Intrepid, interracial dance couples take the stage in a dance theater spectacle that expresses a heroic West African journalist's true story and combines innovative movement with “reality performance” at the Ford Amphitheatre.

This split bill features the vanguard husband and wife teams of:  Catch Me Bird, daring duet company that fuses dance theater and aerial choreography, and Baker and Tarpaga Dance Project, LA's premier African Contemporary Dance Theater company, who combine their passion and politics with highly theatrical movement for a visceral narrative, blending real life events with West African dance and post-modern dance theater. Border and boundary crossing appears in their multi-ethnic, intimate relationships, further highlighted by their movement and aesthetics.

For the first time in Ford Amphitheatre history Catch Me Bird dancers will perform aerial movement from the Ford’s proscenium towers. Catch Me Bird will utilize the architecture and unique setting at the Ford to create a site-specific aerial spectacle, highlighting the performers at the apex of the two towers. The concert will feature the world premiere of Silk, the latest chronicle in Catch Me Bird’s reality performance series. Silk,  is the traditional element of the fourth anniversary gift and commemorates the couple’s real 4th wedding anniversary. Silk, a confessional, humorous and intimate look at the real communication between a wife and husband, and a collaborative working pair. The boundaries between their onstage and offstage lives are blurred, offering evidence of their special brand of lunacy.

The work of Catch Me Bird is based on the actual marriage of the two performers four years ago, and the shifting dynamics between the public spectacle and the personal reality.

Baker & Tarpaga Dance Project premieres “Gnama Gnama Mana Mana Kono/Disorder Inside Order”, a startling expression of the events surrounding the 1998 assassination of Norbert Zongo, a highly respected Burkinabe journalist who exposed the corruption of government officials.  The piece features live griot drumming and a melding of West African and post modern dance by six dancers: Olivier Tarpaga, Esther Baker-Tarpaga, Shelly Wilcox, Josette Wiggans, Wilifred Souly and Laurel Fanya House.  The movement maintains the traditional West African grounded stance while exploring the floor and the air.

Catch Me Bird, called a “daredevil duo” by the LA Weekly, combines athletic, contemporary, and aerial dance with words and audience surprises to present the madcap reality of a true marriage. Co-founders, C. Derrick Jones and Nehara Kalev, debuted their first full length evening work in 2004, which was also their actual wedding. This marked the birth of "Reality Performance". Since then, the pair has continued to travel the world with their brand of performance, choreography and educational programming.

Baker and Tarpaga Dance Project is a transnational contemporary dance company based in Los Angeles, California and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.  Drawing from West African and post-modern dance, the dancers and musicians perform rhythmic intensity with soulful expression.  BT Dance Project’s work is provocative and highly physical addressing themes of immigration, displacement, love and the physical boundaries between violence and peace.  BT Dance Project’s has been described as “a talented company that performs superlative choreographies of protest.” (Theworldly.com)