Houston Contemporary Dance Company and Open Dance Project Present “Butterfly Effect”

For Immediate Release 

Asia Society Texas Center | Michael Buening, Director of Performing Arts & Culture mbuening@asiasociety.org | 713-496-9937 
Houston Contemporary Dance Company | Marlana Doyle, Executive/Artistic Director marlana@houstoncontemporary.org | 713-203-5033 
Open Dance Project | Laura Harrell, Managing Director 
laura@opendanceproject.org | 832-878-7794 

Performing Arts and Culture programs at Asia Society Texas, Houston Contemporary Dance Company and Open Dance Project present Butterfly Effect

[HOUSTON, Texas, September 16] — Performing Arts and Culture programs at Asia Society Texas, Houston Contemporary Dance Company and Open Dance Project present Butterfly Effect, a weekend of stunning performances bringing together Houston’s two leading contemporary dance companies. Two ticketed performances will run at the Asia Society Texas Center’s Brown Foundation Performing Arts Theater October 18th and 19th, 2024 at 7:30PM. 

Open Dance Project (ODP) joins forces with Houston Contemporary Dance Company (HCDC) to present Butterfly Effect. The performances will include an original work by ODP’s Executive Artistic Director Annie Arnoult that unites the powerhouse of both companies on stage together with a repertoire work from each organization, including HCDC’s piece by internationally acclaimed choreographer Yue Yin.

Butterfly Effect is a world premiere choreographed by Annie Arnoult for a combined cast of Houston Contemporary Dance Company and Open Dance Project dancers. Arnoult digs into the unique strengths of these powerhouse performers while tackling the topic of personal development. Butterfly Effect puts the dancers into a series of challenging physical and social situations that send the dancers alternately into “discover” and “defend” modes. Sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes humorous, the piece, set to a contemporary music score by Michael Wall, asks how and why people handle tough situations so differently. 

Citizen is a physically demanding ensemble piece performed by the full company of YYDC dancers. Its dynamic and expressive movement, together with dramatic original musical scoring, reflects the intensity of the times we are living then and now, the challenges we face together and the political environment that surrounds and influences us. The dancers and their movements celebrate our common sense of hope and determination. 

In Shakespearean Shorts: A Tragicomedy, Open Dance Project brings Shakespeare’s most recognizable moments to life in a collaboratively devised set of rotating vignettes that pop up with makeshift scenery and sets to tease and delight the audience. Shakespeare’s most beloved characters – Romeo and Juliet, Helena and Hermia, Demetrius and Lysander, Hamlet and the Players, Bottom and the Mechanicals, and the witches from Macbeth – engage the audience directly in iconic moments of love, strife, and comedy. With whimsical costumes by artist Ashley Horn and fantastic props by Lauren Davis, Open Dance Project transforms the Brown Foundation Performing Arts Theater at Asia Society Texas into a playful backdrop for Shakespeare’s most magical and mysterious moments. 

The 60 minute, including two short pauses, performance will take place October 18 and 19 at 7:30pm at the Asia Society Texas Center’s Brown Foundation Performing Arts Theater. Tickets are $35 for the general public and are available at: asiasociety.org/texas 

Press review tickets, photos, interviews, and access to in-person or virtual open rehearsals are available by request. Please contact Laura Harrell, laura@opendanceproject.org or Marlana Doyle marlana@houstoncontemporary.org

WHEN: Friday, October 18, 7:30pm 
Saturday, October 19, 7:30pm 

WHERE: Asia Society Texas Center 
The Brown Foundation Performing Arts Theater 
1370 Southmore Blvd
Houston, TX 77004 

TICKETS:
https://asiasociety.org/texas
$35 
713.496.9901 

PRODUCTION TEAM: 
Annie Arnoult (Choreographer/ODP Executive Artistic Director), Yue Yin (Choreographer), Michael Wall, Juliane Jones, Doug Beiden, and Hunter Perrin (Composers), Lauren Davis (ODP Scenic & Prop Artist), Ashley Horn and Olivia Salazar (Costume Design), Lynn Lane (Photographer), BEND Productions (Videographer), Marlana Doyle (HCDC Founder, Executive and Artistic Director), Laura Harrell (ODP Managing Director) 

HCDC COMPANY MEMBERS AND GUEST ARTISTS: 
Dominic Askew, Tamia Bradford, Dylan Croy, Annabelle Daniels, Avery Moore, Niyah Pratt, Mimi Rosepink, Vivian Shock, Dwain Travis 

ODP DANCERS: 
Joshua De Alba, Sonia Engman, Atticus Griffin, Madelyn Manlove, Cameo Renée, Margo Smolik, Jaime Garcia Vergara, Brenden Winkfield 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS: 
Yue Yin is an internationally recognized performer and choreographer and the founder and artistic director of YY Dance Company (YYDC). Yin studied at the prestigious Shanghai Dance Academy and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where she received her MFA in 2008. In 2018, Yin founded YYDC, a NYC-based, non-profit contemporary dance company dedicated to the teaching, production, and performance of Yin’s original choreographic works. Yin’s signature FoCo Technique™ represents a dynamic fusion of folk, ballet and contemporary dance. YYDC’s mission is to incorporate Yin’s signature movement style into live performances and choreographic commissions as well as educational endeavors. Under Yin’s direction, the company has presented its work to live audiences on U.S. and international stages. Yue was recipient of 2021 Harkness Promise Award, which recognizes her innovation in choreography and education. She was also the winner of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago 2015 International Commissioning Project, winner of the 2015 BalletX Choreographic Fellowship, and winner of Northwest Dance Project’s 5th Annual Pretty Creatives International Choreographic Competition in 2013. Through these high-profile successes, Yin has received commissions from all three widely recognized companies as well as other companies and organizations namely Martha Graham Dance Company, Boston Ballet, BalletMet, Oregon Ballet Theater, Philadelphia Ballet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, Limon Dance Company, Alberta Ballet, Balletto Teatro di Torino, Gibney Dance Company, Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, Whim W’him, Bruce Wood Dance, Ririe Woodbury Dance Company, Boston Dance Theater, 10 Hairy Legs, New Dialect, Backhausdance, Tisch School of The Arts, George Mason University, Rutgers University, Point Park University, West Michigan University, and Juilliard School for Dance. 

