Adam Castañeda is a dancer and arts administrator in Houston, Texas. He is the Executive and Artistic Director of the Pilot Dance Project, a non-profit arts organization with the mission to empower and transform communities through innovative dance, theater, and visual art. With his company he has performed in evening-length works by Ashley Horn, jhon r. stronks, Jennifer Mabus, Jaime Walne-Fruge, and Heather VonReichbauer. When not with the Pilot Dance Project, he
enjoys performing with Suchu Dance/Jennifer Wood.
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 […]
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 […]
If you’re a Millennial of a certain age, the wellspring of imagination, creativity, and big-kid emotions probably has as one of its many sources the cultural phenomenon that was the Disney Renaissance. For a decade, the famed animation studio produced animated musicals of fairy tales, myths, and literary works that enchanted a generation of kids […]
To say that the past two years have been a cause for reflection is a vast understatement for arts presenters, especially those who have spent years shoring up and solidifying their annual programming. For Dance Salad, Nancy Henderek’s once-a-year gathering of international contemporary dance artists, COVID-19 may very well have marked the end of her […]
Ask anyone connected to dance to name their favorite moment from Alvin Ailey’s Revelations, and the answer will be different each time. There is the glorious burst of joy that fills the all-yellow ensemble in “Move, Members, Move,” and there’s the pulsating undulations and theatrical pageantry of “Take Me to the Water.” And then there […]
When Meg Booth moved to the Bayou City from the East Coast to take up her current position as CEO of the Society for the Performing Arts, she came with the understanding that the city’s vibrant arts ecosystem was one-of-a-kind. “One of the reasons why I was enticed to come to Houston was because the […]
Even if one is not a fan of Broadway musicals, the name and legacy of Jerome Robbins is clearly understood, especially as a dancer. I can’t say this with definitive certainty, but I’m sure that everyone with an inclination to move has had, at least at one point in their lives, a fantasy of themselves […]
A few weeks ago I wrote about the work of Elisa De La Rosa, and considered her Tortillas y Lagrimas in the context of a few questions that I’ve been asking myself recently, particularly, what is the focus of a life in dance? I would also extend this conversation to, what makes a successful dance […]
METdance has attracted a string of high-profile choreographers over the past decade, in large part to the diligent efforts of Artistic Director Marlana Doyle to broaden the scope of the company, but on April 13 and 14, she unveiled a program dedicated to dance rooted in Texas. METdance was joined by Bruce Wood Dance of […]
For Rathna Kumar, there is no comparison between classical forms and contemporary pop culture trends. “There is an eternal quality about the classical dances,” says Kumar. “They are always beautiful. They are ever-changing, and always evolving because nothing is ever static. But the changes don’t take away from what it truly is.” Kumar is a […]
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