Gallery Night and Day in the District Performances
Saturday September 6, 6pm and Saturday September 27, 2pm
Admission free , both events

Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth will perform a "Random Act of Dance" at Artspace 111 6pm Sept. 6 during Fall Gallery Night       
Artspace 111, 111 Hampton Str. Fort Worth, TX 76102. 817-692-3228
CD/FW company members will dance through the galleries performing structured improvisation inspired by the art featured for the exhibition. CD/FW has previously presented similar events at a variety of institutions, including the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Nasher Sculpture Center.

Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth presents Twyla Tharp's "The One Hundreds: Phrases 1-100" at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth 2pm Sept. 27, as part of Day in the District      
Grand Lobby of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 3200 Darnell Street, Fort Worth, TX 76107. 817-738-9215 or 1-866-824-5566

NOTE: Parking lots around the museums and Will Rogers complex may be full during the Day in the District weekend. Additional free parking will be available in the UNT Health Science Center east parking garage, which is shown on this map.

      Members of the CD/FW company and guests will present a special edition of Twyla Tharp's The One Hundreds: Phrases 1-100 with dancers in the Grand Lobby and on the grounds across from the reflecting pond. When Tharp originally developed this dance in 1970, she wanted to address three questions she faced as a performing dancer: 1) how accurate is my memory? 2) how good is my coordination? 3) how strong is my sense of beginnings, middles and endings? Tharp created 100 eleven-second phrases in answer to these questions.
     An innovator and visionary for modern and post-modern dance, Twyla Tharp has truly changed the shape of American modern dance and ballet for generations to come. Her early choreography explored many of the same issues as the Judson Church choreographers of the 1960's. Over time, her vission expanded to include "big ballet" and Broadway. Her musical Movin Out with music by Billy Joel is still touring the U.S. to popular acclaim. Tharp is renowned for creating works for alternative spaces -- gymnasiums, streets, parks, libraries, and museums. This staging of the 100 phrases from The One Hundreds is in keeping with her aesthetics and is presented with her blessings and enthusiasm
     Day in the District is an annual celebration of the museums of the Fort Worth Cultural District and local arts institutions, featuring free admission at the museums. Learn more at: www.fwdayinthedistrict.org.

Photo by Milton Adams

Fowl Play: 300 Feet of Modern Dance at the Poultry Barn
Featuring Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth company with guests Beckles Dancing Company (Dallas). Plus intermission bonus, “Chicken Dance at the Poultry Barn”
November 14-15, 8pm
$15 General/$8 Students & Seniors
(Cash at the door, or advance sales via PayPal)
Small Exhibits Building at Will Rogers Memorial Center (aka Poultry Barn), 3401 W. Lancaster, Fort Worth, TX 76107
(barns are in section J on this map; close up with barn on this map)
NOTE: Parking lots around the museums and Will Rogers complex may be full this weekend. Additional free parking will be available in the UNT Health Science Center east parking garage, which is shown on this map.

Photo by Milton Adams

See 300 feet of modern dance like you ’ve never seen it before when CD/FW dancers travel in slow motion for the length of the poultry barn in The Still Point set to original music by Austin composer William Meadows.
     Audience members are invited to participate in a special intermission activity: Chicken Dance at the Poultry Barn: Achieve Post-Election Stress Relief Through Bi-Partisan Group Exercise.  Each night one “outstanding chicken dancer” will be selected to win a free chicken dinner from Babe’s Chicken Dinner House.
     Beckles Dancing Company of Dallas will make a guest appearance with the duet Prow choreographed by Loris Anthony Beckles and performed by Darrell Cleveland and Christie Sullivan.  An excerpt from a work in progress called Terrain, Prow portrays an alternating view of male and female as figurehead, alternately supported and thrust forth.
     The program will conclude with an encore performance of Moving On: dance and other transport phenomena which received a standing ovation on its premiere weekend last fall, and rave reviews from audience members.

