Arizona Arts Live & Club Congress are thrilled to light up the Congress stage with a dynamic duo of modern solo songwriters. Elizabeth Goodfellow and Jillian Bessett both operate on the new frontiers of songwriting and instrumentation, composing and performing through unconventional means with beautiful results. Join us as these two extraordinary and innovative women explore new sonic landscapes. Beth Goodfellow’s singer-songwriter approach to the marimba was born out of a desire to write songs on a chordal instrument after drumming in other people’s bands. She bought a 1920s Deagan Marimba through Craigslist and began incorporating it into her original songs. When the pandemic hit in 2020 she spent the better part of eighteen months writing for voice and marimba from Tucson, AZ and her apartment in Los Angeles. The pandemic allowed her time to strip the marimba and vocal approach down to the basics and focus on writing two-minute songs that were intended to be stream-of-conscious with minimal rewrites. These songs were released in early 2021 as the band camp album “Hunting The Silence”. Beth’s writing for marimba also draws inspiration from the polyrhythmic counterpoint of minimalist composer Steve Reich. By building loops of marimba counterpoint she creates a uniquely meditative backdrop for her lyrics and vocals. Beth is a drummer, percussionist and vocalist based in Los Angeles and has recorded or toured with artists including Iron and Wine, boygenius, Madison Cunningham, Per Gessle, and Calexico. Jillian Bessett is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Tucson, Arizona whose evocative lyrics and welcoming stage presence have endeared her to audiences throughout the southwest music scene. The keystone, however, is an instantly recognizable smoky alto voice that has prompted comparisons to Amy Winehouse, Feist, Nina Simone, and Adele. ​In 2014 Jillian released Electric Moon a stripped back solo endeavor which came in at #100 on KXCI’s Top 100 Albums of The Year. A full band filled out her next release with 2016’s Mr. Airplane. Jillian and the Giants–aptly named for their giant electric sound and stature– gigged furiously and put out two beautiful music videos for the singles “Mr. Airplane” and the locally loved “Chicago.” Mr. Airplane has over 58K streams on Spotify and came in at #19 on KXCI’s Top 100 Albums of the Year. Jillian is currently writing music and gigging with her new favorite instrument the Boss RC-505 Looping Station. Watch her use it here.​

So different, so original, so creatively fresh and so much fun no one wanted to go home.-Waikato Times Indians throw crazy parties. Heard of Diwali? A million lamps floating on a river and fireworks to wake the dead. Heard of Holi? An explosion of color and joy and massive dry cleaning bills. How about Onam? No? It’s the harvest festival, and this one could be the craziest of them all! Mrs. Krishnan is renting an apartment to the overzealous wannabe DJ, James. James has invited a few friends into the back room of Mrs. Krishnan’s corner shop as a special surprise to celebrate Onam and the return home of her son. But when 100 strangers turn up (you, the audience) and settle in, Mrs. K has no choice but to throw the party of her life! An immersive experience like no other, join the party with music, dancing and vegetarian dal prepared live for each performance. Come as you are or break out that festive sari. Indian Ink Theatre Company continues to bridge cultures and expand boundaries with this utterly disarming new comedy that seats the audience around the dining table and at the kitchen bench in the back room of Krishnan’s corner shop. Now that her son is grown up, Mrs. Krishnan is thinking of selling the shop. It’s Onam, a time to celebrate life, death, and rebirth, and Mrs. Krishnan has to throw the party of her life in this joyous, heart-warming show.

…a sonic distillation of a blistering American past and its perilous present, with a transcendent strength of spirit woven through.-The Washington Post With 13 tap dancers and one acoustic bass player, Michelle Dorrance’s SOUNDspace strips tap dance down to its most raw basics—movement as pure music. SOUNDspace invites the audience to experience tap dancing with a fresh pair of eyes and ears, with both an acknowledgment towards the past and a look into the future.  Dorrance Dance is an award-winning tap dance company based in New York City. The company’s work aims to honor tap dance’s uniquely beautiful history in a new, dynamic, and compelling context not by stripping the form of its tradition, but by pushing it rhythmically, aesthetically, and conceptually. The company’s inaugural performance garnered a Bessie Award for “blasting open out notions of tap,” and continues its passionate commitment to expanding the audience of tap dance. Street, club, and experimental dance forms – all of which are American dreams – awake to the sound of furious rhythms and find their boundaries missing.