American Dance Festival matinee features high energy show

The first one is at 1 p.m. this Saturday at the Durham Performing Arts Center and is followed by a free community day at the Nasher Museum of Art.

Evidence, a Dance Company, and the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company will perform during the one-hour matinee, best for kids up to ages 14 or 15.

Corin Kane, the marketing and communications coordinator for the festival, tells me the show will be very high energy. Director Ron Brown strings together African dance and drumming music and hip hop movements, she said.

"It's really funky," she said. "Kind of like dance in your seat movement. You can't help but move. And his music is really high energy."

Individual tickets are $17. You'll also get 25 percent off tickets if you buy them to all three children's matinees. The other two matinees are scheduled for July 2 and July 23.

After the performance, there's a community day from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke. You'll find puppets from the Paperhand Puppet Intervention; Wool E. Bull; an African drum and dance workshop; and crafts from the Scrap Exchange. It's free and open to all (you don't need a ticket to that day's matinee to attend).