Annie Arnoult is the founding artistic director and current executive artistic director Open Dance Project (ODP) where she directs the company’s professional performance season and oversees the company’s extensive dance education work. Arnoult returned to her native Houston from Chicago where she was the artistic director of Chicago’s Striding Lion Performance Group, garnering acclaim for the company as a “new center of gravity for indie dance in Chicago.” Arnoult was named one of “25 to Watch 2018” by Dance Magazine and was a 2017 recipient of Houston Arts Alliance Individual Artist Grant for the development of the critically acclaimed ‘Bout a Stranger, deemed one of the “most fully realized pieces to come out of Houston in decades,” by Nancy Wozny of Dance Magazine. Arnoult’s creative work is deeply informed and influenced by her 25 years as an artist teacher and integrated arts education advocate in Chicago Public Schools, HISD, and surrounding districts. Arnoult is the director of Hunter Dance Center in the Heights and has been a guest artist/teacher at universities, festivals, conferences, and institutes throughout the U.S. Arnoult is a Certified Cecchetti Ballet teacher and a member of the National Dance Education Organization. Her research and choreography has been presented regionally and internationally. She has served on the dance faculty of Northwestern University and The School of Theatre and Dance at University of Houston. In addition to performing in her own work, Arnoult is a member of Houston’s Transitory Sound and Movement Collective, under the direction of Lynn Lane, and has danced for Meghan Durham, Ashley Thorndike-Youssef, XSIGHT! Performance Group, Lucky Plush Productions, Peter Carpenter, Asimina Chremos, and Billy Siegenfeld’s Jump Rhythm Jazz Project.

SUPPORT: 
Performing Arts and Culture programs at Asia Society Texas are presented by Syamal and Susmita Poddar. Major support comes from Nancy C. Allen, Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, The Brown Foundation, Inc., the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance, Houston Endowment Inc. Generous funding also provided by The Anchorage Foundation of Texas, The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, and the Wortham Foundation. Additional support is provided by The Clayton Fund, and the Friends of Asia Society, a dedicated group of individuals and organizations committed to bringing exceptional programming to Asia Society Texas. 

CO-PRESENTERS: 
The Houston Contemporary Dance Company’s (HCDC) mission is to ignite passion for contemporary dance by providing world-class professional repertory concert performances and community engagement activities that are accessible to all regardless of race, culture, sexual orientation, gender, gender variance, or nationality. HCDC aims to lead and innovate performing arts in Houston by drawing upon the director’s long tradition of inclusiveness and diversity within all facets of the organization. HCDC sets itself apart by employing high caliber performing and choreographic artists from across the country. In setting high technical and artistic standards, HCDC is currently the only contemporary repertory company to provide Houston audiences with opportunities to view works created by some of America’s most exciting dancemakers that speak to and are representative of the full spectrum of Houston’s diverse populace, while supporting talented Texas based artists as well. HCDC’s philosophy is simple: use inclusiveness and equity as a guide to create experiences that speak to and are representative of the full spectrum of Houston’s diverse populace. Houston Contemporary Dance Company’s 6th Season is funded in part by the Houston Arts Alliance through the City of Houston, Texas Commission on the Arts and Dance Source Houston. We would also like to thank Bob Boblitt, Shirley and Brian Colona, Bobbie Nau, Amegy Bank, Bank of Texas and Remington and Sarah Tonar for their support this season.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/houstoncontemporary 
Instagram: @houstoncontemporary 
Web: https://www.houstoncontemporary.org/ 

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. 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/opendanceproject 
Instagram: @opendanceproject 
Web: www.opendanceproject.org 

Asia Society Texas believes in the strength and beauty of diverse perspectives and people. As an educational institution, we advance cultural exchange by celebrating the vibrant diversity of Asia, inspiring empathy, and fostering a better understanding of our interconnected world. Spanning the fields of arts, business, culture, education, and policy, our programming is rooted in the educational and cultural development of our community — trusting in the power of art, dialogue, and ideas to combat bias and build a more inclusive society. 

@asiasociety | #AsiaSocietyTX 

About Asia Society Texas Center 
Sharing the vision of John D. Rockefeller 3rd, who founded Asia Society in New York in 1956, forward-thinking Houstonians led by former First Lady Barbara Bush and former Ambassador Roy M. Huffington established Asia Society Texas Center in 1979. In 2012, Asia Society Texas opened a new 40,000-square-foot center, located in Houston’s Museum District and designed by Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi — best known in the U.S. for his renovation and expansion of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Asia Society Texas celebrates the vibrant cultures and diverse perspectives of Asians and Asian Americans through innovative programs in arts and culture, business and policy, and education. Through family-friendly festivals, policy conversations, thought-provoking exhibitions, and more, our exciting programs offer all-ages opportunities to engage year-round with artists, speakers, and topics that connect us all. 

The Brown Foundation Performing Arts Theater 
Asia Society Texas Center 
1370 Southmore Blvd 
Houston, TX 77004 

Asiasociety.org/texas 
713.496.9901 
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