Years in the Making: Charting the Return of Karen Stokes Dance

It’s not unusual for Karen Stokes to take her time developing an evening-length work for her company Karen Stokes Dance (KSD). The director of the dance program at University of Houston as well as an established dance artist, Stokes often begins with shorter pieces or one-acts that expand to a long-form presentation over a period […]

Collaboration Branches Out in PDC Works’ Take Root

I had the incredible fortune to have danced for Sophia Torres, artistic director of PDC Works, when the company still went by Psophonia. The work pushed me – emotionally and physically – to adopt different perspectives, including that of a tree in Phantasia 2007. We moved microscopically, miming the growth and intertwining of tree roots […]

Tandem Summer Performances by NobleMotion Dance

Hot on the heels of a successful summer intensive close to home and an immersive performance workshop in Italy, NobleMotion Dance will engage faithful fans and undoubtedly some fresh faces during two back-to-back weekends of dance in August. While epic spectacle is certainly within the NobleMotion wheelhouse, the company’s artistic directors Andy and Dionne Noble […]

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 […]

LINEAR/FUNCTION: A Dynamic Gift from Crump and Collymore

On June 25th and 26th at Sanman Studios, artistic directors Kayla Collymore and Donna Crump premiered the second installation of LINEAR/FUNCTION: BORDERLESS, a live immersive, multi-disciplinary experience including dance, film, photography, and audience participation. Collymore and Crump described LINEAR/FUNCTION as exploring the concept of bringing more balance to a world dominated by masculine energy via […]

Silambam Showcases the Diversity of Classical Indian Dance through the Cosmos

The more I write about dance, and think about dance, the more I realize how much dance has always been present in major moments of my life, even forms that are outside of my own practice. Eleven years ago I spent five-and-a-half months backpacking through India, attempting to read, journal, and experience my way into […]

Take a Ride with Open Dance Project’s Bonnie & Clyde

Take a Ride with Open Dance Project’s Bonnie & Clyde Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, May 27-June 4 I’ll state up front that if anyone else in Houston was putting on a dance theater production about Bonnie and Clyde, I doubt that I would have given it a second glance. My interest in […]

Kyle Abraham Goes Untitled in Exploration of Black Love

Listening to the music of D’Angelo is a kind of sensual, indulgent experience that is rooted in the pleasure of being in one’s own body. The crooner’s voice is rich in texture, and sultry in pitch, fully realizing the seductiveness of masculinity while recognizing its potential for softness and comfort.  D’Angelo’s music is also a […]