SU's Brower Speaks on 'Don Quixote' Wednesday, February 26

Dr. Victoria Hutchinson	Dr, Keith Brower

SALISBURY, MD---This March, the Moscow Festival Ballet brings two of its most renowned performances, The Sleeping Beauty and Don Quixote, to Salisbury University.

In advance of the ballet’s visit, SU professors discuss the history behind those works during this spring’s Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series. All talks are 7 p.m. in the Great Hall of Holloway Hall.

Dr. Victoria Hutchinson of the Theatre and Dance Department inaugurates the series with “Russian Ballet and The Sleeping Beauty” Wednesday, February 19. She discusses the 1890 work, largely considered one of the greatest in the classical ballet canon.

The founding chair of SU’s Theatre and Dance Department and former director of the University’s Dance Company, she has choreographed more than 50 works for concert dance, musical theatre, opera and theatre. The Kennedy Center for the Arts Performance Excellence Award winner is a member of the National Dance Association and the National Dance Education Organization, among others.

Dr. Keith Brower of the Modern Languages and Intercultural Studies Department concludes the series with “Don Quixote” Wednesday, February 26. He explores the title character of the classic novel as a Renaissance man confronting a Baroque world. He addresses the debate as to whether Quixote was a genius or a lunatic, a hopeless dreamer or a visionary, and why Cervantes’ creation is more popular today than during his debut some 400 years ago.

With an academic background in Latin American and Spanish studies, Brower has studied literature, culture and religion in those areas. He is the author of Contemporary Latin American Fiction: an Annotated Bibliography and co-editor of Jorge Amado: New Critical Essays. His works in progress include Art Illuminates Art: Using Velázquez’s Las Meninas to Teach Don Quijote.

Sponsored by the Cultural Affairs Office, admission to their talks is free and the public is invited. For more information call 410-543-6271 or visit the SU website at www.salisbury.edu.