Anchored in a contemporary tradition of formal structures and layered austerity, choreographer Ralph Lemon's work has a mysterious vitality, an intellectual sensuality and a richness of spirit that emanates from his unpredictable imagination. Having questioned the established models of the touring dance company and the proscenium stage, four years ago Lemon set out to create an alternative project-oriented model made up of diverse collaborators interested in committing to the life of a particular work's process, in film, video, and the literary arts, as well as in choreography. Currently at work on, and performing in Geography, a trilogy of dance/theatre performances made in concert with vernacularly-based dancers, musicians, and art makers from parts of Africa, Asia, and the United States, Lemon is prospecting new, loaded terrain.

"I am deeply interested in how my American formalism, and the nationalism that it implies, clashes, intersects, manipulates and is manipulated by the art and life aesthetics of distinct world cultures. I have been gradually stripping away layers of my old dance form with the help of artists whose lives and work demand from me a new way of thinking, seeing and moving. What I once viewed as boundaries have become artistic and philosophical border crossings. At the same time, the boundaries between other realms­racial, political and cultural­and my own concerns as a human being and as a performing artist are being crossed and re-crossed."