By Francesca Merwin, staff writer

To round out May’s In Motion series and celebrate graduation weekend, the Connective Corridor will feature an evening of music, photography and the human form on the bus in collaboration with Syracuse University, the Ballerina Project and the Tech Garden. This unique event will feature actual ballerinas, a professional photographer and live music.  The bus will leave the Warehouse at 6:30 p.m., Friday, May 11 and travel to Syracuse University. The group will exit the bus at College Place bus stop at 6:50 p.m. for s short live street recital, and then re-board the 7:12 p.m. bus for downtown.

The Ballerina Project started as a photo series, currently on display at the Tech Garden, which features images of ballerinas posing in front of various local architecture and structures. The artist behind the exhibit is Kay Lavonier and The Ballerina Project is her first solo exhibition.

The project began when Kathleen Rathbun’s dancers (of Syracuse City Ballet), who had often worked with Lavonier, proposed an intriguing collaborative idea. They discovered an internet phenomena involving photographs of dancers posing against city scenes. Influenced by the work of Dane Shitagi and Jordan Matter, Lavonier thought this would be a great concept to bring to life in Syracuse and Central New York, an environment that has been inspiring her for the last decade. The work is an exploration of human form and how it interacts with nature and architecture, and how these things emulate and juxtapose each other.

Ty Marshal, Artist in Residence at the Tech Garden, partnered with the Connective Corridor to bring the photography exhibit to life. Four ballerinas from Syracuse City Ballet will pose throughout the bus ride and Lavonier will be with them, photographing the ballerinas in a different, urban setting.

To compliment Lavonier and the ballerinas, SU student band Frères Jumeaux will perform contemporary and classical music on the cello and violin. Frères Jumeaux (“Twin Brothers) is comprised of Anthony and Eric McGriff (SU class of 2016). The brothers have performed at various events with the Tech Garden before, and delighted the crowd with both covers and classics.

The evening will be a culmination of the successful “In Motion” spring semester series, which featured an acting installment with the Media Unit, poetry readings with both an SU Literary Urban Studies course and Verbal Blend slam poetry group, and musical offerings from the Bill Horrace Jazz Trio and The Euclid Zoo.

The spring schedule was coordinated by Syracuse Connective Corridor Engagement Fellow Francesca Merwin, who did an outstanding job pulling together diverse music and performance programs, as well as coordinating monthly mobile art galleries on Corridor buses featuring visual art by community artists, schools and nonprofit agencies.  Three Connective Corridor buses featured these monthly mobile community art installations.

Don’t miss the grand finale:  The Ballerina Project performance, Friday, May 11, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at The Warehouse, on the Connective Corridor bus.