Welcome to my first blog in Arts Houston! For those of you who missed my blog on Dance Source Houston last week, let me reiterate my mission in blogging the Houston Dance Scene:
Number One - I want to give the “inside view” of upcoming works – there is not enough being written about dance and it’s my turn to throw in the pen. Being a choreographer, dance educator and performer myself, I come from a different perspective than your average audience member. By talking to choreographers and dancers, and seeing works in progress, I hope to give background information that encourages people to see more dance and heighten their audience experience.
Number Two - I just like to talk.
So it may seem fitting that my first official blogging report would be on Travesty Dance Group, directed by Karen Stokes. I’ve known Karen for years, as I was a University of Houston student when she arrived on the campus scene sometime in 1997. The following year, she set a solo on me, “Cowleader,” that became my signature solo for the next five years – I’ve performed it at University of Houston, Barnevelder Theater, Miller Outdoor Theater, and Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, as well as a street corner downtown, outside Wortham Center, in a 4 x 4 space for the Hotel Concierge Association, a UH alumni dinner, in my living room, etc.
Karen’s works are known in Houston for quirky movement, storytelling, and vocalizations –be they spoken or sung. As a Travesty dancer myself, I’m sure that I speak for all the Houston TDG dancers when I say, “You never know what you will be called on to do in a Stokes piece.” Talk or sing? Yes. Stand on your head? Probably. Do 6 different moves with 3 various body parts, all at the same time while reciting a poem? Of course. (You are not a true TDG dancer until you’ve done this.) DANCE HARD? Count on it. I performed in TDG’s Hometown consisting of Houston’s best dancers. Stokes tested us all to the limits in technique, skill, concentration, and stamina. She tests her audience members as well, creating works that actively engage the mind as well as entertain.
And she’s doing it again this weekend in Framing Dance, an interactive educational performance at The Hobby Center for Performing Arts. The concert actually creates an arc for the audience to follow - the education component is integrated completely into the performance itself. At first glance, it seems like a normal performance with a little Q & A thrown in, but I know Karen – her ideas are never mundane.
As if being the Director of Dance at University of Houston wasn’t a full-time job, she formed the Center for Choreography at UH. She created a degree program that made choreography the corner-stone of the dance curriculum and continues to create highly skilled dance-makers as well as dancers. Karen lobbied to get dance studios included in the remodeling of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts and also to get the name officially changed to School of Theater and Dance. AND she is the Artistic Director of Travesty Dance Group/Houston, its own non-profit organization. Not enough? She also co-founded the Big Range Dance Festival, three WEEKS of continuous concerts here in Houston every June at Barnevelder Theater.
What is unusual about Framing Dance is that Karen is wearing BOTH her choreographer hat and her dance educator hat at the same time in a public forum. It is not sufficient that she makes complex works with layers of ideas. She wants the audience to understand – not just her work – but the larger weave of contemporary dance fabric that contributes to our local Houston arts scene – an art community worthy of any metropolis city.
So I asked her about Framing Dance. Guess what? She answered.
1. What is this event about?
It is a hybrid experience, crossing between fully produced dance performances and presentations about dance as an art form.
2. What is the theme of the evening?
A journey into the world of contemporary dance through a narrative lens.
3. What about the projections?
The projections are integrated as a component to inform and guide the audience on their journey into “abstraction”. Projections are also used as a visual layer to kick off the evening (you’ll see).
4. What do you mean “abstraction”?
Well - I’m not giving that away! Come and find out.
5. Why is it considered a participatory event?
We will be taking volunteers from the audience to demonstrate a basic dance structure. There will also be an opportunity for the audience to ask questions to the choreographer (me!) and dancers in the first half of the program. A “between talk” rather than a pre or post curtain talk.
6. What is the goal of the program?
To deepen the dance viewing experience for audience members by showing a few ways to imaginatively interact with contemporary dance. To perform polished contemporary dance that relate to presented concepts.
7. Will it be fun as well as informative?
But of course! The last thing we want to do is bore our audience members!
Karen – you could never be boring!
posted by Toni Valle
10/30/07
FRAMING DANCE!
NOVEMBER 3, 2007
ONE NIGHT ONLY - SATURDAY
Reminder curtain goes up at 7:30 p.m.
Affordable tickets: $10 general, $5 students
Box office: (713) 315-2525
Hobby Center for Performing Arts/Zilkha Hall
800 Bagby St, Downtown Houston
