Two collaborating Ohio State College of the Arts departments bring music – from hard rock and jazz to an African funeral song – together with a wide range of modern dance styling for a performance at 8 p.m. tonight entitled “Drums Downtown.”
The event was organized by Susan Powell, assistant professor of music, at the urging of Karen A. Bell, the dean of the College of the Arts.
“Karen Bell wanted more exposure (for the music department) outside of the school,” Powell said. “She asked if I would do this and I said ‘yes.'”
This one-night-only event features OSU’s percussion ensemble performing a wide range of musical styles.
The ensemble will perform one of its staples, “Ionization,” written by Frank Zappa’s idol, Edgard Varese. Varese has been the inspiration for many artists including The Grateful Dead, Chicago and Laurie Anderson, and is revered by Charlie Parker, Roland Kirk and many other avant-garde jazz musicians.
Fittingly, rocks will be used as instruments by percussionists when Erik Stokes’ theatrical piece “Rock & Roll” is preformed by the groups.
Further rocking of the house will come from a piece titled “Bonham,” inspired by Led Zeppelin’s legendary drummer John Bonham. It’s an energetic tribute to Bonham’s music by Christopher Rouse.
“(This is) the loudest piece in the program by far,” Powell said.
The ensemble will also perform the big band-inspired “Petite Suite” by Billy VerPlanck.
Dance students will put movement to the music of three additional works.
Susan Hadley, professor of dance, choreographed a high energy and driving piece to accompany the ensemble’s performance of “Omphalo Centric Lecture,” a marimba quartet by Nigel Westlake.
“For this piece I’m trying to really mirror the energy and vitality in music so that it becomes, in some ways, a physical manifestation of the rhythm and the energy of the music,” Hadley said.
Hadley also choreographed dances that will be performed to “Song of the Yeve Cult,” which is a transcription of a traditional African funeral song.
“The dance has a mournful tone to it,” said Hadley. “It is much more somber.”
Rounding out the dance department’s contribution to the show is a contemporary pairing choreographed by Masters in Fine Arts students Teena Custer and Chad Hall set to Lou Harrison’s “Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra.”
Recent OSU graduate Tara Vinson will add the violin to the percussion for this piece.
Custer and Hall, who met as undergraduates at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, have been choreographing together for five years. The piece they will perform is part of a master’s of fine arts project.
It is a modern dance duet featuring contemporary pairing, where both male and female dancers perform lifts of one another.
“It’s very physical and shows a relationship that is pretty intimate but also very athletic,” Custer said
Students and faculty from both departments enjoyed working with one another on this project.
“I count myself lucky that I hung around and this happened before I graduated,” said Steve Hauber, a graduating senior in music. “It’s been a one-of-a-kind event,” Powell said.
The performance begins at 8 p.m. at the Riffe Center’s Capitol Theatre, 77 S. High St. Tickets are $15 for general admission and $10 for students and are available from CAPA at 469-0939.
