Jazz: The House That America Built

JazzXchange: Six Dancers, Three Musicians, Three Poets...

...a groundbreaking audience experience designed to invoke empathy, well-being and joy that transcends barriers between movement and sound, performers and viewers , life and art.

JazzXchange, led by Artistic Director and Associate Professor of Dance Sheron Wray, debuts at the Camino Playhouse in San Juan Capistrano on June 23, 2016, at 8 pm. JazzXchange is an Orange County Arts organization that exists to use the principles of jazz performance to empower communities and celebrate innovation.

Jazz is a process of creation which embraces differences melded together through a commitment to swing into time. It has always represented a multitude of nationalities that make up the United States and this JazzXchange performance embodies exactly this idea. Visibly, artists from different ethnicities create together. Envision a nation without division--this is Jazz, the House that America Built. While many people perceive jazz as a 20th-century musical phenomenon, JazzXchange exists to show audiences how the art of jazz continues to provide space for 21st-century innovation; a space where diverse communities come together through art, in the moment, to create anew.

Jazz music and jazz dancing are American inventions; each exists because of the other, embracing uncertainty with dynamism in surprising new ways. JazzXchange brings together six dancers, three musicians and three spoken-word artists who combine their talents to create an inspired evening of musical performance. Join us, as we navigate through “Jazz: the House that America Built,” and witness the intimate connections between cross-artform dialogue, insightful improvisation, and soulful expression. Led by Artistic Director Sheron Wray, the artists include Mark W, The Dylan Romaine Trio, Makeda Kumasi and Jamielle Rankin.

The program also includes a new work-in-progress from the OC choreographer Leann Alduenda. Leann is delighted to be the newly appointed Assistant Professor of Dance at Santa Ana College and is an adjunct faculty at Chapman University. Leann was the Artistic Director of the Jimmie DeFore Dance Center for 15 years, where she taught technique and performance classes, headed the teen performance company, and co-directed the scholarship program. She is currently still an instructor there and co-directs the faculty choreography showcase “PULSE” each January.

Jazz: The House That America Built
An Evening Of Dance, Live Music And Spoken Word
Thursday, June 23, 2016
8 pm
Camino Real Playhouse, San Juan Capistrano
Tickets: $25 

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