REVIEW: Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy Showcasing Bright Futures

Photo: Amitava Sarkar

The dancers of Houston Ballet II were highlighted last weekend at Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy Spring Showcase.  The group includes 19 dancers (18 of whom performed in the showcase) from the Academy’s pre-professional training division. They hail from the U.S., Mexico, Argentina, China, Brazil, Chile, and Japan, and are evidence of the strong program helmed by Associate Director Shelly Power and implemented by Ballet Master Claudio Muñoz, and the Academy’s exemplary artistic staff. Though the company, all young dancers between the ages of 16 and 20, has toured this year alone to Budapest, Japan, Wisconsin, Louisiana and Switzerland, this performance was an opportunity to present a full-evening’s concert on their home turf.

Photo: Amitava Sarkar

Showing off their classical chops, the pre-professional company as well as some of the Academy’s Level 8 students, performed Muñoz’s staging of Paquita. It’s a spicy little number as classical ballets go and, though the technical challenges of this piece were evident, the dancers performed well. Also included in Saturday’s matinee performance was an excerpt of Flames of Paris. Its pas de deux showcased the talents of Madison Morris, a local dancer from The Woodlands, and Sebastian Concha, a recent prizewinner at the Prix de Lausanne Dance Competition. Concha has been dancing only five years, three of which he’s spent at Houston Ballet’s Academy, and shows impressive virtuosity for such a relative newcomer to dance.

Garrett Smith, a Houston Ballet II dancer and burgeoning choreographer, premiered Of Opposing Nature, his fourth work for the company. Composer Derek Zhao’s musical contribution was refreshing in its originality though chosen selections by Beethoven and Vivaldi have been utilized in one dance production (or perhaps car

Photo: Amitava Sarkar

commercial) too many. Though Smith’s work would have benefited from the use of other less-recognizable tunes, his choreography was unique with an appealing unpredictability. The dancers slid and skidded along the floor, carving through the space with large, dynamic movements, and then a flick of the wrist, a moment of measured restraint or stillness, swiftly changed the mood. An unusual costume device utilized by the five male dancers featured fabric extended at the neck like a scarf. Whether stretched over the face or ferociously wiggled, its use illustrated Smith’s creativity and willingness to take risks. He is off to a solid start as a maker of dances.

The production high point was Stanton Welch’s A Time to Dance, a youthful romp with which the troupe seemed more at ease. The choreography, originally created for a touring ensemble of The Australian Ballet, is a nice mix of character dance and classical styling. Certainly the troupe could not help but have a good time as they raced along with the music, tossed dancers into the air, flirted, and frolicked. Their strong and exuberant performance was exciting and a clear indication of the bright futures that await these young apprentices.

Though work presented by Houston Ballet II was quite enough to fill an evening of performance, Welch’s Studies, a tradition of this showcase since 2005, completed the presentation. Some of the Academy’s youngest ballet students had their moment in the spotlight beside soon-to-be graduates. In addition to this “Awww” factor, the piece offered a chance to glimpse the progression of all eight levels of the Academy’s pupils as they executed an arrangement of class exercises with clarity and confidence. It is unmistakable that all students within the Academy are valued and encouraged in their pursuit of excellence. The focus of the evening was certainly on the accomplishments of the school’s uppermost level, and rightly so. However, the Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy administrators can also be applauded for the quality program they deliver to the Houston community.

Reprinted from Dance Source Houston

Interruptions at DanceAdvantage.Net

I sincerely apologize to anyone who has tried to access Dance Advantage and has not been able to do so. The site should be up and running again very soon. I had no warning myself of this interruption in service so I am wringing my hands until its return. Until then, I have temporarily stopped routing of the old version of the blog (hosted at http://danceadvantage.wordpress.com to the danceadvantage.net domain.

What that means is that, though this situation is unfortunate, it may be a great time to check out the archives and past posts which can still be seen at the former location. You can still search the blog and look through the quick topics for items that might be of interest. The entries are all there, up through late March when I migrated my blog to self-hosting. So, please, have a look around. You may want to hold any comments you have until after danceadvantage.net is fixed, however. When it is, this “old version” will once again be routed and typing in its url will take you to danceadvantage.net.

If you visit danceadvantage.net and see that it still looks a bit odd, is not loading, or worse – you see nothing, please try again later.

Thank you for your interest in the blog. Please feel free to contact me via http://nichelledances.wordpress.com OR through the contact form at http://danceadvantage.wordpress.com (both will work). There is a real person behind danceadvantage.net and I do my very best to answer your questions. I appreciate your patience!

