Houston Explodes with Motion

Photo by D. Garson

Marlana Walsh-Doyle and Joe Celej of the Houston Metropolitan Dance Company. Walsh-Doyle is managing director of Houston Met, and Celej is also the choreographer.

Dance is one happening art form right now. So You Think You Can Dance?, Dancing With the Stars, and Glee rule the airwaves. Sarah Kaufman of The Washington Post just snagged a Pulitzer Prize for dance criticism, only the second in history. Here at home, Houston Ballet erects its new temple, Center for Dance.

For National Dance Week (today through May 2), the city is literally exploding with motion.

Launching the week in Houston tonight is the upstart troupe Aszure Barton & Artists, presented by Society for the Performing Arts at the Wortham Theater Center's Cullen Theater. Barton, a Canadian, is a perfect match for the Lone Star state.

"I'm a cowgirl allright," says Barton. "I have always wanted to perform in Texas."

Her liquid moves, sensuous and athletic, come to life when danced by her top-notch company. Barton's busy year has included major commissions from American Ballet Theatre, The National Ballet of Canada, Juilliard and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Check out her Dance Magazine cover story and my Dance Source Houston interview.

Homegrown concerts are plentiful as well. Core Performance Company, dually based in Atlanta and Houston, opens its hearts to local choreographers Teresa Chapman, Leslie Scates and Becky Valls, in Let's Dance on April 30 at Miller Outdoor Theatre. Chapman is reprising Shift, a work originally made for three University of Houston dancers. This time Erin Reck, Lindsey McGill and Brit Wallis will do the honors.

"This is the dream team," says Chapman. "I love watching them spin, spiral, leap and catch each other."

Next weekend will be a busy time for Reck, Valls and Chapman because all three of them also have works in Propulsion, the University of Houston faculty dance concert on the same night. "We haven't quite figured out how we are going to do this," Chapman says.

Also on April 30 (It must be Dance Day):

• Core member Blake Dalton shows off a freestyle poling piece with Rice Dance Theatre. He explains the new hybrid dance style this way: "Think aerial dance meets pole vaulting."
• Students from the Houston Community College Dance Ensemble present their spring show, Eye of the Beholder at Heinen Theater, featuring Cacophony, a new work by director Cynthia Capuch.
• At the Cullen, Houston Metropolitan Dance Company presents Mixing it Up Again featuring shiny new works by Pattie Obey, Kiki Lucas, Joe Celej, Kate Skarpetowska and Keisha Lalama-White. Just named one of 25 to watch by Dance Magazine, Lalama-White mixes memory, personal experience and photography. A photograph of the eyes of a soldier in Afghanistan slowly develops like a Polaroid during the piece Lalama-White calls Unsung Moment. "I am exploring the soldier's thoughts in that one moment," she says. "The dancers represent fear, denial and panic."
• With Ascending at Barnevelder, Second Generation Dance features dances about women escaping slavery via the underground railroad from Texas to Mexico.

May is just as busy. East Meets West VIII brings world dance into the fun as Dance of Asian America performs ancient and contemporary dances from China at Miller Outdoor Theatre on May 1. For the west part, artistic director Janie Yao has invited Revolve Dance Company, Ad Deum Dance Company and WyldStyL.

"Last year, 4,500 people showed up to see us at the Miller," boasts Yao. "People enjoy being exposed to different kinds of dance, and all for free. Miller is one great place to educate an audience."

Also in May: The young dancers at Houston Ballet II take their talents on tour to Germany while the main company polishes up Mark Morris' Sandpaper Ballet and Stanton Welch's Pecos Bill.

The month continues its dance blitz with Urban Souls Dance Company, FrenitiCore, Dominic Walsh Dance Theater, Psophonia Dance Company, 6 Degrees, Vault, The Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble, JCC, Hope Stone, Entre Flamenco and India Jazz Suites Katha Master Chitres Das with super star tapper Jason Samuels Smith. The month concludes appropriately with Dance Houston's City Wide Dance Festival.

Whoa! My dance card is full. Even Angelina Ballerina, the spokesmouse for National Dance Week, is on top of the world with a new show.

All things in motion are moving up.

Reprinted from CultureMap.

Opera Moves: Priscilla Nathan-Murphy on HGO

Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades

Photo by Felix Sanchez

Choreographer/Instructor Priscilla Nathan-Murphy is most known as principal of the lower school at Houston Ballet's Ben Stevenson Academy. In addition, she also directs the modern program there. Recently, Nathan-Murphy has contributed her movement expertise to the Houston Grand Opera productions of Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades and Handel's Xerxes. Nathan-Murphy gives us a glimpse of her opera life.

Dance Source Houston: Give us a little history of your time at HGO.

Priscilla Nathan-Murphy: I started about as a dancer in Turandot several years ago. I served as the Dance captain for Aida and even had a little solo. Other productions include Don Giovanni, Rigoletto , La Traviata and Jenufa. During this time, I also taught movement for the HGO studio members. These were all during the David Gockley years. From time to time, I would be called in to work with principals and chorus members. Over the years, I've worked with Renee Fleming, Patricia Racett, Samuel Ramey and Laura Claycomb.

DSH: How did you get involved this time around? You must be thrilled to be working with Claycomb again in Xerxes.

PNM: Yes, I am. It's so great to see her again after all these years. She was a big star back then and she's an even bigger one now. And she has this amazing voice. She has a particular aria that has very specific hand period gestures. It's more body movement than dance. I was working with the English translation and when I got there I saw that they were working with Italian translation so I had to do some thinking on my feet but it all worked out. As for my participation, Mark Lear, Associate Artistic Administrator at HGO, suggested my name.

