Laurel Victoria Gray
LAUREL VICTORIA GRAY
'Enlightenment through Dance' TM
Artistic Director, Silk Road Dance Company

LAUREL VICTORIA GRAY TO GIVE
2009 SELMA JEANNE COHEN LECTURE
AT 32nd ANNUAL
FULBRIGHT ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Oct. 21, 2009) -- The Fulbright Association announced today that Laurel Victoria Gray, artistic director of the Silk Dance Road Company, will present the 2009 Selma Jeanne Cohen Lecture in International Dance Scholarship on Saturday, Oct. 31, at the Madison Hotel in Washington, D.C. Ms. Gray is adjunct professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at George Washington University.

Ms. Gray will discuss “A Living Legacy: Uzbek Dance” and will touch on the 1989 Seattle Soviet Theatre Arts Exchange, in which Dr. Cohen participated. Her presentation will include a performance by members of the Silk Road Dance Company of traditional Uzbek dances from the company’s Legacy Repertoire.

Ms. Gray first visited Uzbekistan in 1973 and, in 1981, joined the Seattle-Tashkent Sister City Committee. She participated in the official 1984 delegation of Seattle residents to Uzbekistan and founded the Uzbek Dance and Culture Society that same year. Gray also co-founded of an annual dance camp that hosts dance instructors from Uzbekistan. In 2007, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Uzbek Ministry of Culture at a ceremony held at Tashkent's Institute of Art in recognition of her work in promoting and preserving traditional Uzbek culture and dance. She has produced performances at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Washington, D.C. She received the Kennedy Center’s Local Dance Commissioning Project Award for her production of “Egypta: Myth, Magic, and Mystery” in 2003.

“I hope that my study of women's dance of Silk Road regions has helped to cultivate better understanding of, and respect for, traditional cultures of the East,” Ms. Gray said.

The late Selma Jeanne Cohen, preeminent dance historian and founding editor of the International Encyclopedia of Dance, endowed the dance lecture at the Fulbright Association’s annual conference to highlight dance.

“I view this honor as a tribute to Selma Jeanne Cohen and her great enthusiasm for Uzbek dance. Twenty years after she participated in our historic delegation to Soviet Uzbekistan, we can better appreciate the significance of the seeds sewn by our cultural exchange with Central Asia,” said Ms. Gray.

Known as the 'the pioneer of Uzbek dance in America,' Gray's efforts to preserve and present traditional Central Asian and Persian dance make her a true cultural diplomat. In 2007, she was awarded on honorary doctorate by the Ministry of Culture of Uzbekistan for her work in promoting and preserving Central Asian dance.

She is the recipient of the 2006 Metro DC Dance Award for Excellence in Costume Design; the 2005 Distinguished Service Award from the Embassy of Uzbekistan; the 2003 Kennedy Center Local Dance Commissioning Project Award; and the International Academy of Middle Eastern Dance (IAMED) Awards for Best Choreographer (2003) and Best Ethnic Dancer (1999).

More detailed biographical is available by clicking on 'About Laurel Victoria Gray.'

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