Jazz Story No. 2: Trouble the Water

2022 Fringie Award Finalist!

In 2022, Homer Jackson commissioned me to create a work for presentation at the “POOL” exhibit at Fairmount Waterworks, with the specific request to utilize two thematic spirituals, Wade in the Water and Deep River, in the final piece. Considering so many elements: venue, history, presenter requests, artist strengths, current social context and audience pathways, I wrote a jazz story about three people: a refugee, a domestic abuse survivor and a child who couldn’t swim, and their varying escapes through water to places of revolutionary rest. The piece included my original ‘psalms,’ verse text, compositions and choreography, all of which moved in and out of two pools.  The instrumentation included piano, bass, tap shoes, tarima and two large water bins, used as instruments, so that the artists could step inside and create water sounds with our feet, play with the sounds of gathering water with our hands, and pour water from vessels to create additional rhythms. The completion of this work encouraged me to go 'wild': include all of my artistic inclinations, across writing, history, music composition, arranging and choreography, into my finished works. The audience and the presenters shared that they felt the power of the three stories I aimed to tell, and that the music, movement and text evoked deep feelings of shared community and experience. I felt a new sense of achievement, in that I was able to draw together aspects of Philadelphia history and use tap dance as the medium.

Trouble The Water is a jazz story that dives into the social, political, personal and spiritual implications of the two spirituals, Deep River and Wade in the Water. Throughout the piece, the audience learns the stories of three people, (a refugee, a domestic violence survivor and a child who never learned to swim), traveling towards safety and a place of revolutionary rest. Originally commissioned by The Philadelphia Jazz Project and Fairmount Water Works for POOL: A History of Social Segregation.

Ongoing operational support provided by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and New Music USA’s Organizational Development Fund in 2022-23.

Dedicated to the memory of Tim Price (1952-2022)

Choreography, compositions, arrangements, all text and lyrics: Pamela Hetherington

Assistant Director: Bethlehem Roberson

Dancers: Destiny Bugg, Kathryn Schweingruber

Music Director: Tim Brey

Bass: Madison Rast, Nicholas Krolak

Music compositions: H.C. Burleigh, Theo Croker, Duke Ellington, Herbie Hancock, Amos Lee, Bobby Timmons, Traditional, Kenny Wheeler

Costume Design: Violet Hetherington

1) Psalm: Take My Hand and Dive Down/Search for the New Land

2) Movement: How Do You Travel?/Maiden Voyage

3) Poem: There Isn’t Time to Find Your Shoes

4) Movement: David Danced/Come Sunday

5) Psalm: Wade Along With Me/This Could Be for the Traveling Soul

6) Movement: This Here/Wade in The Water

7) Psalm: I Am Water

8) Movement: Deep River

9) Poem: Me

10) Movement: All My Friends

11) Poem: Never Enough Time

12) Movement: Campground