Swarthmore College and the William J. Cooper Foundation present David Dorfman’s PROPHETS OF FUNK on Friday, February 20, 2015 at 8PM in the Lang Performing Arts Center’s Pearson-Hall Theater. Rhythm, groove, and love: PROPHETS OF FUNK is a “dynamic engagement of movement driven by the popular – and populist – funk sounds of Sly and the Family Stone.” Ahead of their time, Sly and the Family Stone is one of the first racially and gender-integrated bands in American music history and solid purveyors of social consciousness. David Dorfman Dance (DDD) celebrates the band’s groundbreaking, visceral, and powerful visions of prophetic love that continues to shine on despite everyday struggles. PROPHETS OF FUNK lifts up the spirit of Sly: that in the face of the funk of life, there are still hopes and aspirations that reside in all of us. DDD will also host a Master Class in dance technique on Thursday, February 19, 2015 at 4:30PM in the Lang Performing Arts Center’s Troy Dance Studio (LPAC 2).

The production of PROPHETS OF FUNK was made possible by generous support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, The New England Foundation for the Arts, National Dance Project with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, and Friends of David Dorfman Dance. Choreographic material for PROPHETS OF FUNK was developed, in part, during residencies at the Tisch Dance Summer Residency Program at New York University and as company-in-residence at Connecticut College.

PROPHETS OF FUNK is the central performance of a three-week residency from February 9 to February 27, 2015 at Swarthmore College titled RADICAL DEMOCRACY AND HUMANISM: INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN PERFORMANCE AND ACTION. Conceived by Professor Sharon Friedler and led by Swarthmore graduate Kate Speer ‘08, the residency centers on engagements with DDD and is supported by critical discussions, workshops, classes, and lectures. Participants and leaders will address a spectrum of positions and assumptions regarding intersecting issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, politics and the environment. More info available at: http://www.swarthmore.edu/dance-program.

For further information about the performance or residency events, contact Tara Webb at 610-328-8260 or lpacevents@swarthmore.edu. These events are free and open to the public without reservations.