Sunday, April 29th
Lake Oswego United Church of Christ
Betsy Claassen creates dance by capturing the fleeting moments of beauty in everyday life. She teaches her students how to see and honor their own transcendent moments by translating them into motion. Over the years Lake Oswego UCC has hosted Betsy as part of our Sunday morning worship; at 3 PM on Sunday, April 29, the dancer will perform and speak as part of our 2011-12 Arts and Lectures Series. Betsy will perform at our morning service on that day as well.
In addition to performing her own work, Claassen is collaborating with LOUCC congregants to jointly choreograph two liturgical movement pieces during the morning service and at the afternoon Arts and Lectures event: the dances will be to Bobby McFerrin’s The Garden (an interpretation of the Garden of Eden story) and to Curran Reichert’s Draw the Circle Wide.
Claassen received her B.A. in Theatre Arts from Sonoma State University, and her M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction: Integrating Creative Arts, from Lesley University. For eight years she performed and toured nationally and internationally with the Wendy Rogers Dance Company, a bay area troupe.
During 2008-10 Claassen was artist-in-residence for schools with the Central Sierra Arts Council of Tuolumne County, Califronia, as well as instructor of dance at Columbia College in Sonora. Altogether, Claassen has devoted 15 years to bringing dance to public school students in the Pacific Northwest.
Lake Oswego United Church of Christ is located at 1111 Country Club Road, Lake Oswego. More information about this event can be found on our website (loucc.org) or by calling the church office at 507.635.4348.