|
Alex & Victoria Arizpe
Uptown Productions |
Patricia
Astorga
Sabor Mexico |
Robin Rettig Carlson
Dance Force Productions |
Gary
Connor
Wyld Styl |
Kenneth
Epting
Exclamation Dance Company |
Harrison
Guy
Urban Souls Dance Company |
|
Monica
Hand
Ocular Expressions |
Reetu Jain
Samudra Fusion Dance Company |
Barbara
King
Barbara King’s Dance Company |
Andrea
Maskos
Dance Houston |
Shakira Massood-Ali (Debbie Scheel)
Solange
|
Anjaly Thakkar
Urban Indian Beat |
|
Andrea Maskos is all about jazz – and most of the other high stepping, softly
flowing and swinging dances that people love to do and watch. She’s the founder
of Dance Houston -- a bold and multifaceted non-profit dance organization with a
mission to increase awareness for the many types of dance while providing a
professional experience to dance companies and choreographers, and in the
process to bring dazzling dance performances to Houston audiences.
Every bit a dancer, Andrea began to dance at three years old, training in
ballet, tap, and jazz at the Houston Ballet Academy and the City Ballet of
Houston. Then, while a teenager at St. John’s School in Houston, Texas, she
discovered an interest in social and ballroom dancing and in a new dance style –
one that circuitously would take her from the formal classic styles she studied
to the fast and free movements of Swing Dancing. She was a founding
member, instructor and vice president of the Houston Swing Dance Society, and
danced her way to first place in the city and tenth in the nation of the
American Lindy Hop Championships in 1999 where she was noted for her energetic
swing dancing style. Her effervescent energy and enthusiasm didn’t stop with
high school.
Dance became a singular focus for Andrea as she continued her studies at the
University of Chicago. Here she designed a unique degree program that enabled
her to study dance history, theory, and choreography, while taking advantage of
opportunities to direct dance shows, lecture, choreograph and perform at jazz,
modern and world dance events on campus and around the city. It was while she
was immersed in the Chicago dance scene that she was introduced to the popular
Dance Chicago program. Inspired by the success and popularity of this annual
series of dance performances, it became the model that was to determine the
direction Andrea would take upon graduating with honors from UofC – and so Dance
Houston was born!
Returning to her hometown, Andrea began immediately to follow her own star as a
dancer, choreographer and director to found Dance Houston -- a kaleidoscope of
dance styles featuring performances from classical ballet to the jitterbug and
every dance in between in one spectacular show.
With dance more a lifestyle than a career, Andrea reaches out to the community
teaching dance in high schools and dance studios, in preschools with Arts
Alive!, and as a volunteer for Project Row Houses. Her choreography credits
include swing and jazz pieces for City Dance Company, the Great Caruso Dinner
Theater, and Kuumba House Dance Theatre. Using her innate business sense, she
also runs her own small specialized business -- Wedding Dance Houston – where
her love of social dancing prepares engaged couples for their first dance on
their most special day.
|
|
Amber Thornton
Bay Area Ballet & Theatre |
Tesia
Truitt
Planet Funk |
Sophia
Torres
Psophonia Dance Company |
Adrian Walter
Tartanic |
Shawn
Welling
Planet Funk |
Janie
Yao
Dance of Asian America |