This program is supported in part by a 2008 Grant from the Arts Council of Fort Worth and Tarrant County.

photo by Milton Adams

Spare Change: Modern dance without a shoestring
Friday March 6, 2009 at 8pm, Saturday March 7, 2009 at 2pm and 8pm
Admission:  $15 General/$8 Students & Seniors
(cash at the door, or advance sales via PayPal)
Sanders Theatre at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, 1300 Gendy St., Fort Worth, TX 76107 (corner of Lancaster and Montgomery, across the street from the Amon G. Carter Museum)

Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth continues the company’s 19th season with Spare Change: Modern dance without a shoestring, at the Sanders Theatre in the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. Within the intimacy of the Sanders black box theatre, local audiences will experience diverse music and dance at one of the lowest ticket rates around. Ideal for our recessionary economic moment, there’s no dress code, no valet parking, and no pre- or post-show cocktail reception. Come as you are!

North Texas audiences will have a unique opportunity to preview an original work in progress, performed by internationally-acclaimed artists Caryn Heilman of LiquidBody Dance and composer and instrumentalist Nana Simopoulos. Icarus is an audience interactive solo for Heilman, with Simopoulos accompanying on sitar, didgeridoo and laptop. In this work, the Icarus experience blurs the separation between sky and sea, life and death and finds a more circular meaning within the movement that is discovered in the sound environments which the audience helps to create.

Caryn Heilman photo courtesy LiquidBody Dance

Another guest work – A knot of time – is set to a cello/piano piece composed by Eugenio Toussaint (Mexico), a poem by Federico García Lorca –– Sigue –– and a traditional Spanish poem in the cante jondo style. The poems are read in both Spanish and English. Choreographed by CD/FW Founder/Artistic Advisor Susan Douglas Roberts (Fort Worth), the Texas premiere of this duet will be performed by Mica J. Trojacek (Fort Worth) with former CD/FW company member Michelle Stutesman (Minneapolis). A knot of time was previously performed in the 2008 International Dance Festival in Madison, WI.

Choreographer/performer Tina Mullone (Louisiana) will premiere Soul Rebel. Inspired by a recent Mardi Gras parade in Louisiana, this solo work is a choreographer's response to cultural remnants of the old south. A longtime CD/FW company member, Mullone is currently teaching at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, and serving as a CD/FW Artistic Associate in residence for portions of the season.

Choreographer/performer Lori Sundeen Soderbergh (Fort Worth) and singer/songwriter Scott Lennox (Fort Worth) will perform Freedom Blues. This dance and song were inspired by a 2006 act of Congress that suspended habeas corpus, and were first presented at the 2007 Barefoot Brigade Dance Festival.

The Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth company will premiere Laughing All The Way To The Bank – a large group work choreographed by CD/FW artistic director Kerry Kreiman in collaboration with the performers. The dance takes a whimsical look at world-wide economic collapse, and features a special guest performance by local banker/tap dancer Leslie Houston. From Wall Street, to Main Street, to the ever-shrinking wallet in your own back pocket, the CD/FW dancers will romp and bop through recent headlines and cultural icons.

This program is supported in part by a 2009 Grant from the Arts Council of Fort Worth and Tarrant County.

Out of the Loop Fringe Festival at the Water Tower Theatre
March 15, 2009, 5pm
Water Tower Theatre, Addison

CD/FW and guests will perform Twyla Tharp’s "The One Hundreds: Phrases 1-100" during this festival for alternative arts. Learn more at www.watertowertheatre.org

ABOUT "THE ONE HUNDREDS"
Twyla Tharp premiered "The One Hundreds" in 1970. When she originally developed the material for this dance she wanted to address three questions she faced as a performing dancer: 1) how accurate is my memory? 2) how good is my coordination? 3) how strong is my sense of beginnings, middles and endings? Tharp created 100 eleven-second phrases in answer to these questions.

