Dancing alone—improvising with the shadows, the air, on an inner beat, upon a fleeting feeling—has always enthralled me. With Dancing Solo, I am making a dance for clarinet, a dance composed of color, rhythm, beat implied and explicit, and breath: the music is the dance and the dance is the music.

Dancing Solo was commissioned by clarinetist Caroline Hartig, who gave the first performance at Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, New York, on 11 March 1994.

— Libby Larsen