Friday February 9 * 7pm * TICKETS

Becky Hill and Ben Nelson have been friends for over a decade, but only recently started creating duets together. Ben grew up in southwest Virginia in a family of old-time musicians, and now makes his home in the North Carolina mountains. Becky is musically rooted in West Virginia, where she studied with percussive dance luminaries and elder square dance callers. Their arrangements of traditional tunes from southern Appalachia re-envision percussive dance as a primary instrument to explore the nuanced conversation between melody and rhythm. The goal of the project is to celebrate the traditions of Appalachian music and dance, while simultaneously pushing the boundaries of those traditions.

Valeska Populoh is an artist and performer, educator and cultural organizer living in Baltimore, on the un-ceded land of the Piscataway Conoy and other Chesapeake First Families. Embracing a wide array of tactics, from puppetry to participatory performance, Valeska's work is motivated by an interest in healing and repair, in our relationships to each other and to the natural world. Using the magic lantern of decommissioned overhead projectors, Valeska and fellow puppeteer Peter Redgrave conjure a landscape of transforming shadows in "Groundswell Spell/Who Are We but If Not of Each Other," an incantation to our hoofed and antlered selves and "Simple Truth," crafted to accompany a new song by musician Marian McLaughlin for her new album, "Alcove."