Jazz in AZ – Faculty Concert

JAZZ in AZ – One Act/One Hour

Jazz, tap and contemporary dance merge in this dynamic, one-act, performance.

On the program is Michael Williams’ virtuosic tap piece, AlittleSAXophoneSTORY, about a young man’s desire to play sax and his journey to achieve his goal. Set to a funky narrative score by Patrick Kunkel and M.in, a cast of seven light up the stage with complex rhythms. Sam Watson presents an excerpt from his piece Something Blues (2014). This quirky duet is performed to music by Canadian DJ Kid Koala featuring old blues recordings and a classic scratch track used in early Hip Hop recordings. Closing the show is Megalopolis, by Larry Keigwin, a native New Yorker and choreographer who has danced his way from the Metropolitan Opera to downtown clubs to Broadway and back. With commissions by such companies as the Royal New Zealand Ballet and the Martha Graham Dance Company, Keigwin is known for an electrifying brand of dance. Megalopolis is no exception, described by the New York Times as “….a divinely well structured encounter between formalism and club culture.” Enjoy these works and more in Jazz in AZ!