As a cool, rainy spring gives way to lush, warm summer days, the pace slows on the Duke campus. Yet there's still a lot to do during the hot months, including a series of dance and music performances that promises relaxed, enjoyable evenings -- all free of charge.
Visitors can see modern dance performances of local artists as part of the American Dance Festival. And at Duke Gardens, free concerts in July include a mariachi band, an African-American string band, a cowgirl band and a blues guitarist.
And if you're willing to fork over $5, the list grows even longer. (See accompanying story.)
Summer at Duke has become identified with the American Dance Festival, which takes place on campus June 8 through July 22 and includes some of the top dance companies in the world. Less well known is the "Acts to Follow" program of the ADF, which features free performances by professional North Carolina choreographers and companies. The five performances take place June 17 and 24 and July 1, 8 and 15 at 6 p.m. in Baldwin Auditorium on East Campus.
A total of 20 North Carolina choreographers will be featured, including Winston-Salem-based Helen Simoneau, whose piece, "Celui qui Regarde," will be performed July 8.
"I'm really thrilled to have been chosen to show my work in North Carolina, since that's where I live and create my work as well," Simoneau said. "It's going to be great to be part of the ADF festival."
Three New York-based dancers will perform the 12-minute piece to music ranging from the band Aphex Twin to the soundtrack to the movie "In the Mood for Love." One section will be performed to a reading of French poet Charles Baudelaire's "Windows." The piece was featured in May at Joyce SoHo Presents in New York.
"Even though there are only three dancers, they take up all of the stage," Simoneau said.
In addition to the dance performances, Duke Performances will sponsor live music on four Sunday evenings in July in the Angle Amphitheatre behind the Doris Duke Center in Duke Gardens. (There's a fifth one in August as well.) The performances are at 7 p.m. and are free; so is parking.
The atmosphere is relaxed, and many families bring picnics and hang around after the performances, said Beverly Meek, who schedules the series, called "Meet You in the Gardens." The theme for this year's series is "Strings Attached" because all the performers play some kind of stringed instrument.
"You don't have to pay for parking; you don't have to pay to see them. And it's an absolutely beautiful setting," Meek said. "You're taking advantage of the work of the gardeners and the work of the artists."
The series begins July 2 with Mariachi los Viajeros. Greensboro-based bandleader Hector Varel said the band will play a mixture of mariachi, which is a form of Mexican folk music, as well as cumbia (a style of music originating in Colombia), polkas and Herb Alpert music. He predicts a fun evening, even for folks not familiar with traditional music.
"We do a lot of campuses," Varel said. "People usually dance, they sing, they get so happy."
The following week, the Carolina Chocolate Drops play fiddle and banjo music. The African-American trio focuses on string band music of North Carolina's Piedmont region and is one of several young bands reclaiming the nearly forgotten tradition of black old-time music.
And the Cowboy Envy All-Girl Cowboy Ensemble brings a different style of twang to Duke Gardens July 23 with a show that's funny and features beautiful harmonies.
Former Durham resident Scott Ainslie returns July 30 to perform a mix of blues and American traditional music. Ainslie, who now lives in Brattleboro, Vt., is a blues historian as well as a musician. Like the Carolina Chocolate Drops, he aims to entertain and to educate his audiences, in his case by playing music influenced by Delta blues legends Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, as well as Durham's own Rev. Gary Davis and Blind Boy Fuller.
Ainslie said he will play music from his new CD, "The Feral Crow," which features many songs of conscience. In a song set in South Louisiana, a man laments the disappearance of the girl he loves. The song, called "It's Gonna Rain," took on new meaning after Hurricane Katrina, Ainslie said.
"Without changing a word, it became a song about New Orleans," he said. "I have written songs and had history catch up with me."
But the concert won't all be message music, he promises.
"This will be set in the context of a very pleasant concert of acoustic blues," he said. "It'll be a lovely evening if the weather holds."