Nichelle Suzanne Strzepek

Nichelle Suzanne is a web and social media specialist for Rice University and the founder of DanceAdvantage.net. For 10 years, she has covered dance in Houston and beyond for publications such as the Dance Dish, Arts+Culture Texas, CultureMap, and the NYC Rockettes blog at Rockettes.com.

Author's Website

Chapman’s Entanglements Resonates on Both a Human and Quantum Scale

Chapman’s Entanglements Resonates on Both a Human and Quantum Scale

“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 […]

Read More →

Read More →

Group Acorde’s Premiere “Beat” Explores What’s at the Heart of Mental Health and Resilience

Group Acorde’s Premiere “Beat” Explores What’s at the Heart of Mental Health and Resilience

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 […]

Read More →

Read More →

A Tapestry of Femininity: Exploring The Pilot Dance Project’s “Aureate”

A Tapestry of Femininity: Exploring The Pilot Dance Project’s “Aureate”

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, […]

Read More →

Read More →

In Retrospect: Open Dance Project Delivers a Timely Reflection on 1968

In Retrospect: Open Dance Project Delivers a Timely Reflection on 1968

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 […]

Read More →

Read More →

Peter Chu’s chuthis. and Houston Contemporary Dance Company Merge in Liminal Traces

Peter Chu’s chuthis. and Houston Contemporary Dance Company Merge in Liminal Traces

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 […]

Read More →

Read More →

Keeping SCORE: Toni Leago Valle Celebrates 20 Years

Keeping SCORE: Toni Leago Valle Celebrates 20 Years

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 […]

Read More →

Read More →

Years in the Making: Charting the Return of Karen Stokes Dance

Years in the Making: Charting the Return of Karen Stokes Dance

It’s not unusual for Karen Stokes to take her time developing an evening-length work for her company Karen Stokes Dance (KSD). The director of the dance program at University of Houston as well as an established dance artist, Stokes often begins with shorter pieces or one-acts that expand to a long-form presentation over a period […]

Read More →

Read More →

Tandem Summer Performances by NobleMotion Dance

Tandem Summer Performances by NobleMotion Dance

Hot on the heels of a successful summer intensive close to home and an immersive performance workshop in Italy, NobleMotion Dance will engage faithful fans and undoubtedly some fresh faces during two back-to-back weekends of dance in August. While epic spectacle is certainly within the NobleMotion wheelhouse, the company’s artistic directors Andy and Dionne Noble […]

Read More →

Read More →

Houston Contemporary Dance Company Lets Their Hair Down

Houston Contemporary Dance Company Lets Their Hair Down

Houston Contemporary Dance Company (HCDC) is in its third season. Do the math and you’ll likely deduce that this professional dance ensemble has experienced kind of a rocky start. Fortunately, under the artistic and executive direction of Marlana Doyle, a proven leader in the Houston dance community, the company overcame the obstacles of 2020 and […]

Read More →

Read More →

Ishida Dance Company Makes a Promising Debut in Houston with you could release me

Ishida Dance Company Makes a Promising Debut in Houston with you could release me

After two thwarted-by-COVID attempts in two years, Austin-based Ishida Dance Company finally made its Houston debut this weekend at Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston (MATCH), bringing a quartet of dance premieres to the intimate venue with their program, you could release me. Ishida Dance, launched in 2019 by California native Brett Ishida, is a […]

Read More →

Read More →

Top