People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City in collaboration with the Owen/Cox Dance Group
la Esquina (an Urban Culture Project space) 1000 W. 25th Street 816.221.5115
Performances: Friday October 5, 8 pm & Saturday October 6, 8 pm
$10 donation
Tickets can be ordered in advance by calling 816-931-1277, or on-line at www.owencoxdance.org
Tickets also available at the door.
The People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City in collaboration with the Owen/Cox Dance Group will present two evenings of contemporary dance and live music at Urban Culture Project’s la Esquina, Friday October 5 and Saturday October 6, 8 pm each evening.
The Owen/Cox Dance Group will premiere two large-scale works, "Five Dances" and "12 Miniature Blues," with music composed by Brad Cox and choreography by Jennifer Owen. "Five Dances" imagines a world in which the succinct song structures and grandiose arrangements of 1960's pop music are viewed through the lens of free jazz abstraction. "12 Miniature Blues" is a Webernesque study of essential melodic and rhythmic blues motifs. These highly collaborative works will examine various points on the continuum from strict choreography/composition to free improvisation, thereby shifting the traditional roles of leadership among dancer, choreographer, musician and composer. Also on the program will be pieces conceived and led by band members P. Alonzo Conway, Bill McKemy, Jeffrey Ruckma, and Mark Southerland. These selections will include elements of Afro-Cuban ceremonial drumming, music performed on Mark Southerland’s playable (and sometimes wearable) horn sculptures, a guest appearance from the Richmond High School Marching Band, and the guided group improvisation technique, conduction. This project will involve eight dancers and eighteen musicians.
The People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City was established in 2006 as an open forum for contributing composers and arrangers to present new music. The group's basic orientation is rooted in the jazz tradition, and is based around a core instrumentation of four saxophones, trumpet, trombone, French horn, tuba, piano, bass, guitar and drums. Members are welcome and encouraged to bring additional instruments or musicians to the group for their individual compositional efforts. In December, 2006, the group received widespread praise for its inventive reconstruction of Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker."
The Owen/Cox Dance Group was formed by dancer/choreographer Jennifer Owen and composer Brad Cox in order to present their original music and dance collaborations. Juxtaposing a wide range of traditions and styles, Owen and Cox create worlds of sound and movement ranging from collisions of comic absurdity to unexpected revelations of beauty. The Owen/Cox Dance Group is comprised of a diverse yet close-knit group of Kansas City dancers and musicians deeply committed to performing contemporary dance with live music. In addition to presenting dance and music performances onstage, the Owen/Cox Dance Group is dedicated to community outreach and education, with particular focus on programs for economically disadvantaged children.
An initiative of the Charlotte Street Foundation, Urban Culture Project creates new opportunities for artists of all disciplines and contributes to urban revitalization by transforming spaces in downtown Kansas City into new venues for contemporary art and cultural programming.
