Marcus Artists Paul D. Mosley and Richard Ayres to perform The Dead Father Jan. 23

Choreographer Paul D. Mosley — founder of Paul D. Mosley Dance Inc. in New York — will return to St. Louis for the first time in a decade to perform an evening of new and old dance works.

The Dead Father: Dances by Paul D. Mosley — presented by the Dance Program in Washington University’s Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences — is free and open to the public and begins at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 23, in the Annelise Mertz Dance Studio, Room 207, Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd. For more information, call (314) 935-5858.

Joining Mosley will be two members of his company: choreographer Richard Ayres and veteran performer Lanileigh Ting. The evening will feature a revised version of Mosley’s The Dead Father — a trio for Mosley, Ayres and Ting — based on the book of the same title by Donald Barthelme.

“In Barthelme’s peculiar book, the dead father is an immense edifice, several hundred feet long, who is dragged along by his children,” explains Mosley, who originally created The Dead Father during a 2004 residency at The Yard, a performing arts colony on Martha’s Vineyard. “They live inside of him and converse with him regularly.”

Mosley uses this story as a take-off point for developing material and ideas exploring family themes and the dynamics of memory. The score collages piano music by Alberto Ginestera with several selections from Barthelme’s book.

Also on the program will be Ayres’ whimsical solo Me, Myself and You and Mosley’s 2003 opus Sitivit Anima Mea (My Soul Thirsts), the latter set to music by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and poetry by Rainier Marie Rilke. Ting and Ayres also will revive Mosley’s 1994 duet Lessons in Conversation, a dance choreographed entirely to a score of conversational language lessons.

In addition to the performance, Mosley and Ayres — both alumni of the Dance Program — will be in residence Jan. 21-23 as the PAD’s visiting Marcus Artists for spring 2007.

While on campus they will conduct a series of master classes. One of these — held from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 21, in the Mertz Dance Studio — is open to the general public for a cost of $10 and is free for Washington University students and faculty as well as for members of the Missouri Dance Education Organization.

For more information or to pre-register, call (314) 935-5858.