Asphalt , commissioned through the Doris Duke Awards for New Work and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with additional support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, is a dance opera that tells the story of an artist wandering the streets of New York City. The artist, Racine, uses the elements of jazz, classical and hip hop beats to transcend his urban reality and enter a world made right by music. The piece incorporates book and lyrics by spoken word artist Carl Hancock Rux, a vocal score by composer and folk rock artist Toshi Reagon and music score by DJ Spooky. Jane Comfort and Company will also perform the work Underground River , which premiered in 1998.
Underground River depicts the drifting senses of a woman in a coma.
Comfort also collaborated with Toshi Reagon for the musical score. Comfort graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in painting. She later studied dance with Merce Cunningham and James Cunningham in New York prior to the formation of her company in 1978. Jane Comfort and Company has received numerous grants and fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, New York Foundation of the Arts and others. Following the performance Mon., July 3, audience members can participate in a post-performance discussion with the company.