Jonah Bokaer will perform Nov. 15

UNC Asheville's Cultural and Special Events series will host a solo performance by acclaimed dancer and choreographer Jonah Bokaer at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15, at UNC Asheville's Lipinsky Auditorium. The North Carolina native will perform "Three Cases of Amnesia," an innovative combination of multimedia and dance.

Bokaer graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts and joined the prestigious Merce Cunningham Dance Company at age 18 – the youngest dancer ever hired in the company's 55-year history. Continuing in Cunningham's footsteps, Bokaer creates technically complex dance works that address the human body's relation to 21st-century digital technologies, such as motion capture or "mocap," choreographic software and digital and 3D animation. Named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch" in 2006, Bokaer has performed his unique repertory throughout the United States, Europe, Australia and Japan.

General admission tickets to "Three Cases of Amnesia" are $20 or $6 for area students. To reserve tickets by phone, call UNC Asheville's Highsmith University Union Box Office at 828/232-5000. To purchase tickets online, visit www.uncatickets.com. General admission tickets may also be purchased with cash or check only at Malaprop's Bookstore/Café, 55 Haywood St., downtown Asheville.

Bokaer uses "mocap" technologies in his work

While on campus, Bokaer will hold a series of related events. He will give a lecture on "mocap" at 12:15 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, in UNC Asheville's Karpen Hall, room 012. Bokaer will explain how motion capture can record a dancer's movements and translate them onto a digital model. This process is used in video and filmmaking to record the actions of human actors and then apply the movements to animated characters. Bokaer will also hold a dance technology workshop for UNC Asheville students at 10:25 a.m. Friday, Nov. 14, at UNC Asheville's New Hall dance studio. Observers are welcome to experience this application of mocap technologies. Both talks are free and open to the public.

For more information on these or other events in UNC Asheville's Cultural & Special Events season or to purchase group tickets, call 828/251-6991. Additional details are available online at www.unca.edu/culturalarts/.