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Hi,
Welcome to Movers & Shakers, Dance
Houston's monthly e-newsletter. Read on to
find out the latest news about dance in
Houston!
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Houston Black Dance Festival 2008 |
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The African-American Arts Council of
Houston will present the HOUSTON BLACK
DANCE FESTIVAL (HBDF) July 16-20,
2008. The purpose of this biennial
festival is to celebrate the contributions
of Blacks to the art of dance. The BDF
serves as an incubator for the evolution
of African based performing arts, by
providing them with performance
opportunities and exposure to the world of
professional dance. The theme for this
year's festival is "Building Bridges
through Diversity". By recognizing, and
respecting our differences; we can begin
to build bridges of cooperation.
This four-day festival will begin on
Wednesday morning at 10:30am with the
Master Class series "Boys Can Dance!"
taught by Helanius J. Wilkins of EDGEWORKS
Dance Theater (D.C.). The opening Showcase
is Thursday evening July 17, with a
showcase of youth groups and emerging
artists from the region.This performance
will be held at the Heinen Theater at
8:00pm. This opening night event will be
followed by a reception.
On July 18 at 8:00pm the festival presents
"PROFESSIONAL SHOWCASE" featuring
Second Generation Dance Company, City
Dance Company, Urban Souls Dance Company,
Beckles Dancing Company of Dallas, Jhon
Stonks, Vincent James and a featured spot
in the form a 'Motown Revue'. On Saturday
July 19, at 8:00pm the festival presents
Helanius J. Wilkens EDGEWORKS Dance
Theater. This all male contemporary dance
company from Washington D.C. will perform
an excerpt of The Negro Dance Theater
Project entitled COLDCASE.
The Black Dance Festival will culminate
on July 20 with an afternoon performance
entitled "PRAISE THE LORD! A Spiritual
Evening on Dance". This extremely
popular showcase will feature Exodus Dance
Theater, A Community of Faith, and Wheeler
Ave Praise Dance Ministry.
For information on concerts, admission
fees or participation please contact Lori
Bujung at (713)298- 7091, or e-mail:
houstonblackdancefest@hotmail.com, or
visit our website:
www.houstonblackfest.org
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Dance Houston Youth Headed for the Stage |
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After two weeks of Dance Houston's
Young and Intense dance camp, our
young dancers will be headed for the
stage. They will perform jazz,hip hop, and
cultural dances by Houston choregraphers
Amber Thornton, Pat Garrett, Patricia
Astorga, and many others.
The kids will have just completed two
weeks of working 9 to 5 as dancers, with
all their hard work going toward this
public showcase of new works, aptly named
Young & Intense. Come and take a
peek on our future stars. The showcase is
at *Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex on
July 19, 2008 @ 2pm.
*Due to a high level of
interest in this program, we are
considering offering two performances or
relocating the event to a larger theater.
Please look on our website for up-to-date
information before attending.
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Review: Houston Ballet's A Doll House |
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Houston Ballet's pairing of "La Sylphide",
one of the oldest surviving ballets in the
world, with "A Doll's House", a new work
created by Houston Ballet Artistic
Director Stanton Welch, was intended to be
a study in contradictions, and indeed it
was, but perhaps not necessarily in the
way it was intended.
Though chronologically created last, "A
Doll's House" premiered first in the show.
Welch's choreography was set to closely
complement the loud, atonal, percussive
music by contemporary Hungarian composer,
István Márta. The ballet's plot also
closely followed Márta's inspiration for
his music: a random revolution by toys
left overnight in a toy store. The dancers
were clothed in wildly colored and wildly
imaginative punk-rock-style outfits. The
lights dimly flickered as the performers
danced, ran, and lurched across the stage
according to their individual characters.
Most of the movement, however, was
centered upon a stylized form of fighting,
which ended in all the characters onstage
collapsing and "dying".
