Uptown Dance Company Presents Dance Infusion 2013

713-686-0334

udc@pdq.net

Uptown Dance Company and Uptown Dance Company II

Present

Dance Infusion 2013

Houston, TX – Fall may be approaching, but the summer heat is far from over.  Join one of Houston’s hottest companies as Uptown Dance Company and Uptown Dance Company II present Dance Infusion 2013 on Saturday, October 5th, 2013, at 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., at the I. W. Marks Theater Center – Kaplan Theatre.  Dance Infusion 2013 is a contemporary and classical ballet, jazz, and modern infused dance concert with works by Artistic Director Beth Gulledge-Brown, Adrian Ciobanu, Alex Pandiscio, Erik Sampson, and Chet Walker.

Uptown Dance Company features prominent professional dancers in works created specifically to highlight the company.  The Dance Infusion 2013  cast includes Erica Blumenthal, Adrian Ciobanu (formerly of Sarasota Ballet), Lindsay Cortner, Eric Glenn, Amy Wing Yun Phillips, Erik Sampson, Donald Sayre, and Katie Trevino.

Artistic Director Beth Gulledge-Brown premieres Collage, featuring Robert Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Opus 47 as the driving force behind the choreography.  Centered on the collaboration of dance and music, the energy of the first movement propels the dancers forward to connect with each other and to the music’s intensity.  The adagio section overlaps the dancers, working in an ebb and flow that form a sensually elaborate collage.  During the lighthearted third movement, the collage breaks apart and ends the piece with a playful interaction of the dancers.

Café Flor, choreographed by Alex Pandiscio, premieres to music by Guillermo Portables and The Hot Club of San Francisco.  Pandiscio creates an unknown place with a feeling of nostalgia, inspired by the music choices.  “I imagine Café Flor to be an establishment that exists in some obscure city in South America, as a place where these seven people meet late one night for an absurd sort of dance party. Perhaps they do this a few times a year,” Pandiscio adds, “The creation process took on a sort of stream of consciousness as I discovered who these characters are and how they relate to each other. The audience may discover themes of confrontation, isolation, unity, joy, and playfulness. The final product pleases me, yet I wonder from where much of the ideas came.”

Well known Broadway Musical Theater choreographer Chet Walker presents Take Back the Night, especially choreographed for Uptown Dance Company.    Take Back the Night focuses on relationships.  “Relationships! Key to most of my choreography,” Walker explains, “I feel it is the most understood, misunderstanding in life. Always looking for cause and effect, and the answers still forthcoming!”  It is danced to Justin Timberlake’s Suit & Tie and Take Back the Night.

Uptown Dance Company II takes the stage with Erik Sampson’s Relational disquiet, a work that focuses on how humanity’s association with material items, social media and technology creates loneliness. Sampson states, “In our quest for self-actualization we often lose sight of what truly defines us. Relational disquiet examines why searching for the next and best house, car, phone, or job to define who we are stifles our true self and prevents us from truly connecting to each other.”

UDC II also presents Adrian Ciobanu’s Paquita, staged after choreography by Marius Petipa.  Ciobanu presents an abridged suite of this classical divertissement from Paquita.  Chet Walker closes the program with OMG.  In this Jazz and Musical Theater Dance combination, young dancers experience the flight of movement in a playful romp to sassy music by Robin Thicke.

Uptown Dance Company and Uptown Dance Company II present Dance Infusion 2013 on Saturday, October 5th, 2013 at 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., at I.W. Marks Theatre Center –Kaplan Theatre, Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston, 5601 South Braeswood Blvd., Houston, TX 77096.  Tickets are $30 General Admission / $25 Senior/ $15 Student with College I.D.  For tickets and information, call 713-686-0334 or visit the website at www.uptowndancecentre.com

 

 

Uptown Dance Company was originally founded in 1999 by Gulledge-Brown.  Gulledge-Brown understood the need to supplement her students’ training with performance skills and founded the company to provide a performing outlet for her advanced students.  Gulledge-Brown’s studio has grown and her vision has grown right along with it.  Following the lead of Houston studios such as Houston Metropolitan Dance Center and Ben Stevenson’s Houston Ballet Academy, Uptown Dance Centre now houses two companies: one for advanced students and one for professionals.  Her students will continue to perform in the pre-professional company, now Uptown Dance Company II, as Uptown Dance Company continues forward as a professional company.  Professional Company members include Lindsay Cortner, Adrian Ciobanu, Erik Sampson, Amy Phillips, Donald Sayre, Eric Glenn, Katie Trevino and Erica Blumenthal.

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