"Shadow Dance" was composed for the popular Carnegie Mellon Chamber Series and, most noticebly, for the six Carnegie Mellon faculty musicians performing the work, including three principle players from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

The first movement opens with rapid-fire intensity as the instruments frantically dance and intermingle, then suddenly relax into three distinctive dance-like, often quirky segments, followed by a gradual climb to a conclusion featuring the same manic intensity as before.

Movement 2 is an enchanting nocturne whose serene opening leads to a gentle, stately dance that builds to the first of two climaxes. A peaceful, medidative air appears as our dancer gracefully moves about in the moonlight, before being visited by a slightly disturbed state of reflection that leads to the second climax in the music. She then falls into a lulling, trance-like state as she slowly, peacefully surrenders to sleep and dreams.

The third movement opens with a lively, ceremonial, jig-like segment, followed by a more contemplative mood at its center, leading into the finale, that swells gradually to an unabashedly frenetic and joyous conclusion.
— Martha Tablewight