Welch states in the Playbill that the
ballet has two levels: one that is silly
and "cartoon-like" and the other that is a
serious commentary on "the futility of
war". The problem is, though, that the
cartoonishness of the characters
completely undermines the audience's
connection with the characters onstage,
thus utterly trivializing the violence and
death onstage. The ballet, in many ways,
seemed more like a war-themed video game
than any type of serious commentary. And
had Welch realized this problem, he could
have exploited it to his benefit. He could
have developed the plot in a way that made
the audience realize that though we may
try to minimalize the trauma of war
through such means as video games, action
figures, and bans on photographs of dead
soldiers' coffins, real pain and suffering
does take place due to war. The dancers
did not seem to truly suffer as they died,
and they all died at once - leaving no
grieving widows, parentless children, or
comrades suffering from PTSD. So the
impact of their deaths truly seemed
minimal. In the U.S. - especially during
this time in history - the last thing our
leading artists should be doing is
minimalizing the cost of war. And this
impression, surely, was contrary to
Welch's intent, but unfortunately the
ballet's effect.
On the contrary, "La Sylphide" had no
pretensions of advancing a global message.
"La Sylphide" is a simple story, indeed a
fairytale - easily understood by a child.
It harkens the audience back to a simpler
time when ballet was merely a form of
entertainment and when the simple rising
of a girl en pointe could mesmerize and
astonish an audience. These very quaint
characteristics of "La Sylphide", which
was performed with August Bournonville's
choreography from 1836, should have made
the ballet a bit ho-hum, especially when
placed in stark contrast to Welch's loud
"A Doll's House". On the contrary, though,
the ballet seemed almost innovative in
that it differed so drastically from most
contemporary choreography. Many of the
movements in "La Sylphide" are no longer
used (or at least very rarely used) in the
ballet lexicon, perhaps because they are
so simple. But it is their elegant
simplicity that is so stunning. (Sara
Webb, who played the title role of Nymph,
executed a series of rond de jamb turns
will windmill-like arms that were nothing
short of gorgeous.) There are no backwards
flips or high kicks to wow the audience,
but that reprieve from exhibitionist
dancing was really quite refreshing.
What "La Sylphide" did that "A Doll's
House" did not, was to turn the audience
into a participatory member in the ballet.
The performance of such an old ballet as
"La Sylphide" made the viewers imagine
what it must have been like in 1836 to
watch a dancer rise up on her toes for the
first time and balance as if she were
floating on air. The audience became as
much of a character as all the Sylphs,
witches, and Scottish wedding party
members onstage. In "A Doll's House",
though, the audience was nothing more than
a passive, observatory body. Originally,
when "La Sylphide" premiered in the early
19th century, the spectators were not
intended to be more than such a similar
observatory body, but when shown in a
historical context, the audience is
somehow unintentionally transformed and
included in the story.
The juxtaposition between "La Sylphide"
and "A Doll's House" was intended to be
one between the old and the new. Instead,
it became one of unintended consequences:
"A Doll's House" was supposed to engage
the audience to ponder the atrocity of
war, but instead distanced the audience
from the reality of war; "La Sylphide" was
supposed to be a light piece of
entertainment, but really became a
fascinating mental exercise for the
audience in re-creating history. Beware
unintended consequences.
By Amanda Austin
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Dance Houston is Coming!
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Dance Houston is presenting its annual
city-wide festival featuring hip hop,
ballroom, contemporary and cultural
styles. This performance brings two
hundred dancers to the stage, and audience
members to their feet!
Featured companies include: Revolve Dance
Company, Wyld Styl, and Sabor Mexico. This
celebration of diversity in motion will be
an entertaining experience for all. The
festival is August 15-16 at 7:30pm @ the
Wortham Center/Cullen Theatre.
Dance Houston is for everyone who
dances, wants to dance, or enjoys the
spirit of the performing arts!
Tickets on sale July 15th.
Photo by James Wiseman
courtesy of Revolve Dance Company
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