The Lula Washington Dance Theatre (LWDT) has been invited to perform at the San Jose Jazz Festival in 2012 with music by drummer Marcus L. Miller and sax player Kamasi Washington.
The dance company performs on Sunday, Aug. 12, 2012, at 1 pm. It will be the first time the dance company has appeared in an exclusively jazz festival outside of Los Angeles.
LWDT danced at the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival in 2010 with trumpet player Terrence Blanchard (photo above). Lula Washington choreographed to Blanchard’s “Choices” CD using a mix of locked-in contemporary choreography with African-dance style improvisation to Blanchard’s fiery jazz trumpet sounds.
For the San Jose Jazz Festival, LWDT will bring Marcus L. Miller with his Freedom Jazz Movement band; and Kamasi Washington with his group, The Next Step. Each band will play alone and with the dancers. The two bands share Kamasi and some of the other musicians.
The dance company will perform Lula Washington’s Spontaneous Combustion, which LWDT toured to 12 cities in China in 2011. Other works include Lula’s “We Wore The Mask”; Tamica Washington-Miller’s “Beautiful Venus And Serena”; and her work, “In The Garden”.
Lula is considering reviving her work, “Om”, which is set to music by John Coltrane; and a 2001 work set to McCoy Tyner’s “Flyin In The Wind.” The two bands will collaborate on the Coltrane and Tyner songs.
Design is based on a theme by GPP
All content © 2012 Lula Washington Dance Theatre
