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 […]
The great Indian subcontinent celebrated seventy-five years of independence from British colonial rule on August 15, 2022. To commemorate this significant milestone, Silambam Houston, under the executive and artistic direction of Lavanya Rajagopalan, presented Waking Up Free: India’s Journey, on March 31, 2023. The evening-length production, created in collaboration with Shri Silambam Academy in Chennai, […]
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 […]
Joel Aguilera is a choreographer who has been gradually making his mark in Houston over the past few seasons. His work has appeared in several high-profile showcases, including Dance Source Houston’s Barnstorm Dance Fest, Dance Houston’s Annual Celebration of Dance, and Dance Source Houston’s Mind the Gap series. I recognized Aguilera’s rising star a few […]
The power of Stacey Allen, the founder of Nia’s Daughters Movement Collective, is her ability to merge African American-Texas history, pedagogy, Diasporic African concepts and culture, with her extensive contemporary and African dance training. She does so expertly with her latest work, The Fairytale Project, a multi-disciplinary dance theater piece for children that reimagines the […]
On June 25th and 26th at Sanman Studios, artistic directors Kayla Collymore and Donna Crump premiered the second installation of LINEAR/FUNCTION: BORDERLESS, a live immersive, multi-disciplinary experience including dance, film, photography, and audience participation. Collymore and Crump described LINEAR/FUNCTION as exploring the concept of bringing more balance to a world dominated by masculine energy via […]
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 […]
Take a Ride with Open Dance Project’s Bonnie & Clyde Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, May 27-June 4 I’ll state up front that if anyone else in Houston was putting on a dance theater production about Bonnie and Clyde, I doubt that I would have given it a second glance. My interest in […]
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 […]
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 […]
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