Besides "organizing" musicians, I played the following nine classes:
- Gerri Houlihan's ADF Audition Class (co-accompanied w/ percussionist Bryan Maurer)
- Elizabeth Ahearn (Goucher) Ballet
- Randy James (Rutgers) Modern (co-accompanied w/ percussionist Bryan Maurer)
- Terence Duncan (CC Morris) Ballet
- Cherie Bower (Elon) Ballet
- Yoav Kaddar (WVU) Paul Taylor Technique (co-accompanied w/ percussionists Bryan Murer and Dale Lazar)
- Christina Soriano (Wake Forest) Comp/Improv
- Amanda Kinzer (ODU) Modern co-accompanied w/ percussionist Ian Meeks)
- Renay Aumiller (Elon) Contemp
- Adjudicator Susan Hadley (co-accompanied w/ Marc Langolier)
- Christian von Howard (VCU) Contemp Ballet
- Megan Thompson (ODU) Contemp (co-accompanied w/ Robbie Kinter and Bentley)
- Amanda Kinzer (ODU) Modern
- Stephanie Milling (Winthrop) Ballet
- Christine Soriano (Wake Forest) Improv (co-accompanied w/ Marc Langolier)
- Cherie Bower (Elon) Ballet
- Cat Maguire (Piedmont) Bartenieff
The highlight of this Festival was the gathering of some of North Carolina's most "venerable" musicians, including Ken Ray Wilemon, Jefferson Dalby, and Natalie Gilbert. It was my delight and honor to be part of a long-lasting and wondrous Open Jam with perhaps 70 or 80 dancers in a ballroom, with no set agenda and no specific "teacher" at all, with ensemble improvisation by myself, Natalie, Jefferson, Ken Ray, and Gregg Lee. Unforgettable.
I also played the following classes:
- Nicole Martinelli, Modern
- Jane Wellford, Improv
- Christina Soriano, Improv
- and I added voice to Ken Ray Wilemon's drumming for Mark Magruder, Modern
This one was special, for me: being back at Goucher (my alma mater, and my workplace for so many years) with many of the same dance faculty still there (and "echoes" of those no longer there) and fond memories of all the endless stream of excellent Guest Artists across the decades... I played in the very same dance studio where I first began accompanying as a Work-Study undergrad in the sixties, forty years ago - playing for Guest Artists like Paul Taylor before they had even become such household names.
Tender nostalgia. The lovely Kraushaar Auditorium stage, where I first played live for choreography in performance, where I helped run the lights for the mind-boggling Alwin Nikolais company when he was there as Guest Artist in 1970, where I first saw Eiko and Koma and so many others, where I played (along with Ferd Maisel) for choreography Gus Solomons jr had set on the Goucher dancers in '93 - twenty years after I had first played for his Guest Artist classes there. One more chance to try to thank Chrystelle Bond (the former Chair who first brought me into the studio to play for dance), and Amanda Thom Woodson (the next Chair, with whom I have worked in various capacities at Goucher College, Carver Center for Arts and Technology magnet school, and Surge Dance Company many years). And Elizabeth Ahearn (whose excellent ballet classes at Goucher and at Carver have always stood for the height of professionalism, to my eye). Great faculty.
Wonderful memories. Wonderful Festival.
I played for two Ballet classes, and a big-movement Modern taught by Autumn Belk from NC State, and an Improvisation-as-Choreographic-Tool taught by Jane Wellford from Elon.
- played delicately for Adjudicator Joann Mendl Shaw's Physical Listening class for faculty
- played wildly for Tom Smith for a great Taylor-esque class
- Ballet for Sharon Garber
- Ballet for Sherry Jerome
- Ballet for Mickie Geller
This was musically a very exciting ACDF, since three other musicians and I got to jam together for several Modern classes! Fun. My thanks to Brian Casey, DJ Dorian, and Salvador Barajas, we were quite an ensemble.
- Int Mod for Deborah McLaughlin
- Int Mod for Roxann Morgan
- Int/Adv Mod for Autumn Belk
- Adv Mod for James Frazier
- Mod for Sandra Lacy, as part of the jam group
- Adv Mod for E.E. Balcos, as part of the jam group
- Bebe Miller Adv Mod. joined by my bass player Michael Sisson
- Played for Jessica Zeller Ballet
- Laura Morton Contemp. Ballet
- Chase Angier Int. Mod.
- James Hansen Int/Adv Mod. a most enjoyable class to play
- also jammed with Sue Chess for Steve Stone's Cunningham Mod.
This was a challenging ACDF to play, since there was no piano or keyboard available for any of these classes, so all my accompaniment was therefore just some combination of my guitar, percussion, and/or voice - for all eleven classes including all the Adjudicators!.
