Tony-Award winning choreographer Bill T. Jones and acclaimed neurologist Oliver Sacks continue inaugural "Live Ideas" festival at New York Live Arts

NEW YORK, April 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- New York Live Arts, the internationally recognized destination for innovative movement-based artistry based in New York City, kicked off its inaugural Live Ideas festival on Wednesday, April 17, 2013 with a full day of panels and discussions, concluding with a keynote conversation between New York Live Arts Executive Artistic Director Bill T. Jones and acclaimed neurologist Oliver Sacks.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130419/NY97966 )

Continuing through Sunday, April 21^st, Live Ideas: The Worlds of Oliver Sacks features more than 21 performances, films and panel discussions exploring the work of Dr. Sacks (author of Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, Musicophilia and other works), whom the New York Times dubbed "the poet laureate of medicine."

"Live Ideas combines dance and the performing arts with big ideas, and I am honored to be involved in this inaugural festival," said Sacks. "Live Ideas brings together a number of my own passions—music, ferns, cephalopods among them—alongside many of the neurological conditions I have spent a lifetime studying: Parkinson's disease, Tourette's syndrome, stereo vision, etc. The connections of these conditions with the dramatic arts is a deep one, and I look forward to seeing what comes out of this first annual Live Ideas festival (and the many more to come)."

Upcoming event highlights include the world premiere of Re: Awakenings (Film) on Friday, April 19^th at 6pm. The short film, commissioned by New York Live Arts, was created by avant garde filmmaker Bill Morrison and features an original score by renowned composer Philip Glass. Following the film screening, at 8pm, Re: Awakenings (Music) will present the-critically acclaimed Orchestra of St. Luke's performing Tobias Picker's Awakenings ballet suite and the score from Michael Nyman's opera The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat.

Saturday, April 20^th brings an encore performance of Re: Awakenings (Dance) featuring the Donna Uchizono Company in Out of Frame, a newly commissioned solo work inspired by Sacks' Awakenings and the restaging of the contemporary classic State of Heads. Another highlight of the performance programs are two presentations of Re: Awakenings (Theater), a unique evening comprised of two versions of Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter's A Kind of Alaska in spoken language and entirely in American Sign Language.

Tickets are still available for some events. Multiple events will also be webcast and available to stream on the festival website. Complete details are available at newyorklivearts.org/liveideas/.

Press images and complete schedule and participants bios are available in New York Live Arts' Press Room: newyorklivearts.org/press/. (If requested, login information – username: nylapr; password: pressroom.)

Live Ideas is made possible by the Ford Foundation. Additional support is contributed by The Rockefeller Foundation NYC Cultural Innovation Fund, The JJC Foundation, The Opaline Fund, Daniel and Joanna S. Rose, The Samuel M. Levy Family Foundation, Judith Zarin, Mortimer B. Zuckerman and the Theatre Development Fund. Learn more about New York Live Arts at newyorklivearts.org/about/.

SOURCE New York Live Arts