Nichelle Suzanne is a content strategist, digital storyteller and dance writer. A dancer and dance educator for 25 years, she is also the founder of DanceAdvantage.net. Since 2009, Nichelle has covered dance in Houston and beyond for publications including The Dance DiSH, Arts+Culture Texas, CultureMap, Houston Ballet News and Rockettes.com.
Houston’s strength has long been its diversity, of people, cultures and ideas. It feels only natural, then, that the city would give rise to a dance company like Mezclada, whose very name means “mixed.” Under the direction of Artistic Director Joel Aguilera, Mezclada thrives on fusion, weaving together contemporary dance, breaking and Latin rhythms into […]
When NobleMotion premieres Pressure Point at MATCH August 21–23, audiences can expect five works, including four premieres and one repertory return, that each engage with personal, political and social tensions. Co-directors Andy and Dionne Noble see this “kinetic variety show” as a kind of artistic exhale and hope the content will invite reflection: on identity, […]
In many classrooms today, movement is treated as a side dish—served in quick bursts between long stretches of sitting. Children are offered structured, screen-led brain breaks to get their wiggles out before returning to a static learning model. But what if movement wasn’t just a release valve? What if it could be woven into the […]
As recently as the 2023–24 season, data revealed that only about 31% of dance works presented across U.S. venues were choreographed by women. Women choreographers are woefully underrepresented in full-length programs but better represented on mixed bill programs, such as the most recent production by Houston Contemporary Dance Company (HCDC). Presented at the Hobby Center, […]
“We’re in the universe and the universe is in us.” Resonating over projected images of the cosmos, Neil deGrasse Tyson’s breathy baritone poetically summarizes our connection not only to the stars in our vast universe but to one another. Science, it turns out, posits what mystics, spiritual teachers and artists have suggested all along: We […]
There’s an intriguing link between the heart and your mental health. Studies reveal that a consistently elevated resting heart rate may signal anxiety, depression or even PTSD, long before other symptoms appear. The rapid pulse during moments of stress is not just a physical reaction—it’s a window into the mind’s struggles. For Group Acorde, this […]
I imagine each member of the audience for The Pilot Dance Project’s evening-length work Aureate leaving The DeLuxe Theater in Houston’s Fifth Ward mentally clasping their own tendrils of meaning. Within the tapestry woven by Artistic Director Adam Castan͂eda and choreographer/designer Ashley Horn, one might focus on individual themes like the natural world, sacred iconography, […]
In 1968, the whole world was watching one of the most tumultuous years in American history unfold at home on television. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. Bobby Kennedy, still mourning his brother along with the country, was killed only a few months later. The nation’s young adults mobilized in protest against our […]
This weekend at Asia Society Texas Oct. 22-23, Houston Contemporary Dance Company (HCDC) and project-based dance company chuthis. merge to present Liminal Traces. The evening of dance will feature the work of chuthis. artistic director and choreographer Peter Chu, an artist who frequently occupies the interstitial spaces of contemporary dance. In his career, Chu has […]
Years can be counted by 10 in decades, by 100 in centuries and, though it’s little used in modern conversation, by 20 in scores, just as Abraham Lincoln did so memorably in his Gettysburg address. Celebrating onescore as a professional choreographer, Toni Leago Valle and her company 6 Degrees will present SCORE, an evening highlighting […]
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