Part of the Pure Lucia project, “Lunch with Lucia” is a web series of lunchtime conversations exploring the music and legacy of composer Lucia Dlugoszewski. Hosted by curator Dustin Hurt, each live Zoom session features a guest artist or scholar delving into a different facet of Dlugoszewski’s work—from her groundbreaking timbre piano technique and invented percussion instruments to her radical approach to composition for brass, strings, and dance. These informal, accessible discussions offer a unique chance to rediscover one of the most visionary—and underrecognized—figures in 20th-century experimental music.
During this program, dancer, educator, and Erick Hawkins Dance Company principal Louis Kavouras explores Lucia Dlugoszewski’s richly layered artistic universe. Drawing from his decades of collaboration and friendship with Dlugoszewski, Kavouras guides audiences through the poetic, philosophical, and aesthetic currents that shaped her distinctive approach to composition. Many of Dlugoszewski’s compositions were created specifically for choreography by American dance innovator Erick Hawkins, resulting in profound integrations of sound and movement.
Kavouras will share insights into Dlugoszewski’s creative methods, emphasizing how her music forms a “garden of sound,” an intricate tapestry woven from poetry, aesthetics, philosophy, and abstraction. With personal anecdotes, historical context, and philosophical references, he illuminates the underlying aesthetics that guided her experimental vision and supported her artistic practice.
Louis Kavouras has been instrumental in preserving and promoting the legacies of Lucia Dlugoszewski and Erick Hawkins. Since 1995, he has served as a principal dancer with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company and a master teacher of Hawkins’s technique. As Chair of Dance at UNLV since 1994, Kavouras has also directed numerous workshops and residencies worldwide, further extending the influence and understanding of the Hawkins-Dlugoszewski artistic partnership. He is the founder of the Hawkins West Institute, dedicated to archiving and preserving the aesthetic sculptures, costumes, and properties of Erick Hawkins and Lucia Dlugoszewski.
This online program takes place from 12:00pm to 1:00pm Eastern US time (EDT) as a Zoom Webinar. Registration is required, but free. An archive of the program will be available on the page after the event.
This event is part of PURE LUCIA, a retrospective of the life and work of Lucia Dlugoszewski.
Major support for PURE LUCIA: THE MUSIC OF LUCIA DLUGOSZEWSKI has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage with additional support from the Amphion Foundation.