Related to both the audience-participation element of Tharp’s "Dancing In the Streets..." and the rigors of Tharp’s "The Fugue," "The One Hundreds" presented an opportunity to put the dance audience on stage. (It was also an exercise in aesthetic and physical deterioration.) The movements, based on activities anyone, including non-trained dancers, could do, such as skip, hop, shiver, shake, didn't require virtuosos. "The One Hundreds" progressed as follows: first, two well-versed and skilled dancers execute, in unison, 100 eleven-second phrases separated by four-second pauses; next, five dancers each do 20 different phrases simultaneously; finally, 100 audiences members appeared and all together executed the entire set of variations, thus taking eleven seconds to show what the two dancers did in approximately 25 minutes, and what the five dancers showed in approximately five minutes. In effect, as the time lessens, so does the rigor and definition of the dancing, which at the climactic display of 100 individual soloists showed the dance phrases as "mere shadows of themselves."

"The One Hundreds" featured a variety of aesthetic explorations which were popular trends in the "avante garde" of the late 60's and early 70's: blurring the relationship between audience and performer, experimenting with new movement vocabulary (an on-going quest of all modern dance choreographers since the inception of the art form), and utilizing "democratic" choices of movement vocabulary by mixing the more "pedestrian" with the more "technical." "The One Hundreds" is a paradigm example of one of the underlying themes of the much of the history of modern dance, as choreographers have asked themselves "what is dance?" and "what else can be dance?"

The dance phrases include many challenges, choices and options for the performers, allowing a great deal of room for personal interpretation – actively integrating improvisation into the choreographic structure. This is also an important realm of the world of modern dance, as so many significant choreographers who have shaped the art form have found the marriage between chance and rigid structure as a way to celebrate and enjoy what every dancer already knows to be true: no two performances of any dance are ever the same.

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The presentation of "The One Hundreds: Phrases 1-100" is part of a year-long project with educational outreach components – during the 2008-2009 school year, CD/FW teaching artists are teaching some of the phrases to public school students during special residencies in North Texas schools, with those students then having opportunities to perform the phrases for their classmates and alongside CD/FW dancers during special lecture-performances on their school campuses.

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Twyla Tharp Biography
Since graduating from college in 1963, Twyla Tharp has choreographed more than one hundred thirty-five dances, five Hollywood movies, directed and choreographed three Broadway shows, written two books and received one Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, nineteen honorary doctorates, the Vietnam Veterans of America President's Award, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts and many grants including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 1965 Ms. Tharp founded her dance company, Twyla Tharp Dance. In addition to choreographing for her own company, she has choreographed for many other companies including: American Ballet Theatre, The Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Boston Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance and The Martha Graham Dance Company. Ms. Tharp's work first appeared on Broadway in 1980 with WHEN WE WERE VERY YOUNG, followed in 1981 by her collaboration with David Byrne on THE CATHERINE WHEEL at the Winter Garden. Her 1985 production of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN played at the Gershwin and was followed by an extensive national tour. In 2002, Ms. Tharp’s award-winning dance musical MOVIN' OUT set to the music and lyrics of Billy Joel premiered at the Richard Rodgers and ran for three years. A national tour opened in 2004 and also ran for three years. For MOVIN' OUT Ms. Tharp received the 2003 Tony Award, the 2003 Astaire Award, the Drama League Award for Sustained Achievement in Musical Theater; and both the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Choreography. For the London production Ms. Tharp won Best Choreography (Musical Theatre) Award of the UK's Critics' Circle National Dance Awards 2006. In 2006 Ms. Tharp worked with Bob Dylan’s music and lyrics to create THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’ which played at the Brooks Atkinson.

