Opening event: CD/FW Dance Exchange: A Choreographers’ Showcase
Friday and Saturday, July 11 and 12, 8 pm
Grand Lobby
Free admission
Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth kicks off its Fifth Annual Modern Dance Festival at the Modern with the eighteenth edition of the “CD/FW Dance Exchange: A Choreographers’ Showcase.” Mary Cochran (New York City) will premiere a new solo version of Sara Hook’s Caucasian Spirituals, which refers to early modern dance pioneer Helen Tamiris’ Negro Spirituals. Hook first choreographed this as a longer group work in 1994, when she was in residence at the American Dance Festival as the first American representative to the International Choreographers’ Residence Program. Other guest choreographers and performers include Deborah Birrane (Seattle), Debra Knapp (New Mexico), Muscle Memory Dance Theatre (Dallas/Fort Worth), and Mary Williford-Shade (Denton). The Dallas Morning News named this showcase one of the Top 10 Dance Events of 2005: “Vast space and rippling water gardens at the Modern proved an ideal setting.”

Peace Chain
Saturday and Sunday, July 19 and 20, 1 pm
Grand Lobby Fort Worth choreographer Lori Sundeen Soderbergh, in collaboration with composer/musician Eddie Dunlap, directs a performance event featuring music, dance, and poetry, and culminating in a dance in which the audience may participate. Join us for a performance inspired by a desire for world peace.

Modern Dance 101
Saturday, July 19, 2 pm
Lecture and performance
Museum auditorium
Free admission
Members of the Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth company provide an introduction to the basic philosophies and styles of modern dance.

Dance on Camera: Dance Shorts
Saturday, July 19, 3 pm
Film screening
Museum auditorium
Free admission
See some of the most popular short films from the 2008 Dance On Camera Festival. CD/FW is a Domestic Touring Partner with the Dance Films Association of New York City. The Dance on Camera films are presented as part of the touring program for the Dance On Camera Festival, co-produced by the Dance Films Association and the Film Society of Lincoln Center with support of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Tribute To Twyla
Saturday, July 26
An innovator and visionary for modern and postmodern dance, Twyla Tharp has truly changed the shape of American modern dance and ballet for generations to come. Her early choreography explored many of the same issues addressed by the Judson Church choreographers of the 1960s. Over time, her vision expanded to include “big ballet” and Broadway. Her musical Movin’ Out, with music by Billy Joel, is still touring the U.S. to popular acclaim. The Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth company invites area dancers to celebrate her work with them, as they perform her 1970 work “The One Hundreds” in a special staging incorporating the museum grounds and building with one hundred dancers scattered throughout. Tharp is renowned for creating works for alternative spaces—gymnasiums, streets, parks, libraries, and museums. This unique presentation of her seminal work “The One Hundreds” at the Modern is presented with her blessing and great enthusiasm.

One Hundred Dancers Perform “The One Hundreds”
Noon, 2 pm, and 4 pm
Various locations around the museum
This unique special edition of Twyla Tharp’s “The One Hundreds” features one hundred dancers scattered throughout the museum and grounds. When Tharp originally developed this dance in 1970, she wanted to address three questions she faced as a performing dancer: 1) How accurate is my memory? 2) How good is my coordination? 3) How strong is my sense of beginnings, middles, and endings? Tharp created one hundred eleven-second phrases in answer to these questions.

Twyla On Twyla
1 and 3 pm
Film screening
Museum auditorium
Free admission
This look at Tharp’s career and philosophies gives a wonderful overview of her contributions to American dance.