Youth Arts Program Feedback, 2015

This series documents the Festival's community outreach activities, including the Youth Arts Program that serves local youth ages 6-17 with dance and music training, and the Community Dance Project that invites local residents to participate in an intensive creative collaboration with a choreographer and Festival dancers. There is significant documentation on Doug Varone's "A Momentary Order" (1992), a dance made in collaboration with scenic designer Power Boothe and composer Christopher Hyams-Hart, which premiered at the WS Libbey Mill in Lewiston, Maine on October 2, 1992. The work explores the Franco-American roots and culture of the Lewiston-Auburn area, and brought together a wide cross-section of participants, including artists, dancers, musicians, craftspersons, and community groups and individual members. The series also includes material related to Sara Pearson/Patrick Widrig and Company's "If Wishes Were Horses, Beggars Would Ride," a performance tour of dance, live music, spoken word, video and photography and produced by the Festival in collaboration with the Portland Museum of Art and the OnSite Performance Network. This work premiered at the Portland Museum of Art on May 10, 2000.