Composer, musician, and multidisciplinary artist Ben Siems (Willie August Project, Walker Momentum series with Off-Leash Area), has teamed with Vanessa Voskuil, award-winning dance theater maker (Live Action Set), to present a showcase of compelling, surreal works that blend live music, dance and theater.

Siems, a six-time Minnesota Music Awards nominee, directs “All Nora’s Daughters Can Fly,” a series of works he has created in collaboration with multiple choreographers, characterized by delicate interweaving of sonic and visual elements. In part a CD release event for his latest recording, Empire at Twilight, the concert features a performance of the disc’s title track, with its poetic Portuguese text, Siems’ lyrical guitar work, Sharon Picasso Merrick’s understated movement, and percussionist Jeremy Hauer’s climactic “sea of cymbals.” The program also includes the premiere of “Oneness,” a union of contemporary ballet with Siems’ stunning four-hands cello duet, “Threshold,” performed by Siems, cellist Jacqueline Ferrier-Ultan (Jelloslave) and choreographer-dancer Lindsay Anderson.

Siems and dancer-choreographer Jennifer Mack also present new works inspired by the character of Nora, heroine of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. The little-known stories of a generation of record-setting female aviators, including the great Beryl Markham, frame an exploration of the quest to reclaim Nora’s legacy of self-liberation.

Voskuil, recipient of a prestigious Sage Award for Outstanding Design in 2006, premieres her latest dance-theater fusion, “the Silents.” The work features Voskuil’s physical, yet cerebral imagery, including a “cast of thousands” and a sound score by Nick Lemme of Spaghetti Western String Company (Minnesota Music Award—“Eclectic Group 2006”). The score mixes originally composed choral recordings with live vocal improvisations by Lemme. “The Silents” dwells upon human beauty and fragility, both physical and spiritual.