Open Dance Project Presents Shortcuts

For Immediate Release
MEDIA CONTACT
Open Dance Project | Robin Anderson, Managing Director
robin@opendanceproject.org | 832-962-8982

Open Dance Project presents
“Shortcuts” an evening of 5 world premieres by ODP Company Members

(HOUSTON, Texas, August 15, 2022) —Open Dance Project (ODP) launches its 2022-23 season with Shortcuts, an evening of 5 world premieres by ODP company members: Joshua de Alba, Sonia Engman, Atticus Griffin, Lizzy McGoldrick and guest choreographer Laura Harrell. Two evening performances will take place at Midtown Arts and Theater Center on Fri, Sept. 30th and Sat, Oct. 1st at 8 pm. Continuing its commitment to family audiences, ODP will offer a one hour Family Matinee on Saturday, October 1st at 4:30 pm. Youth tickets are available for $20 and families are invited to a pre-performance “Behind the Scenes” workshop on stage with the choreographers from 4-4:30pm. The 8pm performances will also include a special appearance by students from ODP’s 2022 Pre-Professional Intensive.

Open Dance Project’s dual emphasis on performance and education is foundational to its mission and vision – reflected most significantly in ODP’s hiring of self-identified maker/performer/teachers as company members. “Our company members are a dream team of collaborators. They invent, transform, and develop movement ideas for our ensemble works all season long. Shortcuts gives us an opportunity to focus on their ideas from start to finish and to support the birth of new works by some of the very strongest new choreographers in the dance world,” states ODP Artistic Director Annie Arnoult.

Although the pieces differ in approach, choreographic process, and music selection, central themes of human connection, self-exploration, and loss run through each of the pieces. Josh de Alba’s solo, “Orogeny,” performed with aerial silks, is based on the unique geological process that is responsible for shaping mountains, oceans, and continents. De Alba’s work uses the collision of tectonic plates and eruptive rivers of magma as a metaphor for experiencing tumultuous personal and emotional states.

Sonia Engman’s work “ImpulzTanz,” will be energetic and collaborative in nature, focusing on the process of creating the work, highlighting her background in varied dance styles from Hip-Hop to Contemporary.  Atticus Griffin’s “Party Scene” depicts an evening dinner party between friends that highlights the interpersonal dynamic of the group and its sense of community. The work brings together ODP company members and ODP2 youth performers.

Lizzy McGoldrick’s “Forget Me Not” investigates the physical and mental toll grief takes on the human body, particularly when the person you are grieving is still alive. “This piece explores the special ways people come together to care for their loved one, grieve their loved one, and continue to survive their daily lives,” explains McGoldrick.

ODP is thrilled to present a world premiere by guest choreographer Laura Harrell in the Shortcuts program. Harrell’s work has been presented by The Dance Gallery Festival (Texas/New York City), NobleMotion Dance, METdance, The American College Dance Festival, The Fringe Festival (Houston), Brazos Contemporary Dance Festival, and in the first ever Art Saves Lives: A Cultural Conversation performance and educational outreach program in Nice, France. She was a 2017 Dance Source Houston Artist in Residence and a 2017-2018 recipient of the Houston Arts Alliance Individual Artist Grant.

ODP is thrilled for the return of the Shortcuts program featuring the choreographic voices of its creative collaborators for the first time since 2018.

Tickets are $35 for the general public, $20 for artists, seniors and youth and are available at matchouston.org.

Press review tickets, photos, interviews, and access to in person or virtual open rehearsals available by request.  Please contact Robin Anderson, robin@opendanceproject.org

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WHEN: Friday, September 30th at 8 pm / Saturday, Oct. 1st – Family Audiences Matinee 4:30 pm (with free pre-performance workshop on stage from 4-4:30 pm) / Saturday, October 1st at 8 pm

WHERE: Midtown Arts and Theater Center, 3400 Main St, Houston, TX 77002

TICKETS:    On sale starting September 1st at www.matchouston.org

Production Team:

Choreographers: ODP company members Joshua de Alba, Sonia Engman, Atticus Griffin, Lizzy McGoldrick and guest choreographer Laura Harrell.

Additional choreography for Pre-Professional Students by Sonia Engman, Atticus Griffin, and Madelyn Manlove

Artistic Director: Annie Arnoult

Producer: Robin Anderson

Lighting and Sound Design: Tiffany Schrepferman

ODP DANCERS:

Joshua De Alba, Sonia Engman, Atticus Griffin, Madelyn Manlove, Taylor McAnulty, Lizzy McGoldrick, Cameo Renée, Joseph Stevens, Jaime Garcia Vergara, Brenden Winkfield

SUPPORT

Open Dance Project is supported in part by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, Texas Commission on the Arts,  National Endowment for the Arts, The Brown Foundation, Inc. and Dance Source Houston’s Groundwork grant program.

About Open Dance Project:

Open Dance Project is a contemporary dance-theater company, under the direction of Annie Arnoult, whose ensemble-driven work transforms literary, historical, and community-based source material into highly stylized performance experiences. Through a collision of dance and theater, live performance and new media, urban grit and magical realism, Open Dance Project breaks down conventional barriers between artist and audience to make dance more accessible and meaningful for both. Open Dance Project is on the Texas Commission on the Arts Touring Artists Roster and is funded in part by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance. The company brings high-quality interdisciplinary arts education and arts integration to Houston school children through its extensive education and community engagement program and partners with Young Audiences of Houston and Arts Connect Houston to work towards arts equity in Houston schools.

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