The iconic lighthouse holds a lot of meaning for Judy Dworin, director of the Judy Dworin Performance Project. The award-winning organization examines social contemporary issues through movement-based, multi-arts works on stage, in schools, and in prison communities, including the successful “Bridging Boundaries” outreach program offered at Niantic’s York Correctional Institution for women since 2005.

A new work by Dworin titled “Lighthouse” is premiering April 17 and 18 at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, marking the 18th large-scale dance-theater work by the project’s ensemble, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary season. 

“‘Lighthouse’ is a piece I originally made in 1986 after my dad died. He was a really important person in my life and family structure,” Dworin says. “The inspiration of that was ‘How do you stay connected to someone who is no longer physically present?’ The piece inspired me to create an ongoing performance ensemble.

“I really wanted to come back to that original point,” Dworin continues, “but to create it in a completely different way and to (focus) on where we are 25 years later. The theme is still of lighthouses as beacons that provide light in the darkness, but it’s really exploring where we are today in terms of technology. We’re living in a world driven by technology and the work is responding to the (question) of how we maintain human connection with each other and nature and the larger universe.”

Dworin observes that people feel a sense of nostalgia and sadness about lighthouses being replaced by automation and that somehow technology could render them obsolete. 

“I think lighthouses have a kind of power because these edifices were built to do something good — help people find light in the dark,” Dworin says. “We have a sense of them as protectors and guides. They present a kind of constancy in the midst of tumultuous change. They represent safety and a kind of groundedness. And they’re also beautiful and have a connection to nature as beacons that exist within nature, as opposed to outside of it.” 

Describing it as a modern-day fable, Dworin explains that there is a kind of loose narrative in the piece about people shipwrecked on an island that have to start from scratch, acclimating and adjusting to a situation without their mobile devices, which have been lost at sea. 

“It explores their attempt to relate to each other without technological devices around them. And they’re not always successful,” she says. “The lighthouse keeper is the one who’s found that balance in nature and the world without technology. The piece is really about relationships and an underlying theme of love and respect — required in this world if we’re going to make it.”

The story is suggested both through movement and a narrative voice interjected at various times in the piece, Dworin explains. 

“Marcella Oteiza, the set designer, has created these incredible moveable ladders that the dancers move with in a kind of hypnotic sway to give a sense of connection and balance,” she says. “There is also a very beautiful effect of ropes creating waves, nets used on boats, suggestive of many different things, and (such) magical elements (as a) mermaid that appears and becomes an ocean spirit.” 

The rest of the creative team includes Kathy Borteck Gersten, associate artistic director; Robert Een, composer, cellist and vocalist, who will perform his original music live with Bill Ruyle, hammer dulcimer player and percussionist; Marjorie Agosin, poet; and Blu, lighting designer. 

Without giving away the ending, Dworin says there is a sadness about it, but also a hopefulness. 

“We would love to bring this piece to New London,” Dworin says. “We’re hoping shoreline communities will welcome this piece because it speaks to something that lives in their midst.” 

Dworin recalls going to Guthrie Beach as a young child and seeing New London Harbor Light — the oldest and tallest lighthouse in Connecticut — her earliest connection with lighthouses. 

“That was my first inspiration and it really stayed with me,” she says.

PERFORMANCE DETAILS

“Lighthouse” by Judy Dworin Performance Project premieres on April 17 and 18 at 7:30 p.m. at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art’s Aetna Theater, 600 Main St., Hartford. 

Opening night will be “book ended” by two special events. Erin Monroe, assistant curator of American painting and sculpture, will give a talk on Edward Hopper and lighthouses — a favorite subject of the American realist painter. Following the performance, Marjorie Agosin will sign copies of her new collection of poetry inspired by her collaboration with Dworin on “Lighthouse.” 

General admission is $25; seniors and “Let’s Go Arts” members, $15; and students with ID, $10. To purchase tickets call (860)527-9800 or visit www.jdpplighthouse.bpt.me or www.judydworin.org.