Dance Gallery Festival 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 11, 2013

MEDIA CONTACT

Michelle Tabnick, (646) 765-4773

michelle@michelletabnickcommunications.com

VON USSAR danceworks presents the 4th Annual

DANCE GALLERY FESTIVAL:

TEXAS EXPERIENCE

October 4 – 5, 2013

@ Sam Houston State University

VON USSAR danceworks presents the 4th Annual Dance Gallery Festival: Texas Experience, featuring original works from emerging and renowned choreographers in the Houston area and around the world on October 4 and 5 at 8pm at Sam Houston State University’s James and Nancy Gaertner Performing Arts Center Dance Theater, 815 17^th Street, Huntsville, TX. Tickets are $15 and are available at www.shsu.edu/dance or by phone at 936.294.2339.

The Texas venue of DGF cultivates relationships between students and professionals and provides exposure for participating companies in the Houston area. Nationally recognized critic Nancy Wozny hailed, ”the evening’s polish, fine dancing and choreographic invention made one memorable night.” The Dance Gallery Festival at Sam Houston offers beautiful state-of-the art facilities, a master class series, and paid guest artist residencies in conjunction with the festival’s performances.

The resident guest artists for this year’s festival are Enzo Celli of Celli Contemporary Ballet from Italy and Amy Cain and Dawn Dippel from Houston’s own contemporary jazz based company Revolve Dance Company. These one to two week residencies include choreographing a new work on Sam Houston’s students to be performed on their fall concert as well as teaching technique and choreography classes.  A juried panel comprised of Sam Houston faculty and area artists select the resident artists.  Prior year’s recipients include Khaleah London (NY), iMEE (RI), Hope Stone Dance (Houston) and somebodies dance theater (CA).

Choreographers/companies featured in the Texas festival include:

Lauren Edson (Idaho)Revolve Dance Company (Houston) Andee Scott (Florida) Dante Brown (New York) Enzo Celli/Celli Contemporary Ballet (Italy)

VON USSAR danceworks (New York)NobleMotion Dance (Houston) Laura Harrell (Houston) David Justin (Austin) Dark Circles Contemporary Dance (Dallas)

Andee Scott is an independent dance artist. Her choreography is interdisciplinary and site-specific, with a particular focus on light.  She curated and performed a solo-show, Woman’s Work: Reconstructions of Self, subsequently touring works in Italy, with Deja Donne and was a long-time member of Sharir+Bustamante Danceworks, Austin, TX.  She is currently on faculty at the University of South Florida, Tampa.

Dante Brown began his dance training at Wesleyan University, where he whetted his creative appetite. From that point, his interest in performance and choreography led him to The Ohio State University to pursue his MFA in Choreography and Performance. Since 2010, Dante Brown|Warehouse Dance has had the opportunity to show work at Dixon Place, LaMaMa, The New Museum, Wexner Center for the Arts, among others.

Joshua L. Peugh is Artistic Director of Dark Circles Contemporary Dance. In 2006, Joshua moved to South Korea to join Universal Ballet where he performed soloist and featured roles in works by Ohad Naharin, Christopher Wheeldon and others. He has created work for festivals all over Asia and North America and served as Associate Choreographer for Bruce Wood Dance Project.

David Justin – Formerly a Principal with Birmingham Royal Ballet (UK), Soloist with San Francisco Ballet and Boston Ballet, David’s performance career included leading roles of the classical and contemporary ballet canons.  Choreographing since 1991, his work is described as “poetic”, “musical” and “obsessively cohesive”.  David is the Head of the BFA in Dance at UT Austin and Artistic Director of American Repertory Ensemble.  This work is made possible through the generous support of the University of Texas at Austin, Texas Commission on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and the City of Austin Cultural Arts Division.

Enzo Celli – Based on Enzo Celli’s great vision and interpretation abilities, Celli Contemporary Ballet is not simply a dance company but it’s a reference point for the experimentation and development of contemporary dance itself. The dancers are artists coming from different backgrounds who share the same multifaceted study on contemporary dance and theatre.

Laura Harrell, from Houston, TX, holds a M.F.A. and B.F.A. in Dance from SHSU. She has presented choreography at SHSU, Dance Gathering at the Barnevelder, Houston Fringe Festival at the Frenetic Theater, Venturing Out at the Houston Met Studio, and the American College Dance Festival where her work was chosen from over 40 works to perform at the Gala performance.

Lauren Edson, originally from Boise, Idaho trained at NCSA and The Juilliard School. Her professional experiences include: Trey McIntyre Project and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. As a choreographer, her work has appeared at the Kennedy Center, McCallum Theatre, On the Boards and Jacob’s Pillow’s Inside/Out Series. Awards include: Great Works 2012 Choreography Prize, Audience Favorite Award Milwaukee Ballet’s 2013 ‘Genesis’ and Winner Northwest Dance Project’s 2009 International Choreographic Competition.

NobleMotion Dance exploded onto the Houston dance scene in 2009 and has since received critical acclaim for their “extraordinary athleticism” and “cutting edge” programming. NMD has been presented nationally at venues such as The Kennedy Center and Seattle’s On the Boards and was recently listed in Dance Magazine as one of Houston’s “A-list” dance companies. For more information, visit us at www.Noblemotiondance.com

Revolve Dance Company, the professional branch of NHPA dance studio in Spring, TX, has been noted to be “one of the most slick contemporary jazz dance groups around.” Their “razor-sharp precision” and “dignified elegance” has been presented in multiple Houston dance events including Weekend of Texas Contemporary Dance, the JCC’s Triple Focus, Dance Houston’s City-Wide Festival, and The Dance Gallery Festival. www.revolvedanceco.com

Astrid von Ussar has been faculty at The Ailey School since 1998. She has also taught at Sam Houston University, Columbia University, Long Island University and various studios in NYC. She has been commissioned to do a new work on the BFA students at the Ailey/Fordham, Lula Washington Dance Theater, Houston Metropolitan Dance Company, The Ailey Student Performance Group, Genesis Dance Company, Long Island University, Sam Houston University and Plesana Izba (Europe). Most recently the company made a guest appearance at the Dancin’ Downtown at the Joyce, presented by Dancers Responding to Aids and was commissioned for NY Summerstage.

Von Ussar is the Artistic Director of The Dance Gallery Festival.

For more than 130 years, Sam Houston State University has been preparing students for meaningful lives of achievement. Its motto, “The Measure of a Life is its Service,” echoes across SHSU’s six colleges and beyond its Texas campus through student research, creative endeavors, service learning, volunteering and more.