Uptown in Midtown

Uptown Dance Company Breaks in New Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston with Dance Infusion 2015

By Claire Christine Spera

Uptown Dance Company, led by Artistic Director Beth Gulledge-Brown, is opening its 2015-2016 season on a fresh note. Not only is the company and its associated pre-professional division premiering works as a part of Dance Infusion 2015, but the performances will take place at the brand new Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston (MATCH) — a theater that’s so new, in fact, that Uptown will be the first troupe to perform in it.

“It’s scary!” said Uptown Dance Company dancer Emily Roy. “We opted to perform at MATCH because we were in need of a quality theater for a reasonable price. Since our studio doubles as a black-box theater, we really try to find an excellent facility when we have the opportunity to perform outside of our in-house stage… It will truly be a treat to see the final product — to tour the theater in hardhats, and then perform in it weeks later.”

Dance Infusion 2015 is divided into two parts. In the first hour, students from the pre-professional division (part of training studio Uptown Dance Centre) will perform works by Artistic Director Gulledge-Brown, Co-Director Adrian Coibanu and Uptown Dance Company members Lindsay Cortner, Eric Glenn and Roy. In the second half, the professional troupe will take the stage, debuting three original works created specifically for the company: A Brandenburg Suite by former Houston Ballet principal dancer Krissy Richmond, Playground by Alex Pandiscio (also formerly of Houston Ballet) and Artistic Director Gulledge-Brown’s Unbroken.

Uptown Dance Centre’s 37 pre-professional dancers perform throughout the year, oftentimes on the same bill as the professional dancers, and they even have partnering opportunities with Uptown Dance Company’s men (“Such a treat!” exclaims Roy). The performance opportunities have become not only an integral part of the training for Uptown Dance Centre’s most serious students, but also represent a choreographic opportunity for the professional company dancers.

Take Roy, for example, who is beginning her second season with the company. She developed To Live and To Die for the pre-professional dancers, a piece she says works to “produce kinesthetic empathy,” provoking emotion from the audience through movement. The 10-minute work is based on and dedicated to 15-year-old student Kobi Pickett, who passed away.

“The piece may prompt a teary audience, but it’s ultimately a vessel of healing to all who loved Kobi,” explained Roy. “The movement is contemporary but ties back to my studies with kinesthetic empathy by employing simple, recognizable movements or gestures in order to grasp identifiable emotions from the audience. The two men in the piece represent the haunting of death; the idea of dancing with death, but not being directly affected by it until time is up. The costumes — cute sundresses — are a representation of childhood and the carefree mentality of teenagers.”

The theme of new works continues into the second half of the show, when Uptown Dance Company’s 10 dancers enter the spotlight. Though Richmond and Pandiscio’s pieces are both ballet based, their pieces are radically different.

Richmond, who danced for Houston Ballet and on Broadway, brings a unique approach to choreographing. A Brandenburg Suite, whose choreography maps to the music’s rise-and-fall pattern in J.S. Bach’s The Brandenburg Concertos, is a contemporary ballet inspired by Richmond’s experience working with choreographers Ben Stevenson, Christopher Bruce and Jerome Robbins. Pandiscio’s work, Playground, is on the quirky side, mixing balletic lines with fun subtleties. The piece will take us back to the playground — that early springboard for choosing sides, teams, friends and independence.

Finally, Uptown Dance Company’s artistic director, Gulledge-Brown, will premiere Unbroken, a piece that focuses on powerful modern dance partnerwork, bringing the human connection front and center.

Said Gulledge-Brown, “This piece is about traveling through life’s journey with aggression, but encased in calm confidence. The movement itself is modern, but Zoe Keating’s strong music really pushes the energy of the choreography and amplifies the strength of each dancer. The movement mixes fluidity with solidarity and gracefulness with strength.”

Dance Infusion 2015 is a mix of classical, modern, contemporary and neo-classical pieces, which Roy points out does a “fantastic job of showcasing our ability. Our dancers go from classical ballet with tambourines to rolling on the floor in bare feet — and doing it well.”

Claire Christine Spera is an Austin based dancer and writer.