About Nichelle

Growing up in central Pennsylvania, I received a most precious gift from my teacher. A love of moving. Not just following steps or wiggling to music, but true exploration. Fast and slow, sharp and smooth, high and low. I was presented with a vocabulary of endless possibilities. Because of this early experience, I find joy in exploring the capabilities of the human body, mind, and soul. I rejoice in each discovery I make, and in the discoveries of others.

In those early years I studied creative dance side-by-side with traditional concert dance forms. My desire to further my skills and knowledge led me to continue my education as a college student. Immersing myself in investigation, I explored techniques with an understanding of how the body functions. I obtained a sense of those who had come before, those who had explored and made discoveries just as I was doing. I absorbed all I could from my teachers, choreographers, and peers.  I was encouraged and given the tools to become a dance artist and to guide others in their own discovery of dance.

It is with these tools that I continue to learn and grow in every experience. All that flows from me, draws upon all I have poured in. I continue to carve and shape myself as a performer, teacher, writer, wife, woman, mother. I seek to discover and understand the world around me and inside of me. I am a work in progress.

Biography

Nichelle Strzepek is a dance artist, teacher, and writer living in Houston, Texas. She has been a student of dance for 25 years and holds a dance degree from Slippery Rock University. An experienced teacher, she strives to pass on the knowledge and legacy of the art of movement, as well as a passion for dance, to her students. Nichelle thrives in a collaborative environment and relishes the process of creating dances. A performer since childhood, she enjoys acting, singing, and musical theatre and brings her dramatic abilities to her work as a contemporary dance artist. She is a mother of one and currently is focusing on her role at home, however, she continues to  perform in addition to writing about events in the Houston dance community and authoring a successful dance education blog called Dance Advantage.

A Travesty! This Review 100% Recycled Material

Travesty Dance Group/Houston’s The Recycle Club

Photo by Pin Lim

Not a single word of this review is original. They have all been used before. Not much was new last Saturday night when Travesty Dance Group/Houston staged The Recycle Club, either. But that was kind of the point of this hip “hybrid happening.”

During a pre-show improv, the Barnevelder stage looked like the scene of a rummage sale. Dancers milled around, choosing costume pieces from a vast assortment of clothing cast-offs allotted for donation to The Salvation Army following the performance. Opinions were taken into account as the performers solicited advice from the audience and one another. When sufficiently layered in mismatched regalia the company nestled into place, disappearing among the carpet of garments on the floor. The array would later be cleverly buffeted upstage as the dancers gathered the pieces like wool sweaters collecting static-adhered socks.

The hour-long performance event consisted of mostly reworked, reused, reinvented, recovered, retrieved, and revisited material from the last 12 years of the Travesty Dance-Houston canon. Choreographer Karen Stokes and company were irREfutably enjoying themselves. They simpered during a remixed “Bayou” rap and an accelerating, gesticulative “RE-Chant.” Thumping beats, newly wedded to phrases of movement from previously debuted compositions, invigorated the cast and brought a new vitality to the pieces, as did Steven Wallace’s re-imagined lighting designs. A segment titled “The Big Mix” wove together seven works seamlessly, though placards were used to divulge their stitching. Otherwise who would have known that these energetic, droll fragments were cut from different cloth?

Photo by Pin Lim

The Recycle Club cast extended this night to include guest artists, Roberta Stokes and Farrell Dyde. Primary movers and shakers of Houston’s early dance scene, the pair revisited their 1984 collaboration, Double Vision. During a spontaneous duet, the elder Stokes mischievously announced, “older dancers should be heard and not seen.” Dyde astutely veiled his head with a stool and exited in the section’s final moments. The duo may be “recycled dancers” but their distinguished performances were anything but.

Aside from the post-performance revelry, which included culinary delights, drinks, swing dancing, and a splendid recycled-clothing art installation, the evening’s high point was the You & I finale, set to the bouncy 60s tune, Happy Together. Dancer Mechelle Flemming was delightful as she fluttered over her heart’s desire, boisterously danced by Richard Lyders-Gustafson. The doll-like, floppy, frolicking pas de deux gave way to a spirited and enchanting closer.

Photo by Pin Lim

Stokes’ signature vocal compositions dotted the repertory and a brief film, also created by Stokes, established the program as a collage of mixed media. The latter captured the ensemble as they invaded a Houston recycling center in white overalls and hardhats. A playful preamble, the film incorporated sight gags (including an entertaining SMART car as clown car stunt) and accelerated motion, recalling the silent movie genre. Across every element of the happening, Travesty’s collaborators embraced a casual, genial atmosphere. The audience truly felt like members of the club.

