In late 2009 I was invited to create music for a dance concert at Brooklyn College that was to be a part of their Biannual International Electroacoustic Music Festival. The choreographers (B. Artis Smith and Germaine Salsberg) were creating a series of short pieces inspired by different birds. I created music for Raven and Mockingbirds. Here are the original descriptions of what they were looking for:

Mockingbirds:
Dance Image: They are vocal chameleons. We want this to be a tap dance.
Music: 4-5 minutes. Tempo medium bright (around 168 ish) Very rhythmic throughout with lots of echoing of themes, but not overwhelming drums. (Bass, brushes on drums etc.) Could be early rock and roll feel or Swing as in Fats Waller. Or bebop feel, but needs to be constant tempo throughout and music structure needs to be something we can fit our taps into.

Raven:
Dance Image: A fate figure, a guardian spirit of Native American lore. Our idea is of a duet of a guardian spirit and his ward.
Music: about 5 minutes. Legato. Not necessarily totally rhythmic throughout. Needs to have haunting sounds with perhaps some sparse rhythmic theme that re- occurs. We hear cello, or voice or both.

You can listen to the tracks I made and hear where we ended up.