|
|
WEEKEND ONE (Friday - Sunday, July 12-14)
|
Performance of Dance and Music
Friday July 12, 6:30pm, Grand Lobby
|
|
|
"Quartet Rolling"
photo: Jordan Fuchs |
The Texas New Music Ensemble (Houston) will be highlighted, with Dallas flautist Meg Griffith performing works by TNME composers: Chad Robinson (TNME Artistic Director), Joel Love, Till Meyn, Marcus Maroney, and Rob Smith.
Smith will premiere a new work in a Cage-Cunningham-type collaboration with Loris Anthony Beckles (Beckles Dancing Company, Dallas). Pairings will include experiments in simultaneity of art forms with guest choreographers/dancers performing to works they have not previously heard, including appearances by Collette Stewart (Madison, WI), Tina Mullone (LA/TX), Jessica Thomas (Celina, TX), and Mysti Jace Pride (Austin).
Additional works include an original duet by Julia Nova Cognito and her husband James Cognito blending ideas from the ballroom dance world with inspiration from Merce Cunningham’s work “Duets” with accompaniment by Fort Worth composer John Hopkins; and Jordan Fuchs’ (Denton) presentation of a segment of his 2019 work Once We Were Afraid of Being Changed. That is Done. with sound score by Andy Russ (Providence, former Music Supervisor for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company).
The program will close with Echoes of 4’33”: To Perform Or Not To Perform, That Is The Question, Asked and Partially Answered in about 10 minutes, Give or Take a Bit -- a whimsical structured improvisation in honor of John Cage designed by CD/FW artistic director Kerry Kreiman, variations of this framework will “not” be performed by volunteers from the audience and various human beings with or without previous non-performing experience. This non-performance is in honor of composer John Cage’s controversial work 4’33” which premiered in 1952, and which instructs the performer(s) not to play their instrument(s) throughout the piece. This playful tribute will shift from a non-performance to some impromptu “noise music” for the un-grand finale. |
“If The Dancer Dances”
Film screening and discussion with guest Gus Solomons jr
Saturday July 13, 12:30pm, Museum Auditorium
|
|
|
"If The Dancer Dancers" film still |
“If The Dancer Dances” (2019, 87 minutes – a documentary film by Lise Friedman and Maia Wechsler, edited by Mary Manhardt) follows one of New York City’s top modern dance companies as they struggle to reconstruct an iconic and mysterious work by the legendary Merce Cunningham, revealing what it takes to keep a dance – and a legacy – alive.
Unlike other live arts, dance has no script or score. Instead, dance is transmitted from body to body, one generation to the next. With unprecedented access, If the Dancer Dances delves into this intimate, unfolding process, as Merce Cunningham’s 1968 RainForest is brought to life once again. Starring the Stephen Petronio Company and members of the former Merce Cunningham Dance Company, including: Stephen Petronio, Gus Solomons jr, Andrea Weber, Davalois Fearon, and Gino Grenek. RainForest (as performed by the Stephen Petronio Company, 2015-2017) features music by David Tudor, décor by Andy Warhol, lighting design by Aaron Copp and costume design after the original design by Jasper Johns. Timed to coincide with Cunningham’s Centennial, If the Dancer Dances is the first documentary on the subject of Cunningham’s work since his passing in 2009. Guest speaker Gus Solomons jr (a former Cunningham company member who is featured in the film) will participate in a Q&A with the audience via Skype immediately following the film |
“Night of 100 Solos” film screenings in three locations
Film screenings and discussion with guest Gus Solomons jr
Saturday July 13, 3pm to 4:30pm (three locations)
|
|
|
Gus Solomons jr
photo: Jordan Matter |
Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event– With the original performances taking place on April 16th in New York City, Los Angeles, and London, the edited versions of this largest Cunningham Event ever will be displayed simultaneously in three locations:
Museum Auditorium -- New York City
Grand Lobby -- London
Gallery 14 -- Los Angeles
Note: Guest speaker Gus Solomons jr (a former Cunningham company member, choreographer, writer and dance critic) will introduce the screening of the New York City location video via Skype in the Museum Auditorium. Solomons was at the April 16th performance, and he will provide some context and background for the audience. |
Performance of Dance and Music
Premieres of several composer/choreographer collaborations will be featured.
Sunday July 14, 1:00pm, Grand Lobby
|
|
|
Collette Stewart
photo: John Maniaci |
Alisa Behrens (Birmingham, AL, former CD/FW company member and former director of the dance program at the Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts) returns to Fort Worth to premiere “Two and Two” with Oklahoma-based musician Andy Behrens (her brother).
Arlington composer George Chave is paired with Grand Prairie choreographer Lacie Minyard Sereika to create a new work for Momentum Dance Company (Irving). Momentum will also premiere “Partita,” a new group work by choreographer Ian Forcher (Irving) in collaboration with Brent Fariss of the New Music Co-op (Austin). Fariss will also present a new sound score for Kiera Amison’s trio “edikSHen” to be performed by Muscle Memory Dance Theatre (M2DT, Dallas).
