They say anyone who specializes in a specific field of art can be considered an artist, be it visual or performing arts. But what would you call someone who fuses both sides of the artistic realm together?

Professional dancer and artistic director Matt Kent specializes in this type of artistic fusion. He is slated to appear today at 2 p.m. to lecture at the University about his experiences.

Kent is one of The Willson’s Center’s distinguished lecturers for 2009. To receive this honor, one must be nominated by a professor in his or her field. Professor Bala Sarasvati, Modern Dance Coordinator and Professor of the Arts here at the University, nominated Kent for this year.

Kent attended the University from 1991 to 1996. He majored in music therapy, focusing on the string bass.

“My sophomore year I went to a dance class and liked it more than I thought I would,” Kent said in a phone interview. “It’s not so much that I went out looking for dance. We just kind of found each other.”

Instead of choosing between passions, he decided to combine them. Since 1996, Kent has been working for Pilobolus Dance Theatre, a company famous for their exploration in creative collaboration.

Kent is best known for his incorporation of dance, music, visual and commercial collaboration into a unified final product. He has been featured on “Live with Regis and Kelly,” “The Today Show,” “60 Minutes” and the 2007 Academy Awards.

Kent describes collaboration as two or more people working toward a common goal.

“We get together, decide collectively what we want the dance to look like, and then get to it,” Kent said. He uses his collaborations as a way to display creativity in a “teamwork makes the dream work” environment.

“It gets people out of their comfort zone,” Kent said. “In a manner of speaking, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.”

Everyone has something to bring to the table, and result is intriguing. His lecture will cover his work and performances, as well as introducing Pilobolus’ commercial enterprise and discussing diverse audience interactions to the dance work. At the end of the lecture, he hopes the audience will walk away with tools for being effective collaborators not only in the realm of art but in all areas of life.

“The key is getting creative. Anything can happen when people think outside the box,” Kent said.