August 31, 2010

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - UAB's Alys Stephens Center will present Southern Danceworks in an exciting, contemporary ASC Kids' Club program that explores the creative process between choreographers, dancers and musicians.

The ASC Kids’ Club is a series of one-hour performances designed to educate and entertain kids while exposing them to different art forms. Southern Danceworks is Alabama's oldest professional modern dance company. Under the guidance of Artistic Director Teri Weksler, the company will perform with guest artist Germaul Barnes, a New York City-based, award-winning choreographer, with Birmingham's own violinist/violist/composer Karen Bentley Pollick and percussionist/composer John Scalici.

The ASC Kids' Club will present two performances, at 1:30 and 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010, in UAB's Alys Stephens Center, 1200 10th Ave. South. Tickets are $8 kids, $10 adults. Call 205-975-2787 or go to www.AlysStephens.org.

Barnes, formerly of the Bill T. Jones Company, will join the dancers and musicians in exploring how art forms intersect and how artists inspire each other. Using his new work created for Southern Danceworks, "Distinct Destiny with an Open Fist," Barnes and the dancers will "show and tell" how the choreography was made from the germ of an idea to its culmination in a work of art. Barnes also will perform a solo, accompanied by the musicians, that he created specifically for the ASC Kid's Club and the Alys Stephens Center Meet the Artist programs.

Weksler, Pollick and Scalici will talk to children about the collaborative process used to create their new work, "Quips and Cranks" and perform excerpts that feature the composers-musicians along with the dancers. "Quixotic," a dance originally commissioned by the Alabama Ballet and choreographed by Weksler to a driving Percy Grainger piano score, will round out the program.

About UAB's Alys Stephens Center

The Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center, part of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is one of the Southeast's premier performing arts centers, hosting the best in international, national and local performance. Home to the UAB departments of theatre and music and the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, the ASC also presents its own season, bringing the world's best music, dance, theater, comedy and family entertainment to Alabama.