Psophonia Dance Company – Infinite Shapes of Creatures

Contact: Sophia L. Torres
713-834-4162
psophonia@gmail.com

 

PSOPHONIA DANCE COMPANY – INFINITE SHAPES OF CREATURES

(Houston, TX) Psophonia Dance Company journeys through a magical garden in Infinite Shapes of Creatures, November 22-23, 2013 at 8pm at City Dance Studio. The evening length program is a collaborative work that intertwines live music, poetry and dance.

The project began a year ago when Austin musicians, Adrienne Inglis and Shana Norton of Chaski ventured into a collaboration with Psophonia director / choreographer Sophia L. Torres. The initial concept was to create a site specific work that would bridge public performance with awareness about sustainable food practices, urban gardening and local farming. While the collaborators have not yet realized the full potential of the project, the interaction between the artists has created a rich, earthy work in Infinite Shapes of Creatures.

Broken down into nine sections, the performance features music by American composer Alan Hovhaness, The Garden of Adonis. The composition is rooted in Cantos III and IV from Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, which allegorically describes souls that are reincarnated as plants and flowers. Played by Inglis on flute and Norton on clàrsach (Scottish harp), the intermingling of dance with live music readily transcends the viewer to a mystical garden. In addition to live music, this performance will include excerpt readings from Spenser’s poem not heard in its first run earlier this fall.

The work itself has evolved and had several lives since its inception. It first appeared as a site specific work, an excerpt of one movement, with dancers moving among treetops and along creek beds in Austin, TX. Newly completed in August, it then debuted at Frenetic Theater. It took on deeper meaning a month later with the addition of a narrator reading sections of Spenser’s The Faerie Queene when restaged for the Alma Thomas Theater at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX.

The latest version adds forest inspired set pieces to the intimate space to transport the viewer into the garden where “that faire flowre of beautie fades away, and doth the lily fresh before the unny ray.” Each layer has contributed to the vibrancy of the work and the visceral relationship between the artists, the poem and the music. The collaborators hope to give voice to the life cycle of these things through Infinite Shapes of Creatures.

Molding the space for Infinite Shapes of Creatures are dancers Stephanie Beall, Karin Celeste, Vi Dieu, Taylor McAnulty, Kristina Prats, Arielle Rojas and Haylee Voogt. Joining the cast as narrator is guest artist, Shannon Hill.

Show times are Friday and Saturday, November 22-23, 2013 at 8pm at City Dance Studio, 1307 W. Clay Street. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. To purchase tickets, visit www.psophonia.com or call 713-802-1181.ext. 4. For information, please visit www.psophonia.com.

Press interviews and photos are available upon request.