Photo by Milton Adams taken during a past "Random Acts of Dance" at The Modern.

Day In the District
Saturday September 26, 2009 at 2 pm
at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in the Grand Lobby
ADMISSION FREE

Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth company members will perform "Random Acts of Dance" -- a series of structured improvisations designed to illustrate how modern dancers use improvisation to develop their performing skills and discover new movement vocabulary. See how dancers play movement games as part of their working process.

Day in the District is an open house in the cultural district from 10 am to 5 pm, with free admission to a variety of museums and cultural institutions, and free performances at the same locations.

For a full performance schedule go to www.artsfortworth.org

Paper Bags and Bare Feet: art is play when the ordinary meets the imaginary
Saturday October 3 at 12:30pm and Tuesday November 3 at 1:30pm
At the Dallas Museum of Art Center for Creative Connections
Admission: FREE for "First Tuesday" of the month

Join Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth dancers as they use their imaginations to link the physical worlds of dance and visual art. Even a simple paper bag is a world of infinite possibilities lurking in your kitchen cupboard when combined with a sense of play and discovery. Designed for children ages 5 and under and their families, aspiring young artists will have an opportunity to build their own costumes and props with paper bags during artmaking activities (available from 11 am to 2 pm) and will be invited to use these creations during the CD/FW event.

CD/FW dancers Courtney Mulcahy and Claudia Orcasitas (L to R) with Sloan Automatic musicians Cody Yates (guitar), Rob DeStefano (drums), Sloan Clark (bass/vox), and Steve Peglar (keyboards) Photo by Milton Adams

Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth's 20th season takes flight at The Poultry Barn in Fort Worth when the company's fall concert returns to this striking community venue with an evening of three premieres and opportunities for audience participation.

The site-specific work "Shadow Dancing" will open the program, with dancers traversing over 300 feet across the Poultry Barn, casting shadows of all sizes throughout the barn. Imagery ranging from shadow puppets to film noir will appear, set to original music by Dallas composer Justin Eves. Lighting designer Nikki DeShea Smith will work with CD/FW artistic director Kerry Kreiman and the dancers to create a shadowy landscape of the imagination.

Guest choreographer/performer and former CD/FW company member Amy Jo (Austin) will premiere "Caution: children at play" -- a playful exploration into sibling rivalries and affections, performed with Bill Arnold.

The dancing will abound at intermission when audience members are invited to achieve economic stress relief through bipartisan group exercise, shaking their tail feathers alongside CD/FW company members in The Funky Chicken. One outstanding chicken dancer will be selected each night for a free chicken dinner from Babe's.

"Shut Up and Dance!" -- performed alongside the local experimental pop band Sloan Automatic -- A suite of lighthearted songs and dances will conclude with the song "Uncomfortable" and culminating in a giant community drum circle and dance jam. Souvenir percussion instruments will be distributed to audience members as everyone moves out into the giant dancing space to jam together. Audience members are welcome to BYODrum or percussion instrument to add into the mix. This is an opportunity for everyone's 'inner dancer' and 'inner musician' to fully participate, and we plan to have a great time together. Be sure to wear your dancing shoes.

A Jazzy Christmas with Adonis Rose and the Fort Worth Jazz Orchestra
Sunday December 13, 2009 7:00pm
University Christian Church, 2720 S. University Dr., Fort Worth, TX 76109
ADMISSION FREE

       Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth joins forces with Adonis Rose and the Fort Worth Jazz Orchestra to present a free, family friendly holiday event at University Christian Church on December 13 at 7:00 pm. "A Jazzy Christmas with Adonis Rose and the Fort Worth Jazz Orchestra" will feature members of the Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth company and school performing dances throughout the church. The program will close with Duke Ellington's playful "Nutcracker Suite."
        This is not your ordinary Nutcracker. With just nine songs, there won't be any long party scenes. It will be whimsical and playful, like the music. Long-time CD/FW company member Tina Mullone will be the Sugar Rum Cherry. Look for small mice to come scampering down the aisles.
        Audience members will have an opportunity to make a "love offering" to benefit the Tarrant Area Food Bank. Tarrant Area Food Bank (TAFB) works to eliminate hunger in Fort Worth and 13 surrounding counties by providing food, education and other resources to 300 partner charities and their communities. Now in its 27th year, TAFB distributed more than 1,200,000 pounds of groceries per month to agencies serving children, abuse victims, the elderly, the chronically ill, the unemployed, the working poor, disaster victims, and other Texans in need. Admission is free.

Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth is creating a special dance event for the exhibition "All The World's A Stage" in celebration of the opening of the new Dallas Center for the Performing Arts.

