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Footprints

ADF Footprints Program
Friday, July 19, 2019
8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Footprints delivers an outstanding presentation of three modern dance classics, performed with impeccable technique and infectious energy by ADF students. Martha Graham's "Dark Meadow Suite" is made up of highlights from a much longer work by Martha Graham, "Dark Meadow," which premiered in 1946. The suite, created in 2016, is designed to feature the exceptional choreography that Graham created for the ensemble of dancers in "Dark Meadow." Both the unison dancing and the partnering have been recognized as some of Graham's most architectural, ritualistic, and profound creations. They are clearly inspired by Graham's love of the rituals of the natives of the American Southwest and Mexico, which she observed as a young woman. Merce Cunningham's "How to Pass, Kick, Fall and Run" has an athletic theme, without any specific references to games. The choreography keeps the dancers constantly in motion, never staying in a given place for very long, with two or three things simultaneously occurring on stage at all times. An esplanade is an outdoor place to walk; Paul Taylor, inspired by the sight of a girl running to catch a bus, created the masterwork "Esplanade" based on pedestrian movement. If contemporaries Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg could use ordinary "found objects" like Coke bottles and American flags in their art, Taylor would use such "found movements" as standing, walking, running, sliding, and falling.