March 28, 2024
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Dance opens Montville arts program

MONTVILLE – The woods around Kingdom Falls came to life in song, poetry, painting and dance Sunday as people celebrated the opening of the summer arts program at the Arts Center at Kingdom Falls.

This is the third year the center will offer its five-week program featuring courses and disciplines taught mostly by artists from the region.

“We have a lot of talented artists in Waldo County,” said Alan Crichton, arts center executive director. “We have some very exciting people who came here and formed a great community of artists, and we wanted to find ways to utilize their talents. … Our summer courses, artist in residencies and community arts education programs help bring the creative experience to this part of Waldo County.”

The center is situated amid 12 acres of woods at the headwaters of the St. George River. The woodland is graced with two waterfalls, a pond, open fields and meandering streams.

Kingdom Falls was used as the setting for a dance choreographed and scored by dancer and composer Dylan Newcomb, who was raised in Montville and now lives in The Netherlands. Newcomb and dance partner Jennifer Hanna walked the woods of the Kingdom for weeks before choosing the falls and its dark pool as the setting for their dance “Troll’s Remorse.”

“We didn’t have any idea of the story,” said Newcomb. “We came here to see what we could do in nature and how we could work with the water. What does it mean to be dancing in nature and what goes against nature? We used the underwater world and it’s a challenging site.”

The dance begins with Hanna approaching the falls through a green glade and being lured to the water by the creature within. They sink together to the depths of the dark pool. Electric music composed by Newcomb using a bowed piano echoes through the woods and off the granite outcroppings that form the waterfall.

Newcomb and Hanna are artists in residence this summer and will conduct dance workshops as part of the arts center’s program.

“Dylan and Jennifer were wonderful,” said Crichton. “They have reached a point in their lives where they wanted to work together and this provided an opportunity. The setting of the waterfall was very challenging for them and pushed them to do new and exciting work.”

Sunday’s event also featured performances on the center’s “Bird Wing Stage” by an improvisation troupe, band and solo musical performances, poetry reading, dancing and theatrical pieces by Waldo County performers.

Crichton said the Arts Center at Kingdom Falls was formed to provide opportunities in the arts for youngsters, teens and adults in the county. He said county schools have found it hard to maintain arts programs and the Kingdom Fall center helps fill that void with its summer programs. The arts center also provides programs when schools are in session.

Scholarships for summer programs still are available for the July 8-Aug. 9 sessions.

Crichton said the local arts community was inspired to establish the arts center by the example of the late Marni Sewell, who was a founder of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and lived at the Kingdom.

“She always welcomed creative people here and when she died people in the community wanted to create an artistic activity in her memory,” Crichton said. “For three years now we have done just that. These are mostly people from Waldo County and they are trying to bring a part of the creative experience to this part of Waldo County.”

For the next five weeks the Arts Center at Kingdom Falls will offer workshops.

The center is off Route 3 on the Kingdom Road in Montville. Call 589-3025, e-mail to fallsart@midcoast.com or visit the Web site: www.kingdomfallsarts.org.

BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY WALTER GRIFFIN

Young painters try their hand at Belfast artist Dudley Zopp’s “Paint This Wall” project at Sunday’s opening celebration for the summer program at the Arts Center at Kingdom Falls.


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