ON DISPLAY HARVARD – DECEMBER 3, 2020 

You're invited to attend ON DISPLAY HARVARD 2020, part of a live global movement installation created by New York-based physically-integrated dance company Heidi Latsky Dance. ON DISPLAY GLOBAL (ODG) is a worldwide social justice initiative performed annually in honor of the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3rd. A network of cities all over the world occupy public spaces to perform choreographer Heidi Latsky's ON DISPLAY. The Harvard Dance Center has been an ambassador of the work for the past two years, presenting ON DISPLAY HARVARD at accessible public spaces on Harvard’s campus.

ON DISPLAY aims to center disability arts aesthetic and culture. Choreographer Heidi Latsky invites performers and audience members alike to consider societal norms about disability and what shapes perceptions about different physical abilities and body types. Participants in the work create sculptural compositions of their own making and on their own terms, in real time. The slowness of the installation invites reflection and introspection for all involved. How do we perceive others and why? What is the experience of seeing and being seen?  What can be learned when we slow down and notice what we notice? 

Questions about intersectional identities and tensions between viewer and viewed comprise its foundation, inviting, engaging, and prompting audiences to look beyond first impressions and perceived differences, as they consider disability in conversation with race, gender, sexuality, body type, age, and mutual vulnerability.

From outdoor public courtyards and museums, to atriums and indoor spaces like the Smith Center on Harvard’s campus, audiences have typically moved in and around the performers in person. This year, and for the first time ever, ODG will be a 24-hour live Zoom event that audience members and performers can move in and out of throughout the day. The Harvard Dance Center, in partnership with the Harvard Art Museums, will host one hour of the 24-hour Zoom event, from 5-6pm EST. This will surely open new sets of questions, ideas, and responses. We hope you’ll consider being a part of this real time dance experiment. What will you see? 

RSVP TO ATTEND ON DISPLAY HARVARD 2020

ON DISPLAY GLOBAL livestreams on Thursday, December 3, from midnight to midnight, on Zoom. Please RSVP if you plan to attend ON DISPLAY HARVARD 2020. You may also visit the Heidi Latsky Dance website for the Zoom link.

Access for those with disabilities: There will be no sound in ON DISPLAY GLOBAL. Audio description will be provided for the ON DISPLAY HARVARD hour only. For audio description, dial by phone 312-626-6799 and enter Meeting ID: 922 0483 4510. International numbers available: https://harvard.zoom.us/u/acTGsPgxSY

ON DISPLAY HARVARD 2020 — presented by the Harvard Dance Center, supported by the Office for the Arts at Harvard, in partnership with the Harvard Art Museums. ON DISPLAY HARVARD 2018 & 2019 — partners: Harvard Commons, the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center, and Harvard Library.  ON DISPLAY GLOBAL 2020 is presented in partnership with NYU Tisch School for the Arts, NYC Mayor’s Office, Disability Unite, and the United Nations.

Image description and photo credit:

A black and white photo of dancers from Heidi Latsky Dance performing ON DISPLAY at the Federal Plaza in New York City. Each dancer is dressed in all white clothing and in various poses around the plaza. The central figure is a Black woman wearing a white tunic over white leggings. She is in mid movement with her right limbs in a bent position. Her eyes are closed and her face is directed downwards. Photo by Charlotte Jones