A performance celebrating the centenary of John Cage's birth, curated by Mack McFarland at Pacific Northwest College of Art. Dancers, musicians, and a poet stationed throughout the building's large open atrium — along balconies, in far-flung corners — with a mobile audience free to move, follow dancers, or view from different perspectives.

The score drew from Cage's early Six Melodies for Violin and Keyboard (1950), dedicated to Josef and Anni Albers. Chance procedures determined time blocks, repetitions, and fragments; musicians reconfigured pitch material through manipulation of note values and rests. A series of one-minute field recordings contributed by students were sequenced and mixed at volumes determined by chance. On an upper level, poet Lisa Radon recited a "writing through" of a Cage text throughout the performance.

"How to make an event that is 'Cageian' without being Cage... It's both difficult and rewarding to remove one's desire from the determination of outcomes, to give up any idea of 'the way it should be' and to let the score take over." — from the program notes by Seth Nehil & Linda Austin

Choreography: Linda Austin. Spoken text: Lisa Radon. Musicians: Matt Carlson, Patrik Csak, Jeff Diteman, Jordan Dykstra, Richie Greene, Ben Kates, Catherine Lee, Thomas Thorson, Reed Wallsmith. Dancers: Mike Barber, Jin Camou, Anne Furfey, Sally Garrido-Spencer, Keyon Gaskin, Carla Mann, Paige McKinney, Kaj-anne Pepper, Chelsea Petrakis, Kelly Rauer, Danielle Ross, Noelle Stiles, Emily Stone, Robert Tyree, Taka Yamamoto, Lucy Yim.

Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland OR — October 3, 2012