Part of what uniquely informs my work as musician for dance is the fact that for seven years I taught modern dance and choreography, performed in my own choreography and in the works of others, and constantly created my own new choreography.

The three main settings in which I taught dance were Performing Arts Collective in Arkansas, Appel Farm summer arts program in New Jersy, and at Baltimore Actors Theatre Conservatory in Maryland.

I performed in choreography concerts with Performing Arts Collective and at Appel Farm.

My choreographic endeavors were first seen at University of Arkansas, by invitation of Dance Department Chair Terry Brusstar.

choreo: Escape From The Ozarks

Earliest works included
Escape From The Ozarks,
notable for its large
"doorframe" prop
from which the three
dancers variously hung,
and for the peel-away
costumes which ended up as
flames painted on white leotards.

I had brought from Goucher College
the concept of Contact Improv as well,
and this piece involved
numerous weight-bearing
two- and three-person
configurations...

Heavy Traffic, High Winds... An outdoor piece repeatedly performed in front of the University of Arkansas Student Union during National Dance Week 1982, with an electronic score I had concocted on the Music Department's by-then-antique but still wondrous Buchla Synthesizer. The large ensemble of dancers began the piece by walking incognito among the lunch crowd, curiously crumbling slowly to the ground as the strange music began emanating from unseen speakers. It was fabulous how much this could catch the crowd's attention! Then the choreography quickly picked up momentum and moved aggressively between/among the innocent bystanders.
choreo: Heavy Traffic, High Winds

choreo: Mysteries

Mysteries...
These last two images
are both from Mysteries.
Mysteries was a serious work
for the concert stage.
These three dancers
(Gail Leftwich, Susan Pehrson, and Pamela Jones)
brought a sophisticated beauty
to the line-oriented motif.
I myself, obscured under
monk's hooded cape,
played ominous bell-like sounds
from downstage left,
as the dance approached
and shrank back
from that darkened corner.

After these early works,
I formed Performing Arts Collective,
and although I have no
images to post from the ensuing years,
I will list some of my
other choreographic works,
below.

 choreo: Mysteries

My own, original, publicly-produced choreography (all with my own freshly composed music):

Escape From The Ozarks, UArk

Heavy Traffic, High Winds, UArk

Gate Gate, UArk

Mysteries, UArk

Healing Gestures, Simple Joys, UArk, and PAC in Fayetteville and in Eureka Springs

Mother Daughter Sister Self, PAC

The Earth and The Air, Appel

Threes, Appel

July, Appel

Wheels and Circles, Folding Unfolding, Appel

Trouble in Parachute, Appel

August, Appel

Christmas, Baltimore Actors Theatre Conservatory (not with my own music, with numerous tracks off the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas album)

 

I also did music, script, staging, choreography, etc. for two full-length original children's musicals - MAJOR productions - at St. James Academy in Monkton, Maryland

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