Behind The Scenes With Mind The Gap 35
Dance Source Houston kicks off the 2025/26 season with Mind The Gap XXXV on August 5 at MATCH. The program includes solo and ensemble pieces by choreographers and companies working in Bharatanatyam, contemporary, flamenco, and modern dance forms. Learn more about the 5 works that will be presented on the program directly from the artists and get your tickets at matchouston.org/events/2025/mind-gap-xxxv.
Rima Bhattacharjee: “Bageshree Pallavi is based on the Raga Bageshree, an ancient Raga associated with late nights. This Pallavi is a synthesis of slow, graceful, and lyrical movements of the eyes, neck, torso, and feet with a gradual unfolding of Odissi’s sensuous beauty through intricate compositions, punctuated with stunning poses. Bageshree Pallavi is divided into several distinct parts, highlighting the fluidity of the art form, which infuses a soft visual effect. Fast footwork within the music brings the sculptures of the temples to life with elegant stances.
What sets Bageshree Pallavi apart from other Pallavis is that it is choreographed in the form of a conversation between the musicians and the dancer. Thus, Bageshree Pallavi is also known as Yugmadanda Pallavi. As with all Pallavis, the composition advances in a crescendo to climax in a fast tempo of complex patterns, highlighting various rhythmic variations.”
Andrea Gonzalez: “la resistencia” is a multidisciplinary dance work influenced by the movements found in Flamenco, ballet, contemporary dance, and classical Spanish dance. It will be a visual piece of movement demonstrating resilience in the face of adversity and the human drive to connect. It is a personal expression of identity through shared experiences, traditions, art, music, dance, and social activism. This piece will utilize a multidisciplinary vocabulary and props familiar to the Flamenco dance styles, such as the Manton de Manila, castanets, hand-held fan, and bata de cola, to depict diversity in the community and harmony.
My creative process involves intense study, discovery, and an open space to listen and explore movement to a piece of music. I gather my knowledge of movement and material I have learned, movements that feel intuitive, and I begin to mount pieces together to create a choreographic work while allowing space for improvisation.”
Lydia Hance: “I was inspired to create this dance work by the myth of Narcissus. His story—about beauty, reflection, obsession, and ultimately, isolation—resonates deeply with the complexities of how we perceive ourselves and others in today’s world. “Falling for the Image” explores how our own reflection can both illuminate and obscure our true selves, highlighting the complexity of balancing self-love with empathy and connection. In this all-ages cast, each dancer brings their own unique experience, infusing the work with a rich diversity of movement and emotion.
Through movement, I wanted to explore the tension between self-love and self-destruction, the allure of the image versus the essence of identity. Dance is the perfect medium to embody this inner conflict—its physicality mirrors the emotional and psychological unraveling that Narcissus experiences.”
Katelyn Hurst: “Invoking a sense of critical thought and discomfort, “Pray You, Love Remember” is a repetitive solo mirroring Ophelia from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet after her untimely death. Focusing on the notion that due to her being buried in unconsecrated ground, she is stuck in an eternal contemplation of her past relationships and decisions symbolized through the flowers, and the humanity she has left behind.
I found that Ophelia’s “madness” was more so her speaking the truth in a roundabout way. She was written by a man and thus influenced how men perceived women during her time. Her words were less of madness and more of grief and realization. Those around her wrote her off as mad in an effort to stave off their own accountability. I was driven by the lack of perspective and focus on Ophelia as a character, her intelligence and emotions being sidelined. This was created with her specifically in mind, and what she could have experienced.”
Violet Moon: “I will be dancing a traditional, post-modern/contemporary solo representative of the training I received growing up. Instructors from where I trained continue to hold positions of power and influence in the dance community. I was feeling frightened taking class, attending dance events and workshops not knowing who I would run into. I would avoid performances, studios, times of day to ensure I would never cross paths with people. Existing in the dance community has become an unbearably hyper-vigilant task making freedom of movement impossible and creation arduous. In being most true to myself, what better way to reclaim space than to dance.
Mind The Gap is an opportunity for voices and creative works to experiment, stretch, and form into meaningful opportunities for performers. What I hope to present is incredibly vulnerable, and I can’t imagine presenting it anywhere else. Getting to participate and share my experiences honestly within this work is a privilege.”
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