In film Ms. Tharp has collaborated with director Milos Forman on HAIR in 1978, RAGTIME in 1980, and AMADEUS in 1984, with Taylor Hackford on WHITE NIGHTS in 1985 and with James Brooks on I'LL DO ANYTHING in 1994. Her television credits include choreographing SUE'S LEG for the inaugural episode of PBS' DANCE IN AMERICA, co-producing and directing MAKING TELEVISION DANCE, which won the Chicago International Film Festival Award; and directing THE CATHERINE WHEEL for BBC Television. Ms. Tharp co-directed the television special BARYSHNIKOV BY THARP, which won two Emmy Awards as well as the Director's Guild of America Award for Outstanding Director Achievement. In 1992 Ms. Tharp wrote her autobiography PUSH COMES TO SHOVE. Her second book, THE CREATIVE HABIT: LEARN IT AND USE IT FOR LIFE was published in October, 2003. Today Ms. Tharp continues to create and to lecture around the world.

photo courtesy of Dallas Black Dance Theatre II

Barefoot Brigade Dance Festival

The Barefoot Brigade brings you a whole bucket full of dance from across the North Texas area for one of the cheapest tickets in town.

Program A: Friday April 3 at 8pm, Saturday April 4 at 3pm
Program B: Saturday April 4 at 8pm and Sunday April 5 at 3pm
Admission: $15 General / $10 Students, Seniors & Dance Council Members
TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR
Reservations can be made in advance by calling 214-886-2321.

WHERE: Bath House Cultural Center, White Rock Lake, Dallas, TX. Phone 214-670-8749
www.bathhousecultural.com
The Bath House Cultural Center is located at 521 East Lawther (at Northcliff) in Dallas.
To get to the Bath House Cultural Center: From Buckner Boulevard, turn west on Northcliff. Northcliff dead-ends into the Bath House Cultural Center, on the eastern shore of White Rock Lake. Yes, our address is 521 East Lawther Drive, and no, we cannot be reached using Lawther Drive.

Program A (Friday 8 pm / Sat 3 pm)

Barefoot Brigade members: 
Armstrong/Bergeron Dance Company (Artistic Directors Carisa Armstrong and Christine Bergeron -- Bryan/College Station) will perform the lighthearted group dance "Yes, No, Maybe." by Austin's Kathy Dunn Hamrick.

Mary Lynn Babcock (Denton) brings her collaborative multi-media, multi-disciplinary work "Earth 'n Hand" to the stage, with 10 dancers and video projection -- choreography by Mary Lynn Babcock, Marilyn Berret, and Lynnette Overby;  composer/remix by Jessie Coulter;  digital image design by Kenneth Verdugo; costumes by Kathleen Sheffield; poetry by Ellie Leonhardt.  This vibrant dance shows human beings in their multi-layered relationships with the land and the earth.

Beckles Dancing Company (Dallas) will perform excerpts from "Stuff Smith Stuff" celebrating the 100th anniversary of Stuff Smith's birth (Friday evening only), and the solo "Yor 11" in which dancer Stacey S. Lotten portrays a song of resignation (Friday and Saturday), with both works by artistic director Loris Anthony Beckles.

Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth will premiere "ground to air signals" -- an ethereal, fluid quartet created by artistic director Kerry Kreiman

DBDTII  (Dallas Black Dance Theatre II) offers dances by two of the companies lead choreographers:  the trio "1.2.3." by Edmond Giles, and artistic director Allyne D. Gartrell's group work "Sliver" -- in which the parts of a whole, when placed together, create a new portrait every time.

Out On A Limb Dance Company (Artistic Director L. Brooke Schlecte -- Waco) presents Sarah Newton's solo "Deconstructing" based on circle patterns

Adjudicated guests:

Ellie Leonhardt (Denton) presents"The Lament:  What if Beowulf was a woman?" created for soloist Kihyoung Choi.

Program B (Sat 8 pm /Sun 3 pm)

Barefoot Brigade members:

Tina Mullone in "Soul Rebel" photo by Milton Adams

Tina Mullone (Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth Associate Artist) performs her solo "Soul Rebel" which premiered at the Sanders Theatre in March --  inspired by a recent Mardi Gras parade in Louisiana, this solo work is a choreographer's response to cultural remnants of the "Old South."

Muscle Memory Dance Theatre (Dallas/Fort Worth) performs the group work "Saturation" -- a response to American indulgences of excess -- taking in more infornation than one can process, biting off more than one can chew -- the over abundance goes beyond becoming "full," leading to nausea and regret.  

