This improvisational music-dance project launched in December 2006 is co-directed by
Lois Welk and Jim Donica in collaboration with the jazz ensemble - Acoustic Power Trio.  

Moving The Music, a spontaneous combustion of music and dance premiered on Friday, December 1, 2006 - 7:30pm at 171 Cedar Arts Center’s Studio Theater in Corning, NY.  Jim Donica leads the Acoustic Power Trio, a jazz combo, consisting of Donica on bass, Tim Armacost on saxophone and Shingo Okadairu on drums. During the second set of the show, dancers join the musicians, responding to a shared score for improvisation co-directed by Lois Welk, Artistic Director of the American Dance Asylum and Jim Donica. The dancers are Chase Angier (Alfred, NY), Naomi Goldberg-Haas (New York, NY), Beth Hochuli (Corning, NY), Mary Ellen Lagana (Norwich, NY), Kevin Scarpin (New York, NY) and Heather Waldon-Arnold (New York, NY).

“The idea for the project is rooted in a little experiment we conducted in 2003”, explained Lois Welk. “Jim was performing on the 171 Jazz Series and he invited me to collaborate on a short improvisation with dancers. Since then we’ve been looking for an opportunity to pursue the collaboration.”

The performance is made possible in part with funding by the NYS Music Fund administered by the Rockefeller Foundation and with the support of 171 Cedar Arts Center.

Lois Welk