Nichelle

Ros Warby’s Monumental Full of Surprises

Last evening the down-pouring rain in Houston ceased for a few hours. Day had turned to night throughout a drenching storm but, as I drove to Wortham Center to see Ros Warby’s solo dance work, Monumental, the low-lying sun returned to bid farewell. Regarding the performance, I really didn’t know what to expect. I knew Warby to be an Australian contemporary dance artist. I knew the work utilized bird imagery and included references to Swan Lake. On all three points, I was informed correctly. Yet, though I went in with little expectation, Warby’s work continually greeted me with the unexpected.

The birdlike gestures and postures, I had anticipated. The movement was detailed and fleeting and mesmerizing. I wondered if at any moment Warby would take flight as if startled by a passerby.  I was aware that I would see projected footage of birds – stock images from Canadian educational films according to video artist and collaborator, Margie Medlin. What I had not presumed was that the dancer, herself, would be captured on film like a wildlife video specimen, complete with long-held close-ups of the eyes and neck as she moved or glared, seemingly incognizant yet instinctively aware of her witnesses.

Also unforeseen was the depth of integration between dancer, imagery, and sound. In fact “solo,” in this case, is barely applicable. Warby is rarely alone in the space though there are almost uncomfortable moments where musical accompaniment and moving pictures withdraw, leaving her vulnerable in the silence. She appears beside her own duplicate, sometimes materializing as the antithesis to her White Swan in black tutu and bodice. Innocence on one hand, dark regality on the other. Throughout the work the projected images move and shift like set pieces. At one point Warby is framed by her own legs, towering on either side like two monuments. No, there is nothing solitary about this work.

And, before I paint a picture of only serene, cascading images, I want to mention the surprising humor and fascinating oddities Warby presents in Monumental. I was caught completely unaware as the dancer brought forth her own voice. It took me a moment to recognize, even despite the movement of Warby’s lips, that the seamless flow of sound layered upon Helen Mountfort’s single cello was being produced live. She warbled and sighed as a distressed swan in syllables that were so near to language yet nonsensical. She vocalized again later as the soldier, another archetype pilfered from classical ballet disassembled and reformed for the work. Only later did I discover that much of this mix of guttural rhythm and movement was improvised, explaining why it seemed so fresh and spontaneous, why it seemed a surprise even to Warby herself when she called for “Attention!,” the only recognizable word spoken that evening.

I’m still pondering what the dance meant. Not its intention, for I rarely look for this in contemporary dance, but what it meant to me. I felt every bit the observer of a different species of movement and of dance. As a result, my personal connection to the work still seems uncertain. As commanded, however, Ros Warby has my attention.

Photos by Jeff Busby

THREE at the CORE: A Conversation With Sue Schroeder, Artistic Director of Several Dancers Core

Sue Schroeder; Photo by R. Clayton McKee

More than simply a dance company, Several Dancers Core is a multifaceted organization which includes a variety of performance and community-oriented initiatives. Not only that, it is a conglomerate that operates within two very different cities — Houston, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia. Sue Schroeder co-founded the company with her sister in Houston almost thirty years ago but shifted a portion of the organization’s operation and outreach to Atlanta in the mid-1980′s. Since then, they have produced and presented mirrored programs in each city that still manage to mesh with the two unique communities they serve.

Later this month, CORE Performance Company will present an evening of dance entitled THREE at Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex in Houston. The performance will include three works, by three female choreographers, from three different locales.

Sue Schroeder, Several Dancers Core founder and artistic director, took some time to talk with me about THREE.

Tell us a little bit about how the project began for you and the company.

We have a history of inviting outside artists to come in and create original work for us and with us. As this project manifested I was scheduling to take my first sabbatical ever in 29 years. I proposed to the company that we work together to select choreographers to come in during my absence to create. The process of selection started at the end of 2006.

Why three choreographers?

One would have been an evening length; Two would have been contrasting or comparing internally, as well as from an audience point-of-view; Three felt more diverse. A lot of names were brought in. I contributed some, the dancers contributed some. My criteria was that this artist would bring to the company some new information to stimulate how we work and how we process information. Other qualifiers were that there be two international choreographers and one American, and that they be a professional that we felt we could be with for an extended period of time. Each artist was with the company for six weeks and, when you’re around someone for that long, you want to get along. Alicia Sanchez, we knew and had presented her work. Beppie Blankert had taught some workshops for us many years ago, and Polly and I danced many many years ago together with Space Dance Theatre in Houston.

