LAUREL VICTORIA GRAY TO GIVE 2009 SELMA JEANNE COHEN LECTURE

LAUREL VICTORIA GRAY TO GIVE 2009 SELMA JEANNE COHEN LECTURE
AT 32nd ANNUAL FULBRIGHT ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE


WASHINGTON, D.C. (Oct. 21, 2009) -- The Fulbright Association announced today that Laurel Victoria Gray, artistic director of the Silk Dance Road Company, will present the 2009 Selma Jeanne Cohen Lecture in International Dance Scholarship on Saturday, Oct. 31, at the Madison Hotel in Washington, D.C. Ms. Gray is adjunct professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at George Washington University.

Ms. Gray will discuss “A Living Legacy: Uzbek Dance” and will touch on the 1989 Seattle Soviet Theatre Arts Exchange, in which Dr. Cohen participated. Her presentation will include a performance by members of the Silk Road Dance Company of traditional Uzbek dances from the company’s Legacy Repertoire.

Ms. Gray first visited Uzbekistan in 1973 and, in 1981, joined the Seattle-Tashkent Sister City Committee. She participated in the official 1984 delegation of Seattle residents to Uzbekistan and founded the Uzbek Dance and Culture Society that same year. Gray also co-founded of an annual dance camp that hosts dance instructors from Uzbekistan. In 2007, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Uzbek Ministry of Culture at a ceremony held at Tashkent's Institute of Art in recognition of her work in promoting and preserving traditional Uzbek culture and dance. She has produced performances at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and the Embassy of Uzbekistan i ...More