# Liz Lerman

Liz Lerman (born December 25, 1947) is an American dance choreographer. She founded the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange and created the Critical Response Process.

## Early life

Liz Lerman was born in Los Angeles, California, on December 25, 1947. At age 14, she danced in Washington, DC, for President Kennedy as part of a group from the National Music Camp in Interlochen, Michigan. She attended Bennington College, where she studied under Martha Wittman, who later became a member of Dance Exchange. Lerman earned a BA in Dance from the University of Maryland and an MA in Dance from George Washington University.

## Career

Lerman founded the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in 1976 and led its multi-generational ensemble until July 2011, when Cassie Meador became artistic director. The company is now known as Dance Exchange.
Dance Exchange has performed at venues including the National Cathedral, Kennedy Center Opera House, Millennium Stage, Lansburgh Theatre, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Harvard University, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
Lerman's early work included older dancers alongside young performers and used personal narrative. Her later work explored scientific themes, including genomics, high-energy physics, and the effects of war. She and her dancers collaborated with professionals in various fields, including shipbuilders, physicists, construction workers, and cancer researchers.
In January 2016, Lerman joined the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University as Institute Professor.
Lerman was named a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow.

## Tools

Lerman uses the word "tools" to refer to concepts from her artistic process that can be applied to many situations. These include “Rattle around in someone else’s universe,” “Turn discomfort into inquiry,”and “Nothing is too small to notice.”

## Critical Response Process

Lerman created the Critical Response Process (CRP), a method for giving and receiving feedback, in 1990. She co-authored the book Critical Response Process: A Method for Getting Useful Feedback on Anything You Make, from Dance to Dessert with John Borstel.
CRP is used by organizations including the Innovative Conservatoire, the Federation of Scottish Theatres, the London Sinfonietta, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Yorkshire Dance, the Yale School of Drama and the Tisch School for the Arts. CRP facilitator-cohorts are in development in Scotland and Baltimore, Maryland. In 2014, Yorkshire Dance developed a beta-version of an online adaptation of CRP called "respond."
Lerman and Borstel's book Critique is Creative was published in 2022 by Wesleyan University Press.

## Awards

* 2002 MacArthur Fellowship
* 2009 Jack P. Blaney Award for Dialogue
* 2015 American Dance Guild Lifetime Achievement Award
* 2014 Dance/USA Honor Award
* 2017 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award
* 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship

## Publications

* Teaching Dance to Senior Adults, 1984
* Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process: A Method for Getting Useful Feedback on Anything You Make, from Dance to Dessert (co-author with John Borstel), 2003
* Hiking the Horizontal: Field Notes from a Choreographer, Wesleyan Press, 2011