Barnstorm Dance Fest Brings a Variety of Movement Styles to the MATCH

Since 2015, Houston dance audiences have been treated to the Barnstorm Dance Fest, produced by Dance Source Houston. Bringing together dance artists from Houston and across the nation, it has programmed modern/contemporary, ballet, tap, and classical Indian dance (to name only a few styles) comfortably next to each other.  June 2023 will see Barnstorm do […]

DSH Artists-in-Residence Explore New Territory for Barnstorm

Everyone needs a helping hand, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned after ten years in the non-profit producing world, it’s that artists very often need more than that. We need lifelines – a grant, a commission, a gatekeeper’s favor – something to propel us to the next stage of our artistic careers, and, by […]

Wild She Dances Explores 1950’s America in an Abandoned Rice Mill

In a world so driven by the now and the new, we don’t often pause to reflect deeply on our history. The forward motion of American culture and the desire for constant progress is a state we find ourselves in over and over again. Along with this drive towards progress, however, comes a dismantling and […]

In Retrospect: Open Dance Project Delivers a Timely Reflection on 1968

In 1968, the whole world was watching one of the most tumultuous years in American history unfold at home on television. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. Bobby Kennedy, still mourning his brother along with the country, was killed only a few months later. The nation’s young adults mobilized in protest against our […]

Silambam Celebrates Indian Independence in Waking Up Free

The great Indian subcontinent celebrated seventy-five years of independence from British colonial rule on August 15, 2022. To commemorate this significant milestone, Silambam Houston, under the executive and artistic direction of Lavanya Rajagopalan, presented Waking Up Free: India’s Journey, on March 31, 2023. The evening-length production, created in collaboration with Shri Silambam Academy in Chennai, […]

Mimi diLuna Dances Tales of Siddhartha in Mind The Gap XXIV

Mind The Gap XXIV, March 28, 2023, had a unique lineup of dancers and choreographers. More than half of the pieces presented were of styles originating in India and Sri Lanka. It was a fitting context for Mimi diLuna’s two works, “Snowy-Silver Elephant” and “Hansadhwani: Voice of the Swan.” The two pieces are stories of […]

Joel Aguilera Checks “All of the Above” with First Evening-Length Concert

Joel Aguilera is a choreographer who has been gradually making his mark in Houston over the past few seasons. His work has appeared in several high-profile showcases, including Dance Source Houston’s Barnstorm Dance Fest, Dance Houston’s Annual Celebration of Dance, and Dance Source Houston’s Mind the Gap series. I recognized Aguilera’s rising star a few […]

The Fairytale Project Gives Texas History a New Rhythm at Discovery Green

The power of Stacey Allen, the founder of Nia’s Daughters Movement Collective, is her ability to merge African American-Texas history, pedagogy, Diasporic African concepts and culture, with her extensive contemporary and African dance training. She does so expertly with her latest work, The Fairytale Project,  a multi-disciplinary dance theater piece for children that reimagines the […]