Phase 2 Dance Ensemble brings three visions to the stage:  "The Art of Tantrums" choreographed and performed by Holly Arnold and Lauren Butschek-Neisler; the group work "Five Ill-Tempered Women... and One Guitar" by Lacreacia Sanders in collaboration with the performers; and Cristy Jefferson's "Un-in-tension-al conformity" -- a trio portraying the frustrations of pressure to conform to societies and peoples.

3Dance (Dallas) premieres the new collaborative duet "From Rain to Shine" with choreographer/dancer Angie Dutton performing alongside musician Robin Hackett.  Featuring music written by Robin Hackett and David White and video projection created by Angie Dutton.

Adjudicated guests:

DeKaDance (Dallas) -- This young company, under the direction of Kate Walker, makes its first appearance on the Barefoot Brigade festival, with the premiere of "Push Meets Shove at the Rag Doll Social" -- an athletic group dance featuring engaging partnering and quirky relationships illustrated through movement.

Outstanding Balance Dance Co. (Denton) -- Making their second appearance on the Barefoot Brigade, the company will premiere artistic director Michelle Contrino's group work "Free Association"

ABOUT THE BAREFOOT BRIGADE

The Barefoot Brigade is a coalition of area modern dance and performance art professionals and enthusiasts working to improve exposure, accessibility, and economics for artists creating new works. The Barefoot Brigade encourages collaborations between area artists and companies to support each other’s growth and impact on the local community. BB’s long-term mission is to develop a vibrant artistic community for modern dance choreographers and performers, and performance artists who emphasize movement in their work.

The Barefoot Brigade seeks to work alongside the larger community to develop the audiences, venues, and financial resources necessary to make North Texas a nationally-recognized community for the creation and presentation of innovative dance works.

Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth is a founding member of the Barefoot Brigade coalition for modern dance, contemporary dance, and performance art.  The members of the Barefoot Brigade collaborate to produce this annual festival and other Barefoot Brigade events, with programming varying from season to season.  In addition to the members listed above, other BB members include Out On A Limb Dance Company (Waco) and Lori Sundeen Soderbergh (Fort Worth).

This program is sponsored in part by the Bath House Cultural Center and the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs.

CD/FW and Friends Peform Twyla Tharp's The One Hundreds: Phrases 1-100 at the Fort Worth Water Gardens. Free Concert.
Last chance to see CD/FW and friends perform this iconic modern dance work
Friday May 15, 2009 at 7 pm
Fort Worth Water Gardens in downtown Fort Worth, 1502 Commerce St., Fort Worth, TX 76102 (web site)
FREE AND OPEN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC

CD/FW at the Water Gardens, 1990 photo by D.C. Roberts.

Members of the Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth company and guests will give a free performance of Twyla Tharp’s The One Hundreds: Phrases 1-100 at the Fort Worth Water Gardens Friday May 15 at 7pm.

When Tharp originally choreographed the dance in 1970, she wanted to address three questions she faced as a performing dancer: 1) how accurate is my memory? 2) how good is my coordination? 3) how strong is my sense of beginnings, middles and endings? Tharp created the 100 eleven-second phrases in answer to these questions. Combining imagery from traditional dance techniques, sports, and popular culture, Tharp's sense of eclecticism and adventure is apparent in these 100 dance phrases, which seem nearly as cutting edge today as they did in 1970. The series of phrases is like a series of short stories with a variety of references and entry points for different viewers.

CD/FW presented this work at the Modern Dance Festival at The Modern (at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth) last July and at the Out of the Loop Festival at the Water Tower Theatre in Addison in March. The company has also performed portions of it in special "Dance Delivered" educational outreach programs throughout the 2008-2009 school year. This free 25-minute performance is being added as an additional community outreach presentation.

