of The Chronicle staff
It was a case of “out of sight, out of mind” for Milwaukee native, dancer and choreographer Liz Lerman, who knew she had been nominated “years ago, probably ten years ago” for the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.”
“I think once you are nominated, your name stays in the loop, but I hadn’t thought about it for a long time,” she said from her home in Takoma Park, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C.
That is until Wednesday, Sept. 25, when she got a call from a representative of the foundation “who asked me if I was sitting down. I’d really like to call back to say something intelligent because I’m sure I just blathered. I was shocked and I think I cried.”
Lerman is one of 24 winners who will receive $500,000 from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which awards “no-strings attached” grants to scholars, artists and others to allow them to pursue their work.
Lerman’s “genius” flows through the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, which she founded in 1976 to incorporate contemporary dance with exploration of identity and culture. It is a national performance company, an educational center for people of all ages and talents and a civic resource.
“Unleashing creative ability can be a profound spiritual act,” said Lerman, the Exchange’s artistic director. “In a Jewish context, it is a profoundly Jewish act.”
All of her activities evidence Lerman’s three convictions: that dance can enlighten and enhance our daily lives; that dance, through its expressive power, can engage a limitless range of audience and participants; and that dance, at its very best, is a powerful tool in building and mending community.
She admits she’s very excited about the award and has been getting congratulatory calls from all over the country. “Even my high school prom date called whom I haven’t seen in 25 years,” Lerman laughed.
“For me the timing of the award couldn’t be better,” she said, “because I was planning on taking a sabbatical in January. We’ve just finished a three-year tour of our production ‘Hallelujah’ and I wanted some time to think. Now, I have it.”
Having learned of the award only two days before this interview, Lerman said she already doesn’t “feel scared to try something [new]. It has made me feel more bold to just go for it. The award is about creativity and ideas of the mind. Since receiving it, I feel I’ve been given permission to be myself. It’s an extraordinary gift.”
However, it’s bittersweet, too, because she wishes her dad, activist Philip Lerman, was alive to share her joy. “Milwaukee would be ablaze with sunlight from his smiling face. Dance Exchange is my father reconstituted.”
Lerman, 54, was born in Milwaukee and graduated from Riverside High School in 1966. She studied dance with instructor Florence West here and continued at Bennington College. She earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Maryland and a master’s of art at George Washington University.
She believes her ability to link her Judaism and dance began in Milwaukee. Active at Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun, where she was confirmed and a member of its youth group, Lerman went on to become president of the Midwest chapter of NFTY, the Reform synagogue youth movement.
She is active in the Jewish community in the Washington, D.C., area and in her congregation, Temple Micah; Synagogue 2000; the Women’s Rabbinical Network; and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture.
Lerman believes everyone should have the opportunity to participate in artmaking as an essential element in the search for “meaningful Jewishness.”
Viewing body movement as a participatory form of worship, Lerman leads workshops, including several in Milwaukee, on Jewish spiritual themes. She incorporates participatory movement into Jewish services, integrates texts and movement exercises into educational activities and leads sessions on identity and history at Jewish schools, havurot and Jewish senior residences.
Though she certainly hasn’t had time to think about how she will use the grant, she revealed she is forming an advisory group of scientists, rabbis and ethicists to look at the question of how we [as a society] are changing — morally, politically and ethically, “which hopefully will lead to a stage production. This project is just beginning, but I think we are accepting profound changes for the next generation.”
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