Neil Ellis Orts is a writer and performer, living in Houston. Visit him online at neilellisorts.com.
Once upon a time, Stacey Allen, the artistic director for Nia’s Daughters Movement Collective, was a public school dance educator. While teaching elementary aged dance students, she noticed a lack of materials that spoke to African American dance history. In Allen’s own life and practice, the choreography and scholarship of Katherine Dunham were important to […]
Performers: Ariaza Ariaza, Lindsay Cortner, Gabrielle De La Rosa, Isabella Mireles VikSound piece: Jamie Hernandez 2024 Texas Biennial, Blaffer Art Museum/Dudley Recital Hall, University of HoustonOctober 17, 2024 Just a year ago, the Dance Dish ran an artist highlight on Isabella Mireles Vik that described her work as visceral and challenging, potentially disturbing to an audience. […]
Choreographing Memory: Mark Aguilar Explores His Sister’s Experiences “Metamorfosis”Choreographer – Mark AguilarPerformer – Aniya Wingate Mark Aguilar’s six-and-a-half minute dance, “Metamorfosis,” starts with a montage of home video, at least one of which is date-stamped in 2009. The focus is children. Driving kiddie racecars and bumper cars. Swinging in a backyard. A family activity taking […]
Barnstorm Presents Dance From Beyond the City LimitsHouston’s Dance Festival Draws Out-of-Town Artists Houston dance enthusiasts look to the annual Barnstorm Dance Fest to see the current mainstays and up-and-comers of the city’s community of movers. This year’s festival, May 28 through June 1, will be no different. For this preview however, we wanted to […]
Dancers are no strangers to injuries. When the injury is bad enough and the dancer has enough money, they might go see a physical therapist. In that visit, the dancer is looking for advice and help. On November 14, 2023, Dance Source Houston (DSH) sought to turn that relationship into a more mutual one with […]
Fifteen years ago, I was sitting in the audience of the Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex, scribbling notes in the dark as I watched Program B of that year’s Big Range Dance Festival. My review of that evening was one of my earliest dance writings for Dance Source Houston. All these years later, I found myself again […]
I. Physical Site The Delicate Space took place in the yard of a house in north Houston, just inside the Loop. It is the home where Adam Castañeda, the artistic director of the Pilot Dance Project, grew up. This knowledge immediately lends weight to the production. Words like “childhood home” have emotional content that can […]
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 […]
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 […]
Heather VonReichbauer, through Bones and Memory Dance, has been building a body of work that explores the macabre and unsettling. Her previous full-length evening shows include Dark Waters (2017), an exploration of Appalachian murder ballads, and Madness, Memories, and Woe (2018) which delved into the life and literature of Edgar Allan Poe. Just before the […]
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