Says company director Kerry Kreiman: "CD/FW only retains the rights to perform the choreography through May 23rd. We wanted to feature it somewhere in another outreach performance. The Water Gardens seem like a perfect fit. We're hoping to encourage people to visit the Water Gardens if they haven't been there since the renovation. So many people hang out in the Sundance Square area downtown and forget there is this beautiful landmark a little further south. The dance is only 25 minutes long, so it also makes for a fun event to tag onto other downtown entertainment options. The first poster we ever made for the CD/FW company featured dancers at the Fort Worth Water Gardens. As CD/FW approaches our 20th season, we are happy to celebrate our Fort Worth roots."

Photo by Gregg Gorman An innovator and visionary for modern and post-modern dance, Twyla Tharp has truly changed the shape of American modern dance and ballet for generations to come. Her early choreography explored many of the same issues as the Judson Church choreographers of the 1960's. Over time, her vision expanded to include "big ballet" and Broadway. Her musical "Movin Out" with music by Billy Joel is still touring the U.S. to popular acclaim. In 2008, Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth invited area dancers to celebrate her work with them, as they performed her 1970 work "The One Hundreds". Starting with a special staging incorporating the grounds of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth grounds and building with dancers scattered throughout. Tharp is renowned for creating works for alternative spaces -- gymnasiums, streets, parks, libraries, and museums. This unique presentation of her seminal work "The One Hundreds" at The Modern was presented with her blessings and great enthusiasm. Since then, CD/FW and friends have performed the work at other venues and in schools. Tharp is devoted to the possibilities and properties of physical movement. Simultaneously, she is less and less interested in the formal separation of audience and performer and has begun to create her works more and more in such a manner that an audience, which may not see all of a work, will pay more attention to what it can see. -Don McDonagh, The Rise and Fall and Rise of Modern Dance, 1970.

 

Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth presents the 6th annual Modern Dance Festival at The Modern July 17-August 2, 2009 Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 3200 Darnell St., Fort Worth, TX 76107 Admission: Free Schedule Friday - Saturday July 17 - 18, 8pm   CD/FW Dance Exchange, A Choreographers Showcase (performance) Saturday July 18, 2pm   Dancing On the Edge: My years with Cunningham and Farber (lecture and book signing), Jeff Slayton Saturday July 25, 1pm   Modern Dance 101 (lecture - performance), CD/FW members Saturday July 25, 2pm   Dance Screen Sweden - The New Mix (short films) Saturday - Sunday August 1 - 2, 1pm and 3pm   The Butterfly Effect and Other Beautiful Catastrophes (performance), CD/FW Saturday August 1, 2pm   Dance On Camera: Dance Shorts (short films) This summer, the 6th annual Modern Dance Festival at The Modern will once again celebrate the connections between modern dance, art, and music at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Produced by Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth in collaboration with the museum, the festival features new dance works from CD/FW and a variety of guest artists, a lecture and book signing by choreographer and former Merce Cunningham dancer Jeff Slayton, and a dance shorts film and video festival, among other events.

CD/FW Dance Exchange: A Choreographers Showcase Friday and Saturday, July 17-18, 8pm. Grand Lobby ground to air signals photo by Milton Adams Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth will perform Kerry Kreiman's ground to air signals which premiered on the Barefoot Brigade Dance Festival at the Bath House Cultural Center in April. A quartet created for Breanna Kimbley, Sarah Newton, Claudia Orcasitas, and Allison Perkins, the dance is structured as two simultaneous duets exploring the mysterious "ties that bind" between people, whether near or far. CD/FW artistic director Kerry Kreiman will perform the premiere of Verbal Translation by guest choreographer Jeff Slayton (Long Beach). Set to music by Austin composer William H. Meadows, "Verbal Translation" was created when Kreiman traveled to Long Beach last summer. Kreiman's artistic friendship with Slayton began many years ago as a student at the American Dance Festival, where she was selected for his repertory class in two different summers. Back in the studio together as choreographer/dancer for the first time since 1990, Slayton and Kreiman have enjoyed this process, and hope to continue their artistic collaboration in some capacity in the future. (artist bios)