Flatlands Dance Theatre (Lubbock) will premiere a new chance dance variation of a previously performed group work entitled “Havillah” – choreographer Allison Beaty and composer Neemias Santos are re-shuffling all of the content and applying chance determination to create a new structure from the original material.
Choreographer Jessica Thomas (Celina, TX) and composer David Bacon (Celina, TX) will premiere “Chance Divided by 2- #1” and “Chance Divided by 2- # 2” – an in the moment exploration on the nature of chance in two parts. One musician and one dancer merge together on the spot, riding the happenstance moments of movement, rhythm and sound from classical instruments and everyday objects.
Spoken word artist Tammy Gomez (Fort Worth) will share "Current thoughts" including memories of when she saw Cunningham & Cage in Austin.
Collette Stewart (Madison) will perform a chance dance variation of her solo “Dissolution” in silence after allowing audience members to draw playing cards to determine the order of the dance.
Julia Nova Cognito and her husband James Cognito will reprise their Friday premiere, blending ideas from the ballroom dance world with inspiration from Merce Cunningham’s work “Duets” with accompaniment by Fort Worth composer John Hopkins.
The program will close with a new incarnation of Echoes of 4’33”: To Perform Or Not To Perform, That Is The Question, Asked and Partially Answered in about 10 minutes, Give or Take a Bit – including audience volunteer opportunities. (see Friday July 12 description).
|
|
WEEKEND TWO (Friday - Saturday, July 19-20) |
Performance of Dance and Music
Friday July 19, 6:30pm, Grand Lobby
|
|
|
Tamsin Carlson in Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event at UCLA's Royce Hall.
Scenery: Jennifer Steinkamp
Photo: Reed Hutchinson/CAP UCLA. |
Special guest Tamsin Carlson will perform the Merce Cunningham solos she learned for the Los Angeles performance of the Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event. Both opening and closing the program, she'll perform the solos two different ways, with chance elements determining how they are performed.
Mary Hill of Lightbodies Geometries (Fort Worth) will premiere "Vortical Wave." Hill created the solo structure through the process of synchronicity inspired by the I Ching, and which will be further enhanced by audience participation in the sound element.
Additional performances will include choreography by Kali Taft Johnson (Kaliopi Movement Collective), Kerry Kreiman (CD/FW), and Jessica Thomas (Celina, TX).
Special musical guests from Austin’s New Music Co-Op: composers Andrew Stoltz and Travis Weller will perform on “The Owl” (an instrument created by Weller).
|
Viola Farber and the Cunningham Legacy
Screenings of Brazos River and January, and discussion with guest Jeff Slayton
Saturday July 20, 12:30pm, Museum Auditorium
|
|
A rare glimpse into The Modern’s archive, Brazos River (60 minutes) features the Viola Farber Dance Company in a special project which originated in Fort Worth. Shot in December 1976, this collaborative video features choreography by Viola Farber, music by David Tudor, and costumes/set by Robert Rauschenberg. The project was conceived by the Fort Worth Art Museum's Performing Arts Director, Anne Livet, in conjunction with their Texas Bicentennial program, and was co-produced by KERA-TV Channel 13, Dallas-Fort Worth.
According to the Rauschenberg Foundation, this project marked Rauschenberg's first use of video, and he spent time working with studio technicians to understand what colors could be best transmitted on television. Funding for the initial project included support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Texas Commission on the Arts & Humanities, the Fort Worth Art Museum, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Directed by Dan Parr.
Dancers featured: Jumay Chu, Larry Clark, Viola Farber, Willi Feuer, June Finch, Anne Koren, Susan Matheke, Andé Peck, and Jeff Slayton. Guest speaker Jeff Slayton will introduce the video and lead a Q&A with the audience. Farber and Slayton were members of the Cunningham company for many years, and this project is a perfect example of how Cunningham's work impacted the work of dancers who came out of his company. Special thanks to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth for contributing this work from their archives.
Slayton will also introduce a screening of Farber’s January (26 minutes) – Directed by Kevin Crooks in 1984, the Viola Farber Dance Company collaborated with TSW LTD to record her group work “January" at Dartington Hall in Devon, UK.
|
Introduction to the “Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event” screenings
Saturday July 20, 2:45pm, Museum Auditorium
|
|
Guest speakers Tamsin Carlson (featured performer from the Los Angeles location), Jeffrey Slayton (L.A. dance critic and former Cunningham company member), and Ken Tabachnik (executive director of the Merce Cunningham Trust), will give introductory remarks, background, and context regarding this special Event in honor of Merce Cunningham’s 100th birthday. In addition, all three will be available for audience Q&A immediately following the screening of the Los Angeles performance.
