Jessica Ray Herzogenrath, PhD, researches, teaches, and writes about U.S. cultural history, particularly popular dance. In addition to the dance dish, you may find her writing in the The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Ethnicity, the forthcoming compilation Dancing on the Third Coast: Chicago Dance Histories, and Feminist Modernist Studies.
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 […]
Dolly Goyal, proprietor of Steps for Dancing, embodies Houston’s status as the most diverse city in the United States, a point of pride widely cited over the last year. Her energy shines through our Zoom call, in which I learn about her years of international experience. She clearly conveys her passion not only for dancing […]
After nearly two years of navigating a pandemic and managing increased awareness of political tensions and racial violence, we all could benefit from firmer footing. Houston Contemporary Dance Company (HCDC) will take the lead, offering their expression of finding solid ground with Terra Firma at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday November […]
Houston, who’s ready to play? As the arts world cautiously emerges from its over year-long lockdown on live performance, Houston Contemporary Dance Company (HCDC) will present “Parallel Play” for Houston audiences April 16 and 17 at Discovery Green. “Parallel Play” captures the pandemic sentiment in which we have found ourselves “alone together”. More specifically, “Parallel […]
Next weekend, the Beatles will re-invade Houston in the form of Mark Morris Dance Group’s (MMDG) Pepperland. The Society for the Performing Arts (SPA) invites audiences to experience this kaleidoscopic world for two nights, January 30 and 31, 2020, in the Cullen Theater at the Wortham Center. Pepperland premiered in 2017 at Liverpool’s Sgt. Pepper […]
Late last May, the Houston dance community rattled with the news that Houston Met Dance (also Houston Metropolitan Dance Center, or HMDC) would close the doors of its studios at 2808 Caroline in Midtown. Over the next four months, students, dance artists, and supporters anxiously awaited news regarding its future, because as Houston Met Dance […]
Entering its eleventh season of entertaining audiences in Houston, NobleMotion Dance will present two new works and two favorites in Man Overboard! The company deploys its characteristic blend of technological innovation and rigorous live performance to comment on circumstances that have long afflicted human life, including questions regarding power, control, autonomy, and perseverance. Through Prometheus, […]
Now in its twenty-fourth year in Houston, Dance Salad Festival will again serve audiences a feast of contemporary and classical dance, with at least two US premieres and three world premieres from nationally and internationally-recognized choreographers. I had the privilege to connect with Valentina Marini and Sussanna Leinonen, and our exchanges reflect both an appreciation […]
For two nights at the Gaertner Performing Arts Center Dance Theater at Sam Houston State University (SHSU), audiences partook of ten pieces by ten different artists chosen from over 300 submissions, reflecting a tightly woven network between Huntsville, Texas, and New York City. The duet-heavy show offered a progressive dance dinner to the nearly-full house, […]
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