Rebecca Gose Enghauser (Georgia), whose guest solo appearances with CD/FW in Fall 2006 at Orchestra Hall were met with great acclaim, returns with a duet entitled Shuffle Play. A former principal dancer with Garth Fagan Dance, Enghauser serves on faculty at the University of Georgia in addition to continuing her professional career as a choreographer and performer. Collaborator and fellow University of Georgia faculty member Denise Posnak (Georgia) will appear with her in this light-hearted duet set to Texas swing and country music. Succumbing to the delicious, soaring vocals and driving rhythms of popular country/folk songs from the likes of Hazel Dickens and Bob Wills, choreographers Rebecca Gose Enghauser and Denise Posnak created dance vignettes that play off the songs' phrasings, rhythms and structures, yet strive for an independent, thematic voice. (artist bios) Rebecca Enghauser photo by Martin O'Connor

Curtiss Wesley Curtiss Wesley (Dallas) makes his debut on the CD/FW Dance Exchange with his new contemporary dance company Liquid Movement in the premiere of A: I; OMO (Allein: Interpretation: One, Of Many, Of One) -- a collaborative work created with visual artist Gregory J. Singletary, and based on a series of Singletary's paintings. Singletary began the "ALLEIN" lingual series as counterpoint to messages of intellectual subversion perpetuated by current societal paradigms, customs, and traditions. Utilizing influences of lingual means of interpretation, and harmonic existence with natural environments (evident in studies of pagan and indigenous cultures worldwide, coupled with observed patterns of the natural world), a lexis of characters evolved to serve the function of reuniting the world of humanity with the world of the natural. The word "Allein," German, meaning "alone," has been reinterpreted as "without ornament," and indicates -- with regard to the ALLEIN lingual series -- a philosophy of living within the knowledge of an interconnection of all things. (artist bios)

Phase 2 Dance Ensemble will preview a work in progress by co-artistic director Lacreacia Sanders entitled Un...Break...Able -- the quartet explores the concept of being "broken" both physically and mentally, and pushes the boundaries of what our individual bodies can and desire to do. Phase 2 Dance Ensemble and many of the dancers/choreographers affiliated with the company have made numerous appearances on CD/FW concerts over the years, and have also collaborated with CD/FW and other members of the Barefoot Brigade coalition. (artist bios) Phase 2 Dance Ensemble

Shelley Cushman Choking the Earth? Just Take Off Those Clothes and Join the Water in D-Flat by Shelley Cushman is a collaborative group work with eight dancers and music composition/remix by Jesse Coulter of Vortexas. This work juxtaposes the everyday hustle and bustle of the human footprint left on the earth with the beauty of the healing earth we continue to destroy. Ultimately we will all be diluted into the earth's water and swim with the whales who "sing" in D-flat. Local audiences may remember Cushman's slow-motion dance happening during a previous festival, when her dancers evolved through a 3-hour installation scattered inside and outside the museum. A nationally-recognized Denton-based choreographer, she has also appeared with CD/FW at Orchestra Hall. (artist bios)

Jeff Slayton photo by Patricia Reynolds Dancing On the Edge: My years with Cunningham and Farber Saturday July 18, 2pm. Auditorium Jeff Slayton will teach a master class on Sunday July 19 on the TCU campus: more information Choreographer/dancer/teacher/author Jeff Slayton will share insights from his career, highlighting his many years with Viola Farber (both as a company member and former spouse), his tenure with Merce Cunningham, and the influences of working with them on his own choreography. A short video screening of a tribute to Viola will be featured, and Slayton will autograph copies of his book "The Prickly Rose: A Biography of Viola Farber" which will be available for purchase. The book includes photographs from a performance residency featuring Farber's "Brazos River" at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in 1976. Slayton has taught and choreographed throughout the U.S., Europe and South America, and was on the faculty at California State University, Long Beach for twenty-one years. He is also working on two new dance books. (Jeff Slayton bio) Modern Dance 101 (lecture-performance) Saturday July 25, 1pm. Auditorium Members of the CD/FW company provide an introduction to the basic philosophies and styles of modern dance.

