Mind The Gap 32 – Behind The Works
Dance Source Houston will present Mind The Gap 32 on Tuesday, December 3 at Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston (MATCH) featuring a lineup of contemporary dance by local choreographers and companies, including Jai Alexander, Jasmine Hearn, Persi Mey, Violet Moon, Robbie Moore, Stacy Skolnik, and Ad Deum Dance Company. Join us for the final Mind The Gap showcase of 2024 on Giving Tuesday! Tickets are on sale now at matchouston.org.
Learn more about the artists and works featured on the program.
Jai Alexander
Work description: “shade” is a work intended to approach a deeper subject with an element of fun and unpredictability. By using light and shadow as metaphors, Jai hopes to juxtapose lighthearted imagery with more complex emotional undertones, crafting a performance that invites both introspection and enjoyment. The piece aims to challenge conventional boundaries of choreography while engaging the audience in a playful yet meaningful exploration.
What do you want audiences to know about the work?
JA: I am interested in creating this work with a focus on the interplay between shadows, shade, and sunglasses, using these elements to explore how they can shift perception and mood. Through choreography, I want to investigate how shadows can shape movement, how shade can create moments of mystery, and how sunglasses can act as both a barrier and a lens. I’m curious about how these concepts can blend together to create a dynamic, layered narrative within the piece.
Jasmine Hearn
Work description: In “Trinity: I’ll remember with you.” Jasmine remembers moments from their time in Rome, Italy sourcing movement and choreography made while a 2023 Rome Prize Fellow. Sharing video and dance, they will tell a nonlinear tale of what they saw and experienced.
What was the impetus for creating this work?
JH: I want to be able to share organized research from my past travels with my Houston family and friends. It is a part of a sorting spell, a line for choreographic material to be aired and witnessed. I look forward to sharing a collage of memories with you, from Rome with love.
Persi Mey
Work description: “It Wasn’t Meant For You” is an athletic contemporary solo exploring the need to adapt to your environment in order to thrive.
What was your impetus for creating this work?
PM: I am creating this work, in a way, as an outlet of frustration surrounding where I am compared to where I feel like I should be. Accepting and adapting to where I am in order to best move forward. A fish would not get far if it could not breathe the water.
Violet Moon
Work description: “Watched, For Your Viewing Pleasure” is an intimate exploration of what it means to be viewed, but not seen. It confronts the persistent weight and alternating tension of living in a femme-presenting body through the lens of desire or expectation— to be sexualized or in service. The piece challenges the audience to reflect on why they are watching the performer and what they are seeking in the act of looking. Through movement, the work navigates the delicate balance between vulnerability and safety, inviting viewers to witness a story that is as much about their perception as it is about the performer’s reality.
What do you want audiences to know about the work?
VM: This piece is about what it feels like to be looked at for someone else’s pleasure or projection; I wanted a creative container to externalize the weight of being viewed for critique as demon, fetish, or mirror. There’s a complex entanglement between the impact of chronic performance and perception in a femme-presenting body alongside a performer’s duty to share themselves but never (and gratefully) be fully seen.
Stacy Skolnik & Robbie Moore
Work description: “Threading” is a work about redefining our human connection. At first, we find each other again after not seeing one another for a long time. Together we explore the joyous layers reuniting can bring. We share the heartache of losing figures in our lives as we mature. Themes of communication, compromise an confusion will play a part.
What do you want audiences to know about the work?
RM & SS: In this piece, I invite you to journey through the ups and downs of a human connection and relationship. This work explores ebbs and flows of reconnecting with a human. This will be seen with intense partnering and the potential of clothing be an expression of that connection. The emotions will be up and down in a way where you will the intensity of being together and apart. Using movement to delve into the joy of reconnecting, a break-up that feels unbearable, or the peace of just being in the moment with the person. Each movement is crafted to tell a story.
Ad Deum Dance Company
Work description: “Awakening” explores the world of images, brands, and labels we live in that take such deep-seated roots and wreak havoc on authentic identity. We are losing our true selves in this indoctrination of deconstructionism.
Why do you want to be part of the Mind The Gap series?
AD: Ad Deum has been an integral part of the Houston dance community for over 35 years. We want to keep making significant contributions of beautiful and powerful artistry to help cultivate the artistic endeavors in the city that we belong to. This work is an offering of concern and care for a culture that is so saturated by image and sensationalism.
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