|
“Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event” screenings
Saturday July 20, 3:00-4:30pm (three locations)
|
|
Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event– With the original performances taking place on April 16th in New York City, Los Angeles, and London, the edited versions of this largest Cunningham Event ever will be displayed simultaneously in three locations:
Museum Auditorium -- New York City
Grand Lobby -- London
Gallery 14 -- Los Angeles
|
|
WEEKEND THREE (Thursday - Saturday, July 25-27) |
Performance of Dance and Music
Thursday July 25 and Friday July 26, 8:00pm, Grand Lobby
|
|
Lynn Lane and Jennifer Mabus of The Transitory Sound and Movement Collective (Houston) will perform "An Echo of Nothing." The title is taken from the John Cage quote, "Every something is an echo of nothing."
“Blind Collaboration” a collaboration between composer German Lopez (Dallas) and choreographer Anna Preston (Preston Contemporary Dance Theatre, South Florida). Through a chance drawing it was determined that the new group work will be 7:35 in length.
Muscle Memory Dance Theatre (Dallas) will perform artistic director Lesley Snelson’s quartet “Unveil Me” to a new sound score entitled "Heuristic Manifestations" by Fort Worth composer John Hopkins. Decisions about the harmonic and melodic content, a free parameter and a textual prompt will be extracted from an I Ching reading. The yins and yangs will be assembled into the free parameter number and a code that will select one of 8 songs popular in the year of Merce Cunningham’s birth, 1919. Audience members who arrive early may have the opportunity to influence the outcome of the music for the dance by participating in the I Ching reading with the composer.
“I’m tired of talking about race” - a new duet by Mel Mobley and Tina Mullone of M2 (Monroe, LA) based on a mesostic generated in a similar fashion to John Cage’s mesostics. Using names to create spine words and then chance procedures to populate the poetry read across, the music and dance that surround and accompany the poetry were built on the same chance procedures and the resulting text choices. Though most of the poem is read throughout the performance of the work, certain lines are left unspoken in homage to John Cage’s predilection for silence.
Choreographer Claudia Orcasitas (Fort Worth) is paired with composer Andrew Stoltz (Austin’s New Music Co-Op) for the premiere of her work “In transit" based on various combinations of solos determined through chance procedures. Immediately prior to the performance, the dancers will use a chance drawing to determine which solo they will perform within the work. Inspired by Cunningham’s unconventional ways to make dances, Orcasitas is using chance elements to explore the endless possibilities of human connections within a specific place and time frame. While Cunningham's work emphasized abstracted movement without character or story line, Orcasitas is interested in seeing how the chance elements might create their own “story” in the viewer’s mind.
Additional works include a group structure by Kerry Kreiman (CD/FW) in collaboration with the performers: Cher Anabo, Courtney Mulcahy, Tina Mullone, Claudia Orcasitas, and Jessica Thomas. |
Subject vs. Object: Can Dance Be Abstract?
Saturday July 27, 1:30pm, Museum Auditorium |
|
Lecture-performance and discussion exploring questions at the heart of the development of modern and contemporary dance. Attendees are invited to bring their questions and observations to a conversation led by CD/FW artistic director Kerry Kreiman. Experiments in trying to see human beings “abstractly” on the stage will be conducted in honor of the twentieth century dance maverick Daniel Nagrin, using some of the techniques he used to teach choreography and performance. |
“Found, 1972, an Open Audience Pedestrian Dance”
Saturday July 27, 2:30pm, Grand Lobby |
|
“Found, 1972, an Open Audience Pedestrian Dance” designed by performance artist Laney Yarber. Inspired by source materials from NYC-based post-modern choreographers of the 1960’s and 70’s, Yarber’s performance structure pays homage to aesthetics established by former Cunningham company members such as Yvonne Rainer and Steve Paxton, along with cultural and aesthetic influences from Taoist master Mantak Chia,
Dutch sound artist Jaap Blonk, and Russian director/actor/producer Vsevolod Meyerhold’s actor training system of “biomechanics” (which was a precursor to much of the “physical theatre” of the 20th Century). In the post-modern tradition, the purpose and boundaries of all art forms were tested to their limits, including what may or may not constitute a “dance.” Performers include: Clancy Manuel (sound creation), Tim King, Brian Patrick McCarthy, Katrina Perez-Titze, Jeffrey Pulis, Susan V. Taylor, and Laney Yarber. Volunteers from the audience will be invited to participate in a follow-the-leader fashion led by the performers. |
“Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event” screenings
Saturday July 20, 3:00-4:30pm (three locations)
|
|
Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event– With the original performances taking place on April 16th in New York City, Los Angeles, and London, the edited versions of this largest Cunningham Event ever will be displayed simultaneously in three locations:
Museum Auditorium -- New York City
Grand Lobby -- London
Gallery 14 -- Los Angeles
|
|
|