Dudley House to host “Slow Dancing Café”

Starting Friday, April 20, Harvard University will host the Boston premiere of David Michalek’s magical video installation Slow Dancing, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is partnering by making Dudley House the site of an al fresco café for Yard goers.

The New York Times has called Michalek’s installation, presented by the Office for the Arts at Harvard and the ARTS FIRST festival, “an unforgettable dance-meets-film-technology evening.” It features larger-than-life, hyper-slow-motion video portraits of dancers and choreographers, which will appear to levitate over the steps of Widener Library each evening from April 20 through April 29.

Viewers can make an evening in Harvard Yard by enjoying a meal outdoors at the Slow Dancing Café before or after viewing the installation. The café will operate in the courtyard in front of Dudley House, weather permitting.

And GSAS musicians will add to the cultural fare on offer. There will be free Dudley Chamber Music concerts on April 21 and April 28 at 8 p.m. in the main dining hall. Two other Dudley music groups, the Dudley Chorus and the World Music Ensemble, will provide entertainment outside on April 24, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

See photos of the installation being mounted at Widener.