Insite

It was a dark and stormy night. No, no… that’s not right. In fact in Los Angeles, it was probably a bright and sunny day when James Cameron called choreographer Lula Washington about his movie, then still in the works, called AVATAR. Now in theaters, AVATAR tells the post-post-post-colonial story of a band of scientists and space travelers interested in taking over a new, cool planet called “Pandora.”

So what was he doing calling Lula Washington?

In fact, fair friends, Lula Washington and members of her company choreographed the body language and ritual movements of the Na’vi people in AVATAR. Which is funny because, among other things noted in this handy and certainly timely NYTimes ArtsBeat interview, Lula didn’t use email until recently and had some doubts about characters with tails. Her collaboration with James Cameron, however, was completely instrumental to the style and tone of the film, bringing a dimension of humanity to the film’s digitally rendered characters.

Lula Washington, and Lula Washington Dance Theatre join us at the Alexander Kasser Theater this weekend for an amazing celebration of thirty years of totally radical dance theater. We are so excited to have her here at the theater this weekend.

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