TDPS Hosts Artist/Blogger Who Braved Cairo Turmoil to Teach Dance to Cancer Patients

Shawn Lent will be giving a brown bag lunch talk Wednesday, October 2.

Shawn Lent, a Fulbright scholar and social activist dance artist, will be giving a brown bag lunch talk open for  School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) students, faculty, and staff on Wednesday, October 2 from 12:30-1:50 in the Schoenbaum Rehearsal Studio of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.  Lent’s non-traditional path as a dancer has taken her to Egypt throughout the country’s recent political turmoil as a U.S. Fulbright scholar. She has been teaching dance to cancer sufferers and survivors at the Children’s Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357. Additionally, Lent has been lecturing on the role artists must take in civil society and education at the Academy of Arts’ High Institute of Ballet in Cairo.

Lent wrote a blog post in July that went madly viral in the dance world, especially among current and recent dance students. The thoughtful piece addresses a question Lent received while giving a talk at Millikin University, “Did you have any sort of breakdown when you gave up on your dreams?”

An excerpt of from the blog post:

I am dancing, with and for others. I am and will always be a dancer. I take that with me, in the ways I think, develop ideas, collaborate, move.  I am an artist who had decided to join tables off the professional stage. When it comes to diplomacy, an artist needs to be at the table. When it comes to the Board of Directors or a School Board, an artist needs to be at the table. When it comes to sustainability policy, an artist needs to be at the table. When it comes to facing death, an artist needs to be at the table.

Story by Missy McTamney