I am also working with the wardens in Xerxes who are dotted throughout the opera. Michael Walling, the director, wanted a certain style in the way they present themselves, their timing and posture.

DSH: Is there a lot of give and take in the process?

PNM: Yes, especially when working with a principal; nothing can interfere with their voice. If they don't feel comfortable moving you have to acknowledge that and find a better position of the body.

DSH: Tell us about your work in Queen of Spades. It looks visually stunning from the photos.

PNM: Yes, it will be. There is role for an actor in one scene that I am choreographing. It takes place in a gambling den full of men. It has been done by a dancer in the past, but the director, Roy Rallo, thought it looked too polished and slick. It needs to be more raw, more natural. Matthew Redden is doing the part. He's originally from Houston. He has to dance with a scarf and high heels, so that's been a challenge, but he's getting used to it. It's something between dancing and acting. Matthew was a joy to work with. I really like how it's turned out, he's really making it his own now.

DSH: What do you like about working with opera singers?

PNM: More and more, I find they are so open to movement ideas, it shows how much they care about the whole production. It's also such a growing experience for me. I like working one-on-one with an artist. It's been amazing to work with two new directors as well. I have to open myself up to what they want and make that happen. It's been quite an experience.

DSH: On another subject, you must be excited about the new Center for Dance, which will really expand the work you can do at Houston Ballet.

NPM: For me, it's a realization of a dream. The national and global attention that this new and prestigious building is bringing goes beyond what I had ever imagined. Yes it will expand the work I will be able to do. It is an expression of how far we have have come. The connection to the Wortham is going to be great too.

DSH: It's closer to HGO.

NPM: Exactly!

Houston Grand Opera presents Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades from April 16-May 1 and Handel's Xerxes from April 30-May 2 at Wortham Center. www.houstongrandopera.org

Reprinted from DSH.

Aszure Barton on Busking and her Busy Year

Aszure Barton & Artists
Photo by Donald Lee
Courtesy of The Banff Centre

Canadian choreographer Aszure Barton is on one amazing career ride. Lucky for us, she's stopping in Houston for a Society for the Performing Arts show at Cullen Theater next Friday. With commissions from American Ballet Theatre, The National Ballet of Canada and Juilliard this year, along with a major company tour, it's been one busy year. In addition, her work graces the repertory of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Martha Graham Dance Company, Les Ballets jazz de Montreal and others. She's also an artist-in-residence at The Banff Centre and The Baryshnikov Arts Center. She brings us into the whirlwind of her dance life below.

Dance Source Houston: Tell us about one of your newest dances, Busk. What does it have to do with busking, as in street performing?

Aszure Barton: We had this wonderful opportunity to spend a month creating a new work at the DanceWorks festival in Santa Barbara, California, which was fantastic. I didn't exactly get there and think, “let's do a piece about busking.” After I observed the environment, I started to ask a lot of questions about my place as an artist. Santa Barbara has this incredible dichotomy; there are extremely wealthy people along with many homeless Vietnam veterans. There's also this bizarre street life there. I became intrigued with so many people living on the streets and many of them are in their 60s and 70s. I wasn't trying to make a statement; it was more of an observation. Asking questions of where we fit in. The process brought up a lot of questions on what it means to be an artist.

DSH: How do you balance your time with Aszure & Artists with your commissions?

AB: My company is part-time and project-based, which works very well for me now. Houston is the end of a four month tour for us. We just got back from Moscow, which was so fun. It does work out if you create balance, but I had to learn the hard way. I took on four commissions, which I said I'd never do. I learned that was the limit for me. It was incredibly intense and I was happy with each one. Company and commissions feed each other.

DSH: When I first saw your work at around midnight, after clocking in some 25 hours of dance watching at APAP, my first thought was, “Let's get this girl to Texas.” Perhaps it was because there's such a sense of joy in your work, or that you encouraged the audience to hoot and holler.

AB: I have always wanted to go to Texas. I'm from Alberta so I'm a cowgirl. I am also excited to perform in the Cullen Theater, I've heard great things about the space; everyone who has been there has loved it.

DSH: Your work contains such sensual and complex movements, yet you often have a whole stage full of dancers moving in exact unison.

AB: I have always been fascinated with large groups and large numbers of people. I like seeing the stage from a wide perspective, like an organism. We create a collective language, it's really symbiotic. It's such a blessing to have 10 dancers with me. If I had more money, I would have even more. We are such a family and have such a good time.

DSH: Your career took off so quickly, Broadway, big commissions, a Dance Magazine cover story.

AB: It did. I still pinch myself. If your heart is in the right place things happen. I have been so lucky to be an artist-in-residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Their whole mission is so admirable. Misha is always looking for new artists and supporting upcoming actors, dancers, and musicians. It's such a supportive environment to work in. That's how I ended up choreographing Three Penny Opera. Scott Elliot came to watch a rehearsal and the next thing I knew I was choreographing a Broadway show.

DSH: The second half of the program is Blue Soup. What's in the soup?

AB: It's an assemblage of older and newer works. The thread is the power of sound in the body and music. I did the sound design myself.

DSH: What's next?

AB: A new piece for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.

DSH: What's something we don't know about you?

AB: My personality is incredibly unpredictable. I am either shy or outgoing. It's always surprising me.

Society for the Performing Arts presents Aszure Barton & Artists on April 23, 8pm, Wortham Center's Cullen Theater. Call 713-227-4772 or visit www.spahouston.org

Reprinted from DSH.