UA dance majors Ashley Bowman and Claire Hancock weren't thinking beyond their master's project performance last spring when they choreographed a concert that combined live music, dance and film on one stage.
But then the audience applauded, the ovations came and people approached them afterward: "When's the next concert? You guys are going to keep doing this, right?" Bowman recalled.
Thus was the genesis for Art.If.Act Dance Project, the months-old arts company that pays equal attention to dance, music and film in performances that oftentimes place all three disciplines on the same stage.
This weekend Art.If.Act will mount "Dance in Red," its second professional performance since launching last October. Proceeds will benefit the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation.
"Everybody involved has an equal part of it," said Bowman, who shares the title of Art.If.Act's artistic director with Hancock. "Not only are we maybe the first company (in Tucson) to work with live musicians, but we are the first to collaborate with them. And we integrate them on stage."
"As musicians, if we're playing in the pit, we're not seen, just heard, and that's fine. But I thought it was really exciting to be an integral part of the concert," added violinist Carla Ecker, who performed at Bowman's and Hancock's master's project concert with fellow Tucson Symphony Orchestra violinist Ben Nisbet. She and Nisbet, who is married to Bowman, share the title of the company's music director.
This weekend's fully professional concert will feature nine musicians from the ranks of the University of Arizona and Pima Community College; more than a dozen dancers with ties to the University of Arizona School of Dance; guest vocalists; and guest dancers and choreographers.
The program will include two restagings by Hancock - daughter of UA School of Dance Director Jory Hancock - of choreography by the late modern dance innovator and UA prof David Berkey; a movement from a Shostakovich piano trio; and a pair of screenings by two Tucson filmmakers - Jeejung Kim's "Facing the Monster" and Bowman's "Laundromats and Dreamdestroyers," paired with Ecker performing three pieces from Gershwin's opera "Porgy and Bess."
The show opens with Illinois composer Vincent Calianno's "To Boston for Sex," choreographed by Bowman. Another highlight could be "Mein Herz" (My Heart), a collection of Schumann songs set to choreography by Bowman, featuring guest tenor Chris Hutchinson and pianist Alexander Tentser.
The concert ends with the longtime local band Reverie, whose performance includes a song they wrote for Art.If.Act and the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation. Bowman and Hancock choreographed the song with UA choreography prof Elizabeth George.
Bowman said she has big hopes for Art.If.Act. The name comes from the group's belief that "art exists if we act upon our ideas to create it."
Bowman said she is in the process of filing it as a nonprofit arts organization, which could help it to get grants and other funding to support a two-concert season - one in the fall, one in the spring. From there, she hopes to grow it to more performances, combining the talents of Tucson's close knit arts community.
"Tucson is such a small world when it comes to the arts. Everybody is one degree of separation, so the people we line up are people we've worked with," said the 27-year-old Canyon del Oro High School graduate. "We're just gathering everybody together and we're having a really wonderful time."
"We're all working together and it's not like 'You sit over there and play your music and we're going to dance on stage.' That's what made it really exciting for me," said Ecker, 40, whose career also includes chamber performances and performing each summer with the Sante Fe Opera Orchestra. "It really takes a lot of effort and it takes the right people to make it happen."
If you go
Art.If.Act Dance Project "Dance in Red"
• What: A benefit concert for the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation.
• Featuring: The Art.If.Act dancers and musicians, guest vocalist Chris Hutchinson and guest choreographer Joshua Blake Carter. Tucson band Reverie will close the show.
• When: 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday; silent auction both nights at 6 p.m.
• Where: Stevie Eller Dance Theatre, 1737 E. University Blvd., on the University of Arizona campus.
• Tickets: $45 at the door or online at www.artifactdanceproject.com
• Details: 780-6879.
Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@azstarnet.com or 573-4642.