Normally, an artist is rather careful to avoid recycling ideas. With The Recycle Club, Karen Stokes reclaimed her own. All was sorted and in the right bins for an evening teeming with clever fun.

Reprinted from Dance Source Houston

Uptown Dance Company — Dance Infusion

Uptown Dance Company threw its hat into the Houston ring of contemporary dance ensembles not much more than a year ago, becoming an all-professional troupe after focusing for several years on providing pre-professionals at Uptown Dance Centre (the company’s affiliated school) an outlet to hone their performance skills. Their latest project, Dance Infusion, staged October 18th at Zilkha Hall, displayed a capable cast of dancers performing entertaining and tasteful choreography. Though the repertoire was eclectic in mood and theme, the mix of contemporary styles lacked innovation and occasionally charisma. However, with support from another of Houston’s mixed-rep ensembles, Revolve Dance Company, as well as guest artists on loan from Houston Ballet, Uptown Dance Company presented a classy show.

The core ensemble consists of five primary members, Adrian Ciobanu, Phoebe Waggoner, Lindsay Cortner, Martha Perdomo, and Ray Dones, along with three apprentices rounding out the group. Many not only have a history of training with Artistic Director Beth Gulledge-Brown, but also do double duty as teachers at Uptown Dance Centre. On the whole, these accomplished professionals consistently dance well together and display technical finesse. Dones has an electric energy on stage, his high level of attack often draws the eye. Waggoner is another standout, exuding a mature confidence in her approach to each work.

Chano, by Chet Walker (most famous for his work on the award-winning musical FOSSE) was a lively end to Act I and a choreographic high point of the evening. The work, set to Lalo Schrifrin’s spirited Afro-Cuban jazz composition of the same name, is a fun and provocative frolic. The dancers executed the broad and energetic movement with clarity. They looked hot, they moved with conviction, but missing was the go-for-broke personality and flirtatious spark (dancer to dancer, and dancer to audience) that would have made this piece a show-stopper.

A similar problem occurred in the production’s finale, Gulledge-Brown’s Dancing Days, which was set to selected tunes from the Led Zeppelin catalog. Ciobanu and Waggoner kicked off the work with a dramatic duet that was suitably rock and roll. Lighting designer Jeremy Choate makes the color green sexy, silhouetting the pair against an emerald backdrop. Later, the entire cast engages in some playful shirt exchanges which are delightful surprises but are not enough to fill the expansive accompaniment. Though a robust passage of unison choreography comes close to hitting the runway, the piece never manages liftoff.

Paola Georgudis’ more tranquil contemporary dance piece Orbita successfully integrated young student, Emily Healey, who showed great poise throughout her appearance. Orbita seemed innately suited to this small band of dancers. An introspective expression of relationships and the expanding circle of family, the choreography is imbued with cultural dance traditions and shows clear development. It was also the one piece I would have liked to see Ray Dones approach with more subtlety and nuance. His own work, The Beauty of Being Numb, was a better vehicle for his supercharged fluidity. A clanging industrial score (in this case, by electronic musician, Richard Devine) as a metaphor for detachment is not a new idea. However, as an opening number, it highlighted the polished dexterity of the five-member company.

As always, the talented dancers of Revolve Dance Company performed with passion. A series of solos and duets, their work Everyone has a Story features some gorgeous phrasing within the context of a collection of moody love songs. However, there is little else tying each section together. Watching these dancers, it is easy to sit back and just enjoy the aesthetics. When the work ends, however, questions linger. “Who are these people?” “What brought this mismatched group together?” “Why were they huddled around a trash can fire?”

Gulledge-Brown’s In The Moment, performed by Houston Ballet corps members, Lauren Ciobanu and Alex Pandiscio was a beguiling addition to the production. Gulledge-Brown’s sensitive and melodic composition was  befitting this well-matched duo. Free of narrative, the contemporary ballet piece had a mesmerizing affect, as did Ciobanu’s stunning line which was fortunately unconcealed by Laura Phillips Hampton’s graceful costume design.

Overall, Gulledge-Brown has chosen quality and sophisticated material for her company to perform. Good dancing is the core and strength of this fusion (or infusion) of artists. It will be interesting to see how Uptown Dance Company take things to the next level as they strive to distinguish and promulgate their voice and vision within the Houston dance community.

Reprinted from Dance Source Houston