Hanks: China with ADF

Duke Dance musician John Hanks returned in August 2012 from a three-week stay in Henan Province, China, where he worked with American Dance Festival to begin teaching the bi-yearly Music for Dancers course offered by the Dance Program. In addition to playing for classes, maintaining the website for the Dance Program and the 2013 Across the Threshold Conference, and other campus activities, he has had an active musical life off-campus. He played drums for the month long run of Playmakers Repertory Theater’s (UNC-CH) production of Cabaret, and was percussionist in many local concerts with diverse groups including: N. C. Youth Tap Ensemble and the N.C. Rhythm Tap Festival (where he appeared with tap phenom and Professor Emeritus M’Liss Dorrance’s daughter, Michelle Dorrance), the Durham Choral Society, Women’s Voices Chorus, the Willie Painter Band (blues and rock), and many others. In summer 2013, he continued his longtime association with the American Dance Festival as faculty musician.