The Hidden (from Dance Screen Sweden) photo by Bogdan Szyber Dance Screen Sweden - The New Mix (short films, adult content) Saturday July 25, 2pm. Auditorium See some of the best Swedish dance films of the last 13 years selected for an eclectic short film series.  "The Rain" -- Pontus Lidberg's collaboration with Christopher Wheeldon --  has been screened and praised repeatedly around the world, and Klara Elenius' "Insight" was shown last fall by the Dance Films Association at The New Museum of Contemporary Art.  Other titles include:  "The Hidden" by Jonas Akerlund, "Rewind" by Magne Antonsen, and "Weightless"  by Erika Janunger.  (film reviews) The Butterfly Effect and Other Beautiful Catastrophes Saturday - Sunday August 1 - 2, performances at 1pm and 3pm. Grand Lobby A collaboration between Austin composer William H. Meadows and choreographer Kerry Kreiman and CD/FW members, this collaborative work will use interactive technology to transform dancers' movements and gestures into sound using Nintendo WiiMotes and wireless microphones and transmitters. Meadows will use a variety of programs he has constructed using Kyma DSP software to exploit the buttons and accelerometers on the WiiMotes, which have been configured for real time control of LIVE software. Utilizing ideas from chaos and catastrophe theory as part of a chance structure, each performance will be a unique event.

Horizon of Exile photo by Isabel Rocamora Dance on Camera: Dance Shorts (short films) Saturday August 1, 2pm. Auditorium See some of the most popular short films from the Dance On Camera Festival 2009. CD/FW is a Domestic Touring Partner with the Dance Films Association of New York City. The Dance on Camera films are presented as part of the touring program for the Dance On Camera Festival co-produced by the Dance Films Association and the Film Society of Lincoln Center with support of the National Endowment for the Arts. Horizon of Exile by Isabel Rocamora, United Kingdom/Spain (2007, 22 min.) A journey of two women across timeless desert landscapes is punctuated by voice testimonies of Iraqi exiles. Set to a soundtrack by Jivan Gasparyan with the hypnotic voice of Surma Hamid, an Iraqi exile now living in London, the bodies betray a serene violence, travelling as though released from consciousness or gravity, falling and recuperating, haunted by an irrepressible past.

The Mysteries of Nature Photo by Dahci Ma The Mysteries of Nature by Dahci Ma, South Korea (2008, 10 min.) The 2009 Dance On Camera Jury Winner -- "Torn into bits and gone with the wind."

Shake Off by Hans Beenhakker, The Netherlands (2007, 9 min.) Prince Credell solos in this HD recorded dance film in one continuous shot. The camera follows an exceptional dancer as he moves magically through different times and spaces. The athleticism and bold surprises lure the viewer into a dynamic world which teeters between the impossible and the real. The dancer can't or won't stop dancing till he finds his goal. Best Artist Performance Award at Golden Lion International Film Festival. Now playing twice a day before "Tessunstand" by Mijke de Jong in theatres in The Netherlands. Shake Off Photo by Hans Beenhakker

 

So You Think You Can Dance? You can be our dancing partner, too! As we prepare for the 20th season of the CD/FW company, your support is an investment in the vibrant artistic life of our community. Donations of all sizes help us to produce this free festival and other events throughout the North Texas area and beyond. $5 can help repair a costume or purchase videotape $10 pays for cardstock for programs. $15 pays for 1 roll of gaffer's tape to help lay a dance floor or tape down cables. $60 helps to sponsor the screening fees for one short film. $150 provides a month of liability insurance for programs. $250 can purchase a planet ticket for a guest artist. $600 produces a lecture-performance at an area public school. Make your tax-deductible donation today by clicking over to our donations page here. Whether or not you are able to make a gift today, you can support our programs by helping to spread the word about upcoming events to friends, family, colleagues...

This program is supported in part by a 2009 Grant from the Arts Council of Fort Worth and Tarrant County.

Courtyard by Marriott Special thanks to Courtyard by Marriott for sponsoring the 6th annual Modern Dance Festival at The Modern For accommodations near Fort Worth's cultural district, click here for more info.