It’s interesting that all three choreographers are women. There have been initiatives in New York City (Project Next Generation and Dancing Through the Ceiling are two programs) that focus on supporting women in the field of choreography. It is a realm often dominated by men. As a female choreographer, have you experienced the difficulties female choreographers face? And did this issue have anything to do with your choice to spotlight female choreographers in THREE?

There were men in the pool of choreographers. We never said we were going to pick three women but we did look back and say, “This is another layer of putting the work near each other.” I am very honored that we can support women in the field in this particular way, though. In certain circles, when competing for a residency or performance opportunity there are times when there is a men’s circle you can’t penetrate. Yes, it can be disappointing but you don’t give up, you just find another way to get your work seen and shown, and acknowledge that’s just part of the business side of the dance world. I don’t think it’s just dance, it’s the art world and, if you take it out further, it’s the regular world. But there is a lot of interesting and powerful work out there made by women.

Your company spent a good bit of time in Holland and Mexico while working on this project. Were there challenges?

When living and working in another culture there’s a lot of adjusting going on. You’re trying to be in the creative process, and you’re very vulnerable, and you’re not at home, and people aren’t speaking your language, and the food is different. It can be challenging and very stimulating simultaneously. Beppie speaks very fluent English. There was still some cultural nuance but not so much. Whereas Alicia spoke very little English. We had to keep a translator going the whole time and that is a very taxing way to rehearse; to make work when you are having to translate someone’s artistic vision from one language to another. The translating surprised us the first time but we knew what to expect and were ready for it the second.

Without giving away too much, can you tell us a bit about each of the three works?

Beppie Blankert’s work Cumulus uses e.e. cummings text interwoven with Charles Ives music. In her work, she is very interested in Ives as a composer. She came in with some things to try and it evolved with the dancers. It’s a physical dance piece that has performance elements. The quartet (three women and a man) speak the e.e. cummings text, it’s not recorded.

Alicia Sanchez’s work, Tus Pasos Encontrados or “Your Found Steps,” narrative elements, but not in a linear way. She does movement theatre and there is text. The women are in high heels. She’s always throwing off the comfort level and that’s exactly how she pushes her process.

Polly Motley’s piece Charmed Romantics, is a quintet. She had movement that she had worked with in the 80′s that she wanted to re-approach — some duet material. And we talked about that because the company doesn’t really do existing work. But she’s got this whole new work and it has a seed from this original movement phrase. What’s luscious about her is that she gets to the pure movement approach through improvisation.

The works are really very distinctive. Polly’s is highly athletic and technical dance with an American post-modern aesthetic. Alicia’s feels very theatrical, with heels, odd props, and theatrical lighting. You get a sense of the Mexican cultural influence and aesthetic. Beppie’s is maybe somewhere in between in that it’s got text but it’s the most unifying text, in a way. I think it will show the company’s versatility in doing some very different work.

Let’s go back in time a bit and talk about SDC’s two-city transition. The oil crisis of the 80′s made it difficult to maintain a company in Houston at the time and so you found a second home in Atlanta. I think most company directors would have just moved the entire operation to Atlanta and washed their hands of Houston altogether. I realize that you grew up here and that you have family here but, is there more to what motivates you to maintain a connection?

We regularly check ourselves in our mission, our vision, and our values to see if the two-city operation serves us. We are so fed by our work in Houston artistically. There is a very interesting and powerful influence from the visual arts community which does not exist in Atlanta and that we can’t get anywhere else. We love what that does for the company itself.

In addition, we have an annual commission from the Museum of Fine Arts. They are so incredibly giving to kind of let us do what we want in the museum and pick the exhibitions we want. We have a similar unobtrusive relationship with the Bayou City Arts Festival and we’ve had a long relationship with the Houston Area Women’s Center. We’re constantly getting to create and perform new work through these really meaningful partnerships, the seeds of which were maybe back there in ’86. Maybe home kept me wanting to be connected, but those partnerships have really thrived for us over almost 30 years.

We’re glad that CORE does so much performing here because we can forgive you for recently luring away two of Houston’s finest male dancers, Corian Elisor and Alex Abarca. Honestly, we’re happy for them. Corian and Alex walked into a full-time position, which is rare in contemporary dance. Many groups struggle to pay and maintain a consistent group of company members. I understand that for the first time, despite this economy, you’ve been able to offer 30 hours per week to your dancers. Is there some secret that other organizations are missing?

