JANE FRANKLIN DOESN'T shy away from unusual ideas. The artistic director of Jane Franklin Dance is known for her innovative, avant-garde works — always experimental, always deeply attuned not just to the bodies onstage but the space they move in, the sounds they move to.

But her new work, "Sound Walk," Franklin and her collaborator, composer Gina Biver, took the ambient "music" of JFD community and education projects — working with the elderly at senior centers and with elementary school and at-risk children — onto the stage. Biver brought microphones into Franklin's workshops and let the magic unfold.

"The kids were screaming and yelling — especially the at-risk kids; they're a little wild," says Franklin. "So we got those sounds." As for the senior centers, "There are a lot of immigrants, so there are different languages in the sound score, as well as the acoustics in the room."

Franklin also expanded her six-person company, temporarily, to include people from the community — six adult dancers and six young children.

"I like to partner adults with children. It usually turns out interesting and is an interesting process in the studio."

"Sound Walk" makes its debut at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Hall and Arts Center in Alexandria on Saturday night. Also on the menu is a dance to Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 played live by four young musicians from the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestras; a duet for two women performed to marimbas; and the JFD favorite "In Hiding," featuring back-projection and dancers weaving in and out of hanging scrims.

» Rachel M. Schlesinger Hall, 3001 N. Beauregard St., Alexandria; Sat., 8 p.m., $30, $27, students and seniors, $16 children under 12; 703-933-1111.

Photo courtesy Enoch Chan

Posted by Arion Berger at 12:01 AM on February 28, 2008
Tagged in Alexandria , Entertainment , Stage , Top Stories , Virginia