TItle: Red Trail to Open Field

Premiere: Presented by Ann Arbor Dance Works, June 5,6, 7 & 8, 2003. Matthaei Botanical Gardens Red Trail, University of Michigan, Pt. III of “A Triptych of Site-Specific Dance Works”

Duration: 40 minutes

Funding: The University of Michigan Office of the Vice President for Research; the UM Matthaei Botanical Gardens;

Composer: David T. Little

Costume Design: Holly Furgason

Dancers:  Shirley Axon, Kelly Bowker, Leah Converse, Nancy Heers, Emily Kahn, Mudhillun MuQaribu, Annabel Weiner, Beth Wielinski, Angela Youells

Percussionists: Adam Josephson, David T. Little, Nicole Turney

Saxophone: Gerhard Schultz

Description: The performance led the audience to seven locations on the “Red Trail” that winds along Fleming Creek in Ann Arobr’s Matthaei Botanical Gardens. Embarking on the idyllic and secluded trail over a constructed wetland, the dancers performed on wooden bridges, in a gazebo, in the meandering stream of Fleming Creek, down long, grassy paths, in a woodland wildflower garden, and concluded in a spacious, open field. Each scene along the way invited movement that responded to the textures, rhythms, spatial features, and moods of these evocative settings. Nine dancers from the Ann Arbor community, ranging in age from 7 to 75, performed. Composer David T. Little created and performed an original work for the dance. The music was performed by a saxophonist and three percussionists who generated sound from materials found along the trail--stone, wood, water.

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