Ann-Marie Heilman and Claudia Orcasitas at the Fort Worth Water Gardens Photo illustration by Milton Adams

Claudia Orcasitas and Ann-Marie Heilman Photo illustration by Milton Adams

CD/FW created a special dance event for the exhibition "All The World's A Stage" in celebration of the opening of the new Dallas Center for the Performing Arts which premiered on October 3rd and 4th. Performed in "The Stage" performance gallery within the exhibition itself, A MUSE WAS HERE: musing on artistic inspiration in the MUSEum is an original work designed to bring the exhibition to life while reflecting on the sisterly relationship of all of the arts.

The important role of inspiration and creativity in human experience is clear throughout history, and yet we have little knowledge as to how or why we are inspired to create art or participate in the arts, whether as a creator or audience member. Artists frequently do not know where their best inspirations come from... the ideas simply come to them. In Greek mythology, the muses were believed to be the true source of inspiration, creativity, and learning. The muses might speak through us as vessels for the expression of the divine. They were also frequently associated with water, springs, and fountains, and were sometimes referred to as water nymphs.

The history of the "museum" itself is based in muse mythology. The word "muse-um" is derived from museion or mousaion -- a place where the muses were worshipped. The words "amuse" "musing" and "music" also derive from theses goddesses of ancient stories. The muses were friends with Pegasus. Where Pegasus’ hooves would touch the earth, springs of water would appear, and the muses would appear at those springs. Since Pegasus is a symbol for Dallas and the Dallas skyline, the muses are a very fitting tribute for the new performing arts center. Jung believed that Pegasus was an important bridging symbol for our time, signaling the unification or synthesis of polarities and oppositions. As we move fully into the 21st century, with rapidly changing technology and the greater integration of societies and cultures, we can look to the arts as an avenue for shared life experiences.

Utilizing the imagery of muses integrated with ideas from the art featured in the exhibition, choreographer Kerry Kreiman and members of the Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth company designed this dance to highlight the universal nature of creative inspiration across cultures and across art forms. Through simple props and a variety of costumes by costume designer Crickett Pettigrew, the idea of "transformation" in performance and ritual is visually reinforced -- a theme which is highlighted within the exhibition.

The company worked closely with local photographer Milton Adams to create a series of photos and photo illustrations which are projected during the dance, representing the expression of the arts and the presence of "the muses" throughout our local community. Many of the photos feature the dancers near water/fountains and at sites and activities representing artistic inspiration and a variety of themes from the exhibition. These diverse photos include working artists, actors and musicians -- Ron Boyer, Jo Dufo, Stephanie Dunnam, Ann Ekstrom, Blaine Gray, Susan Harrington, and DeAnna Wendolyn -- and highlight artistic sites from Dallas and Fort Worth, including:
"All The World's A Stage" exhibition and sculpture garden at the Dallas Museum of Art
Fort Worth Water Gardens
Nasher Sculpture Center
8.0 restaurant murals
St. Patrick Cathedral
DECA Deep Ellum mural project
Sri Sri Radha Kalachandji's Hare Krishna Temple
Trammell Crow Center
Bass Hall
Fountain Place
Billy Bob's Texas
Stage West
Avenue of Light
NorthPark Center
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
"Ocean Life" Whaling Wall mural in downtown Dallas
Flying Red Horse Pegasus sign in the Dallas night skyline

A Muse Was Here is performed to music by Layne Redmond, from her CD "Invoking the Muse," including "Hymn to the Muse" based on an ancient Greek hymn to the Muse Kalliopeia "She of the Beautiful Voice," written by Mesomedes of Crete (c. 117-138 C.E.) In 1997, while researching the ancient music of Greece, Layne discovered the searingly beautiful "Hymn to the Muse," composed by Mesomedes of Crete in the second century. Profoundly moved by this hymn, she was inspired to create a collection of hymns to all nine Muses with her musical partner, Tommy Brunjes. The emotional and tonal center for each hymn arises from the rhythms of the frame drum, the world's oldest known drum, used for thousands of years as the core instrument for sacred liturgy in ancient Sumer, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, Greece and Rome. In ancient Greece, the Muse is often represented playing the frame drum.

Layne Redmond is a percussionist, composer, and the premier historian of the frame drum. In 2000, when Drum! Magazine listed the 53 Heavyweight Drummers Who Made a Difference in the 90's, she was the only woman on the list, and in 2002 the same publication named her percussionist of the year. CD/FW would like to gratefully acknowledge Layne Redmond for the use of her music for this special project.