Adam Castan͂eda Premieres New Dance Work “A Migration Through Northside”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Adam Castan͂eda Premieres New Dance Work “A Migration Through Northside,” 
Celebrating Latinx Culture, Community, and Color.

HOUSTON (September 18, 2022) – Houston-based choreographer Adam Castan͂eda premieres a new work funded by a Support for Artists and Creative Individuals Grant from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance. “A Migration Through Northside,” premiering October 7, is a three-part dance work that will be presented by the Greater Northside Management District’s 10th Annual Tour de Northside Festival.Free to the public, Adam’s work will be accompanied by live music by John Del Toro Richardson and interact with visual artist Tami Moscioni’s “Spoken Bicicleta.” 

A year in the making, “A Migration Through Northside” is a love letter to Houston’s Near Northside neighborhood. Using the monarch butterfly as a visual container for the thematic concerns of international migration, gentrification, women in Mexican-American culture, matriarchal figures in working-class communities, and love of one’s birthplace, the work captures the personality of the neighborhood as it is in 2023. Every year, the monarch butterfly migrates through the Near Northside, unaware of the rapidly changing social landscape of its human counterparts. Adam’s choreography represents the beauty of this natural phenomena as it is juxtaposed with the complex socio-political inner workings of a historical neighborhood setting. 

PRESENTATION SCHEDULE: 

10AM at The Houston Farmer’s Market (2520 Airline Drive): The Tour de Northside festival is an annual bike tour through the Northside neighborhood. The water stop for this year’s festival will be at The Houston’s Farmer’s Market. The first part of “A Migration Through Northside” will be presented here with a short piece accompanied by celebrated Houston musician Sonia Flores, artistic director of Aurum Son. The quartet will be danced by Adam Castan͂eda, Cynthia Garcia, Sierra Johnson, and Mia Pham. 

12:45PM at The University of Houston-Downtown, College of Sciences and Technology (315 North Main Street): In the second segment, Adam presents his community ensemble practice featuring movers that represent a wide spectrum of movement and performance experience. From professional dancers to first-time performers, Adam’s community ensemble practice tailors the joy of movement for everyone who takes up the assignment. This particular piece explores the resiliency of the cholo and chola figures in Mexican-American culture, as well as the resiliency of childhood friendships. 

1PM-2PM: Hour-long set of original music by John Del Toro Richardson

2PM at The University of Houston-Downtown, College of Sciences and Technology (315 North Main Street): The triptych of dances concludes with a finale of ten professional dancers accompanied by the music of John Del Toro Richardson. This cast of some of Houston’s most beloved Modern dancers includes Morgan LeAnne Brown, Adam Castan͂eda, Julia Cipriani, Jade Devault, Keeley Dunham, Lauren Hurstell, Sierra Johnson, Andrea Nicole Oregon, Kristina Prats, and Courtney Sherman-Allen. 

All sections will be costumed by Ashley Horn.

ABOUT Adam Castan͂eda

Adam Castan͂eda is a dancer, choreographer, and arts administrator living in Houston, Texas. He is the Executive and Artistic Director of the Pilot Dance Project, a non-profit arts organization that produces the annual Houston Fringe Festival, the Texas Latino/a/x Contemporary Dance Festival, Queer Fringe Houston, as well as a full season of professional Modern dance works. As a company member of the Pilot Dance Project, he has performed in repertory and evening-length work by Ashley Horn, jhon r. stronks, Jennifer Mabus, Lori Yuill, Orlando Hunter (Brooklyn, New York), Erica Gionfriddo (Austin), and Corian Elisor (Atlanta), among others

###