Just in time for the most romantic day of the year, tonight is opening night for Liz Lerman Dance Exchange’s Love, Etcetera: Dances to William Shakespeare and Willie Nelson. Dancers from the Theatre and Performance Studies Program at Georgetown University will join the company to present two works for the next three evenings.

The first piece, “The Farthest Earth From Thee” is a Shakespeare-based performance work featuring performers of all abilities, including dancers with physical limitations -- many who will dance in their wheelchairs. Using a selection of Shakespeare’s sonnets, the company and guest performers will employ spoken word, music, and movement in this contemporary work. The second piece is a suite of dances entitled “Nocturnes” set to songs by country crooner Willie Nelson, a work first performed in 1996.

As for the “love” factor, Shakespeare’s classic appeal when it comes to romance is undeniable. But Willie Nelson? Not so much at first thought, unless gray-haired pigtail braids happen to be your kind of thing. But Peter DiMuro, the Producing Artistic Director of the Dance Exchange and choreographer of the performance, says that while Willie Nelson is known a country singer, he is first and foremost a storyteller and that, just like Shakespeare, the stories are often stories of love.

Still, DiMuro admits, "the idea to put these two works on the concert is a bit of randomness, a pinch of day-dreaming, and a dollop of persistence.”

Founded in 1976, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange has become known for its ability to break boundaries when it comes to the idea of what a dancer is and what a dancer can be, bringing people with disabilities and older adults to the stage and create beautiful and poignant works. If anyone can make a performance concept like this into a masterpiece, it is Liz Lerman’s company.

“Both of the Willies have quite a range, I think – and depending on your own context, your own knowing of classics of any kind, we can tend to bring to any individual artist what we want to highlight," DiMuro said. "Both of these Willies explore the joys, the sorrows, the missed opportunity, the fleeting love in the body of their works.”

Performances of “Love, Etcetera” will take place on February 14, 15, and 16 at 8 p.m. in the Gonda Theatre in the Davis Performing Arts Center of Georgetown University. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling (202) 687–ARTS.

Photo by Enoch Chan