began to translate his body knowledge via the stroke of the paint brush: to experience how that stroke issues from the same impulses that guide his dancing body. For him, there is no difference in their creative processes and in the essential act of making art.

Peter Sparling is Rudolf Arnheim Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Dance at the University of Michigan. A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and the Juilliard School, Sparling danced with the companies of Jose Limon and Martha Graham and directed Peter Sparling Dance Company. His videos have been screened globally, including festivals in New York City, Lisbon, and Paris. He is a published poet/essayist and has shown his paintings in three solo exhibits.

This is the first in a six-lecture series. The subject is the Power of Art. The next lecture will be February 27, 2020. The title is: The Art and Science of Creating a New Museum.