People give Karen Montanaro music all the time. She’s an accomplished dancer, and is always interested in hearing music that she might use in her work.

But this music was something different altogether.

Additional Photos

Karen Montanaro will unveil her new dance piece, “The Journey,” on Saturday at the Celebration Barn Theater in South Paris. She’ll perform en pointe. Courtesy photo

“I put the CD in my car driving home one night, and as soon as I heard it, I wanted to move,” she said. “It released such dramatic images for me. It was just so powerful.”

Deeply rhythmic and layered with strings, the music inspired Montanaro to create a major new dance piece, “The Journey.” She will unveil it at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Celebration Barn Theater, where she teaches.

The piece will be presented as a collaboration with the Boston-based band Ginger Ibex and composer Sharon Crumrine.

“I just feel like this music is me,” Montanaro said. “It is so much about imagery and story and rhythm. It just moves the feathers in my bones

“I always felt that violin music really inspired my pointe work. I will perform this en pointe, in ballet shoes. I feel it’s the culmination of so many disparate elements of my life coming together in one moment.”

Montanaro is credited with creating a form of movement called mimedance, a fusion of mime and ballet. She danced professionally with the Ohio Ballet and the Darmstadt Opera Ballet in Germany and toured and taught internationally with her husband and teacher, the late mime master Tony Montanaro.

“The Journey” lasts about 15 minutes. On Saturday, Montanaro will present it as the final piece on a program that includes other work, as well as a set by Ginger Ibex.

The piece is supported by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission.

Staff Writer Bob Keyes can be contacted at 791-6457 or at:

bkeyes@pressherald.com

Follow him on Twitter at:

twitter.com/pphbkeyes

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