Stanford dancers, choreographers, and theater-makers join together to present a series of Innovative site-specific performances criss-crossing the campus on and near the Stanford Engineering Quad (SEQ). The short works are specially created to reveal the eloquent extraordinary within the ordinary, the magical and imaginative potential of iconic and familiar campus locations, architectural features, and grounds. Both an aesthetic and athletic adventure, the traveling audience is led from site to site by an exuberant band of dancing guides, known as the “Ricochet Ramblers.”

Teaching artist/choreographer/dancer. TAPS Lecturer Diane Frank’s long career highlights include 11 years of touring nationally and internationally with Douglas Dunn & Dancers; teaching all levels of technique as a faculty member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio, and choreographing projects spanning more than 30 years. At Cunningham’s request, she taught technique and repertory at the American Center in Paris, and she staged works for Mr. Dunn on the Groupe de Recherche at the Paris Opera Ballet. Her choreography projects, for which she was awarded 7 NEA Choreography Fellowships, have been presented numerous times at Dance Theater Workshop and St. Mark’s Dance Space in NYC, The Dance Place (Washington DC), The American Center in Paris, and Riverside Studios/London. She was honored to have her work created on Stanford dancers selected for the ACDA National Gala performances at the Kennedy Center.

At Stanford, Ms. Frank has a long history of creating, directing, mentoring, and presenting site-specific and outdoor dance projects, among them: “RED ROVER,” “Cantor: Re-Wired”, “Construction Site”, “Out of Sequence”, “In A Winter Garden,” and most recently, the site-specific dance film “Trace Lines in the Provisional”. She has been instrumental in supporting guest artist works created for non-traditional settings and employing diverse and innovative choreographic methods, notably the work of Ann Carlson (for whom she has most recently performed in national tours of the outdoor pastoral work “Doggie Hamlet”). She believes that performances unhitched from conventional theatrical frames are an invitation to open our eyes, refresh our minds, engage our imaginations, and create community.