American Dance FestivalFor 3 weeks in June, I was located in Durham, NC as an accompanist for the dance festival. This festival lasts for a total of 6 weeks and is a combination of dance classes during the day by renown national and international dancers. In the evening, concerts were presented, two different troupes a week. Some of the companies included in the first three weeks were
Paul Taylor,
David Dorfman,
Pilobolus, and
Rhythm Suites: Kathak and Tap Dance featuring Pandit Chitresh Das and tap star Jason Samuels. In the last 70 years the festival premiered more than 570 dance works, many of them landmark dances commissioned by the ADF. Today, they are continuing their tradition of discovering, commissioning, and bringing recognition to many of moderns dance's finest talents. It was a great honor for me to join the facility for the first half of the season.
My job was primarily to accompany the classes during the day. There are 10 or so accompanists and our classes rotate weekly, varying between 2 and 3, two hour classes per day. I accompanied for
David Dorfman,
Lisa Race,
Ursala Pane (formally of the
Urban Bush Women),
Keith Thompson,
Ming-Lung Yang and
Tatiana Baganova (Provincial Dances Theatre [Russia]). I also taught a one time music class for dancers on counting and breaks in dance. It was a rewarding and challenging experience and pressed me to come up with a barrage of musical ideas to keep the classes flowing. This was invigorating to me and I enjoyed the challenge. Starting in the third week, most classes were in the fairly repressive Durham heat. A good incentive to work hard and sweat a lot!
One highlight included
Musicians Concert (June 21), the only event with no dance. Personally, this was a high point for me. I was able to premier a piece called
"Gift", a tribute to
Martha Graham, one the originators of ADF in 1936 in Bennington, VT. Her famous quote, "There is a vitality, a quickening, a life-force…"served as the inspiration for the piece and now one the pieces to add to a solo percussion show that I have been working toward. I used the quote as a speech, multi music media piece. It went over quite well and I now just have to continue tweaking it for future performances. I also performed in a Cuban ensemble with
Vladimir Espinosa. This was a mix of traditional religious music and secular folkloric pieces. Also, in this ensemble an old friend,
Bradley Simmons and an ex-student, Justin Hill. Next came the ensemble with
Khalid Saleem. Another reunion of old drumming buddies and great time as we played a rhythm called
DunDunBa. What a highlight for the summer. We closed the night with a jam with
John Hanks, group with
Willie Painter,
Greg Dittmar and ADF musician,
Jefferson Dalby. A good time was had by all, especially when the ADF students started break dancing in the middle of Baldwin Auditorium.
Another highlight included performing in the concert honoring
Chuck Davis, the receipt of the
2006 The Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewy Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching. This Chair pays tribute to teachers who have shaped and preserved modern dance across generations. During the early 1990's, I was performed with
Chuck Davis African - American Dance Ensemble under the music direction of my teacher,
Khalid Saleem. It was of great honor and pleasure to reunite with my old teacher and play traditional West African music again with Chuck and many of the former members of AADE. After living in Nashville for 10 years, I can't adequately describe feeling of joy and love during these moments. I am certainly a blessed man and I remember why I signed up for this crazy life as a musician - for moments like these.
Footloose Tour/American Dance and Music WeekThe reason that I didn't spend the entire season at the ADF was my gigs with the Chapel Hill band,
Footloose. On July 1st, I flew CA and started working the first week for
American Dance and Music Week which is organized by the Bay Area Country Dance Society. It was located at the Mendocino Woodlands in the coastal Redwoods of Northern California. Besides Footloose, the other musicians included
KGB, Mary Lea and Jim Oakden. It was also a real pleasure to work with caller,
George Marshall of Wild Asparagus, Cis Hinkle and renowned dance historian, Richard Powers.
This state park was an incredible divergence from the NC heat. It was so beautiful there and the folks that put it on are real jewels. It was a great week of music, contra dancing and just plain fun. This crowd loved to laugh and create interesting pastimes. I taught a drum class for the week to a very enthusiastic group of students. On my night off, went into Mendocino and witnessed one of the most gorgeous sunsets I have ever seen off the cliffs over the Pacific. The colors just lingered and lingered on for what seemed forever. Then a fine outdoor meal of Pacific Halibut and California wine. Wow, what a week.
On Saturday, July 8, we left the camp to begin our tour of contra dances and house concerts. The tour included
Palo Alto, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, and San Diego. We say some old friends, made new ones and the band seemed to be a hit everywhere we played. Footloose is a 4 piece band made up of my old friend,
David DiGiuseppe, on accordion,
John Davidson, a Scottish fiddler that I discovered on a bulletin board in a Nashville coffee shop, and
Pete Campbell, a pianist the I have known and played with for many years. For this gig, I am playing a box called a
Cajon which serves the function of a drum set for acoustic situations. It works well for this set-up and I add things like Djembe, Congas, Snare, Cymbals and various percussion instruments. It's also a easy set up that works well for airplane dates. I rent the bigger stuff if needed and carry the basic gear.
Several tour highlights - concerts in a club in Pasadena and in Santa Cruz offered a chance to do some additional songs and other non contra dance music. This band has really started to jell and is coming into it's own. It was a pleasure to be able to feature the Cajon as an artful instrument and to explore the rhythmic and tonal aspects of it.
In addition, the food in CA was amazing. Such fresh fruit and vegetables. I felt very healthy after the trip was over.
The last night we played in
Santa Barber. It was an incredible hall that you could adjust the amount of tension in the floor! Also, afterwards, we stayed in a house on the top of the hills overlooking Santa Barber and the site was breathtaking. You could see the ocean as well as all of Santa Barber lit you below. On the drive on the windy road up, we passed Oprah's CA house but of didn't have time to stop and say hello - ha. California is an amazing place and I really love it every time I get to visit.
