Duke Performances

The best art tells a story, and unlike nearly every other arts organization in America, Duke Performances highlights that fact by organizing its events thematically. For 2009/2010 we’ve crafted 52 events into 10 series, each of them a different chapter in this season’s story of historically networked innovation. That story connects South Carolina blues to Zimbabwean dance; puts Puerto Rican plena in dialogue with bluegrass Americana; and finds a common source in Brazilian guitar and the firestorm sermonizing of preachers like Shreveport’s Pastor Brady Blade, Sr.

Rather than a haphazard jumble of arts events, this season gives a year-long answer to a single question: how deep are the roots of modern performance?