We’ve definitely made it a priority. And, I think I probably have a gift that I can look at the business side and the arts side and make some sense of how to speak of it, be passionate, gain support for it, and organize things so that funders can look at us and know that we’re accountable. Having this much history validates us. And, we always give back to the community. Everything we do, we do in partnership with somebody. Those partnerships sow a lot of goodwill, which can get you a lot. It’s not contrived; we believe in it. Our organization operates as a microcosm of a community; it’s not a hierarchy. It’s very much a shared leadership in the organization.

So, after THREE, what’s next for the performing company?

THREE will close out our season this year. The plan for next season is to tour THREE to the home cities of each of the choreographers, Mexico City, Amsterdam, and Burlington, Vermont. We have been simultaneously reworking my most recent work, Corazón Abriendo, which we made in relationship to the Maya in the Chiapas region of Mexico. We will tour that next season as well, going back to Mexico and a few other places. I’ll also be creating a new work called The Point. We have access to the work of San Diego writer, Raymond Federman, who has a very interesting writing style and is a contemporary of Samuel Beckett’s, and we’ll be working with German composer, Christian Meyer.

Performances of THREE will take place April 30, May 1-2 at Barnevelder Movement/Arts Center. Tickets are available through Brown Paper Tickets here. Visit the Several Dancers CORE website for more information.

REVIEW: The Convenient Woman

The Convenient Woman, which premiered at DiverseWorks this weekend incorporates some pretty big ideas. I’ll admit I had a few concerns when preliminary press coverage of the work used words like “our” and “we” when discussing topics like feminine identity, self image, and a collective culture of modern individuals that tend to obsess, collect, and acquiesce. Mark Twain once said, “Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial ‘we.’” It may seem a bit accusatory (after all, we all like to editorialize, don’t we) but Mr. Twain has a point – what can one person really assume about “we”, or “us,” or “our?” And that’s why in dance and in art, work that aims at expressing opinions about society rarely succeeds without feeling preachy. Fortunately, even if the seed of The Convenient Woman dropped from this tree, for the most part, it has grown into something else.

Chapman and Scates have developed a vocabulary of movement and gesture that is memorable and significant but abstract enough that audiences are given room to adhere their own meaning.  They are engaging performers. They move with clarity, allowing improvisational scores to merge seamlessly with choreographed segments to the point of which many audience members will not detect the transition. Individualized and often intimate revelations of and about these two women are shared in a sprawling collage of vignettes that inhabit some space between dance and theatre, producing wonderfully treasurable moments that I’ll allow you to discover for yourself.

Speaking of treasure, Chapman struck a precious commodity when she sat next to Frederique DeMontblanc at a Fresh Arts meeting. A theatrical designer, multi-media artist, and collaborator, DeMontblanc has created inspired and supportive imagery that is no mere backdrop to the conversation between dancers. Rather than a display of animated projections, much of her work is produced live. Like the Wizard of Oz she is off in her own little corner, except there isn’t any curtain. We get to see her at work as she manipulates objects like broken glass and magazine cutouts with a sense of whimsy and sly humor. She occasionally utilizes her projections interactively with the dancers as they stand against a stark back wall. This and other elements, like the artists dressing and undressing both their bodies and their faces, are in keeping with the feeling that we’ve been invited to peek into private moments.

There are gems of material here but The Convenient Woman feels like a work still in progress and in need of some tweaking. As a teacher, I appreciate the value of incorporating students in the work. Because of this, I’m a bit torn over suggesting that it would be improved by losing the cast of extras which have been added to the piece via the Univesity of Houston. However, the piece simply doesn’t need them. Their presence just seems to pollute the more coherent strands, those gems, in the work.  A culture overrun by technological conveniences, women objectifying themselves in order to secure a mate, the quest for perfection via the surgeons knife – these are the things that could be widdled away. They are concepts that seem to be remnants of those initial seeds, those big ideas.

More interesting and more telling of the inner lives of women (in this and perhaps any era) is the self-investigation and dialogue between Chapman and Scates. This is the crux of the work, in my opinion and within it is pure gold. I would have liked for Chapman and Scates to unearth more of this, leaving behind those remnants of editorial. But in the end the stuff that shines still speaks volumes. And, it will likely speak to, if not for, many in the audience because above all the work Teresa Chapman, Leslie Scates (and collaborators) have created is personal and confessional.

You can still catch The Convenient Woman at DiverseWorks April 10 & 11 at 8pm. Visit the DiverseWorks website for ticket information.