SONGS AND POEMS: A MOSAIC OF DANCE, MUSIC AND POETRY Comes To Widener University's Kapelski Recital This Month

Cellist and Professor Emeritus of Musicology at Widener University, Dr. Mara Parker has initiated a collaboration of music, poetry and dance.

On March 28, 2024 at Widener University's Kapelski Recital Hall at 4pm, Dr. Parker will be joined by choreographer/ dancer Jessica C. Warchal-King who is Artist in Residence in Dance at Alvernia University and director of JCWK Dance Lab, and Widener professor of English and Creative Writing, Dr. Jessica Guzman.

Parker will perform "Songs and Poems for Solo Cello" by Phillip Glass. Warchal-King's ballet and modern dance informed movement slinks, tumbles, and repeats in an embodied mirror of Glass's composition and Guzman's poetry.

"There are seven sections of 'Songs and Poems' and seven sections to Jessica Guzman's poetry. Individually we researched Glass's process and found similar intention and phrasing in our different mediums" describes Warchal-King.

Separately devised, the whole of the mosaic is informed by its collective. "It strikes me that this kind of collaboration puts the work's connection with the audience at the forefront, since we are each other's first audience - we have to connect with one another first," reflects Dr. Guzman.

"It has been a privilege to collaborate with both Jessicas," says Dr. Parker. "The process of crafting a single, unified work out of three separate art forms has been an amazing experience."

The Kapelski Recital Hall is located on Widener's Chester campus. There is on street parking. The performance is approximately one hour. It is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Dr. Mara Parker - meparker@widener.edu.