April 5, 2011 — Performance artist Lois Weaver will present "Faith and Dancing: A Performance Lecture on Mapping Femininity, Missing America and Other Natural Disasters" on April 14, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., in the University of Virginia School of Nursing's McLeod Hall auditorium.

The event, which is sponsored by the College of Arts & Sciences' Studies in Women and Gender program, is free and open to the public.

Weaver is the artistic director and founding member of Split Britches Company, which combines theater, music, comedy and social commentary.

A professor of contemporary performance practice at Queen Mary University in London, Weaver grew up in Southwest Virginia. She exploits her attachment to the Blue Ridge Mountains in some of her autobiographical pieces, which include her journeys from youthful female evangelist to aging lesbian femme exhibitionist, from a girl desiring to be Miss America to a 60-year-old woman who misses America.

Weaver also created Spiderwoman Theatre and the WOW cafe in New York. Her recent repertoire includes work on human rights, globalizing feminism, prison and country music.