- Adjudicator Bill Evans' faculty-only master class
- Adjudicator Bill Evans' Laban-Based Modern (open to the students) master class
- Adjudicator JoAnn Mendl Shaw's Moving Through Space master class
- Adjudicator Helanius Wilkins' Modern Fusion master class
- Paul Matteson's ADF Audition master class
- Played for (from Oberlin) Holly Handman's Advanced Modern Up-Ending class
- (from Pilobolus, etc.) Trebien's Intermediate/Advanced Modern class
- (from Wayne State) Kelly Gottesman's Intermediate/Advanced Modern class
- (from Europe, and now Belhaven) Stephen Wynne's Advanced Modern class
- (from Kenyon) Balinda Craig-Quijada's Intermediate/Advanced Modern class
- again for another Kelly Gottesman's Intermediate/Advanced Modern class
Note: In between these two ACDF Regionals, since I was working at Kenyon and Kenyon takes a two-week spring break, I also spent a few days back at Towson University in Maryland as a Guest Artist teaching the Music for Dance class there.
This was interestingly organized by VCU's full-time musician Robbie Kinter, who had gathered enough experienced dance accompanists for this festival that there were scheduled PAIRS of accompanists for many of the classes! There were also good pianos for all but two of the classes I played, so I used piano, guitar, percussion, and voice variously combined.
- Played (with local percussionist Marc Langelier) Shane O'Hara's Nagrin-Based Improvisation
- Played (with local percussionist Marc Langelier) Patrizia Herminjard's Chance Dance class
- Played (with percussionist Ken Ray Wilemon) Ray Schwartz' Intermediate Modern class
- Played (with percussionist Ken Ray Wilemon) Helanius Wilkins' Intermediate/Advanced Modern
- Played (solo) for (from Old Dominion) Amanda Kinzer's Intermediate Modern class
- Played (with pianist/percussionist Karen Follett) Helanius Wilkins' Performance Skills class
- Played (with percussionist William Goffigan) Gretchen Studlien-Webb's Intermediate Modern
- Played (with percussionist William Goffigan) an Advanced Modern listed as Sandra Lacy but taught by Reuben substituting for her
- Played (solo) Adrienne Clancy's Intermediate/Advanced Modern class
Played 8 classes and ALSO
TAUGHT a Music For Dance workshop.
Played for:
- Mark Taylor Body/Mind Centering Adjudicator's Class
- Two classes of Andre Kozlowski (Dance Alloy to 2003, University of
Pittsburgh, Germany, Switzerland, London):
Intermediate Ballet (in a room with no piano! I used guitar
and voice for ballet!), and Advanced Modern
- Elizabeth Trimm (LIU CWPost) Intermediate Modern Cunningham
- Balinda Craig-Quijada (Kenyon) Intermediate Modern
- Julie Brodie (Kenyon) Intermediate Modern
- Elaine Heekin (Hamilton College) Beg/Int Contemporary
- Jean Palmer-Fornarola (U Buffalo) with SRU accompanist David Ledbetter
The Workshop I taught was Tabloid Headlines Rhythm Game (the Link is to the International Guild of musicians in Dance site, where the handout from this Workshop has been archived), and about a dozen participants enjoyed the rhythms and choreographic ideas, and ended the time with a photo session where they took turns posing drumming/dancing!
Played 6 classes and ALSO
TAUGHT a Music For Dance Workshop
Played for classes taught by
Sybil Huskey (UNC Charlotte)
Debra Austin (Carolina Ballet)
Jolie Long (Brenau U)
David Beadle's Modern (he was subbing for absent Alvin Mayes)
Angela Hill (U Tenn)
and danah bella (Radford), who subsequently invited me down to Radford as a Guest Artist for two days the following November.
also played at NCArts "for fun" on the way to the ACDFA,
for Brenda Daniels excellent Advanced Modern Cunningham, with drummer John Pratt.
Played 13 classes (played every class slot every day including all three adjudicators' classes)
including Dan Wagoner's memorable Adjudicator's Class
Also played every class slot, 13 classes
Played numerous classes including Joseph Mills and Doug Hamby
Played numerous classes including Nancy Lanier again, Jaclynn Villamil, Mark Haim, Jim May, and John Brooks
Played numerous classes including Marina Walchli again, and Nora Ambrosio
Wonderful Festival, played for Doug Neilson, Viola Farber, Lan-Lan Wang, Julie Thompson, George de la Pena, and others
Possibly my favorite Festival ever, culminating with a six-musician miracle jam for Gus Solmons jr's Adjudicator's Class in a ballroom with probably 300 dancers none of whom wanted it to end! One of the greatest experiences of my entire music-for-dasnce life.
Playing for some of the best master-class teachers I have ever played for, including Woody McGriff, Walter Kennedy, Ken Talley, Nancy Lanier, and numerous others
While I was at University of Arkansas in the eighties, we (the University of Arkansas Fayetteville dance department) went down to one of the early ACDFA Regionals, in Oklahoma, a very low-key quiet gathering of U Arkansas Fayetteville, SMU, TWU, etc... That was the historical beginning of my happy addiction to ACDFA Regionals!