Reimagining live music during COVID, this music is constructed for artists and audience to wander the Heller Center landscape while practicing expansive social distancing. Audience members will be guided to various areas to wander freely or sit comfortably.

• The Bottesini Project with Ormao Dance Co and Poet Rayne Fox
• “Anti-Borderlands” (world premiere) for Field Orchestra by Dr. Jon Forshee
• UCCS Faculty and Students

The need for improvisation across so many areas of our lives has never been more vital. The willful act of spontaneous creation is often an expression of empathy, solidarity and necessity. Musicians and artists have something to say about improvisation and adaptability. Improvisational practices are built on strong foundations of knowledge, technical skill, collective trust and while seeking the unknown magic of serendipity or….a bit of blind luck.

“Improvisation appeals to us because it is work that makes a difference in the world. It compels us to leave our comfort zones, to forge meaningful interactions with others across categories and social identities, to deepen the democratic strata of society through cultural activities that resonate fully with the contradictions and possibilities of our time.

Improvisation in both expressive cultural and social-movement mobilizations can keep us attentive to our responsibility to build the world we hope to inhabit”-- From the Fierce Urgency of Now: Improvisation, Rights, and the Ethics of Cocreation.

Bottesini and Ormao have a long-standing relationship having worked together in the past on site specific roving performances Press and Pre-Press. UCCS Professor of Music Dr. Glen Whitehead and Ormao Director Janet Johnson have collaborated on many music and dance projects including Bound Breath, Press, Pre-Press, Sanctuary of Moments, and Protest.

The Bottesini Project:

• Paul Riola, saxophone
• Glen Whitehead, trumpet
• Lynn Baker, saxophone
• Kim Stone, bass
• Randy Bowen, drums / percussion

Bottesini is a Denver based free improvisation ensemble that hints at the fringes while being centered on a wide-ranging jazz-based language. This ensemble, founded by saxophonist Paul Riola in 2006 creates intricately woven compositions from the guiding principles of free improvisation. Bottesini has been featured regionally and internationally and has had the distinct privilege to have had some of the most notable and distinguished musicians in the improvisational field from around the world perform in this group including; Nels Cline, Fred Frith, Jeff Parker, Scott Amendola, Ron Miles, Janet Feder, DJ Olive, Carla Kihlstedt and Vinny Golia.

Ormao Dance Co. / Janet Johnson / Including members of the UCCS Dance Faculty:

Exploring and responding to the natural environmental setting of Heller Center for Arts & Humanities, Ormao dancers embody the essence of improvisation working with The Bottesini Project musicians. Acknowledging that distance can expand our ability to ‘speak’ with freedom and without the limits of time, the dancers make connections through movement in an intimate way.

Ormao Dance Company
Making Dances | Building Community
Ormao embraces dance as an art form, a celebration of human connection, expression, and diverse life experience. Nationally recognized choreographers regularly contribute to our diverse repertory with content that provokes, challenges, and entertains while encouraging diversity and tolerance. We seek to engage and grow audiences for dance with performances in theaters as well as unexpected places such as art museums, abandoned buildings, and construction zones. Ormao has a two-decade history of excellence in these areas. Our award-winning, professional modern dance company performs regularly and typically in collaboration with other artists.

ANTI-BORDERLANDS for Field Orchestra
Dr. John Forshee, composer
This 25-minute collaborative work, conceived specifically for the geography surrounding Heller House, involves an ensemble of 15-20 student musicians strategically dispersed over a 30-acre2 area of the open space between the UCCS Field House and the Heller buildings. Seeking to re-appropriate, re-think, and interrogate the traditional concert space setting, the usual roles of an ensemble performance are here re-imagined in line with the land and the place: for instance, the conductor is stationed at the crest of a hill, maintaining sight-lines with each musician of the field at incredible distances, and audience listeners are invited to follow the trails and pause between musicians stationed along the way. Through these ways and more, ANTI-BORDERLANDS is a work which invites speculation by engaging the listener through an immersive interaction with the land, the sound of the land, and the sounds produced within the land.