CELEBRATING ST. LOUIS’ VIBRANT DANCE COMMUNITY
St. Louis Dance HQ’s Blog is a compilation of writings and performance reviews from a variety of St. Louis based dance writers. If you’re interested in sharing your writing on our blog, please email stlouisdancehq@gmail.com.
HQ Review: MADCO presents “Evolve: Courage in Motion”
This past weekend, to end their 49th season, The Modern American Dance Company (MADCO) presented, Evolve: Courage in Motion at the Staenberg Performance Lab at the Center of the Creative Arts (COCA). This triple bill was to commemorate the late Sarah Ann Johnson, a beloved teacher who impacted thousands of children through her passion for reading. Her unfortunate passing due to follicular lymphoma and the remarkable legacy she left behind sparked the curation of the program. Each piece tackled incredibly profound concepts such as grief, love, and hope.
Q&A with Jacob Henss, Artistic Director of Space Station Dance Residency
A look back at Space Station Dance Residency’s Fundraiser Performance via a Q&A between blog contributor Calvin Windschitl and Space Station Artistic Director, Jacobs Henss.
HQ Review: STL Rhythm Collaborative presents “Pockets of the Big Easy”
STL Rhythm Collaborative’s newest production, “Pockets of the Big Easy” featuring Al Holliday & The East Side Rhythm Band Horns premiered on the final weekend of March at Missouri Baptist University.
HQ Review: TAPESTRY presented by Karlovsky and Company Dance in collaboration with Divadlo Štúdio Tanca
After two years since its initial conception, Karlovsky and Company Dance with the collaborative effort from the Slovakian dance company, Divadlo Štúdio Tanca (DŠT), premiered their production, Tapestry. As the title suggests, Tapestry envelopes the audience in intricate works not only through its physical feats but also through the complex topics each piece presented. This was evident since the beginning of the performance, before any dancer even entered the stage. When the audience settled in their seats, they were presented with an electronic, re-imagined version of Debussy’s famous Clar de Lune followed by ambient sounds of bird calls and instrumentation. This set up the audience for what was to come.
HQ Review: Saint Louis Dance Theatre presents their Winter Concert (RE)BUILD
Sunday night’s performance of Saint Louis Dance Theatre’s newest production, (RE)Build opened with Notes on a Farewell, originally premiered by the company in May 2024 and choreographed by Tommie-Waheed Evans. The piece is a rush of virtuosic movement and bold unison sections typical of the company’s repertory. A handful of thin lights were suspended along the back of the stage dimly lighting the nine dancers in alternating warm tones. After breaking into various combinations of duets and solos with, among other familiar love ballads, “A Song For You” cycling in and out of a disjointed and echoing soundtrack, the work culminated with a pulsing electronic beat and high energy unison: tossing limbs, stomping feet, and undulating spines peppered with elongated positions of the arms and legs amid impressive turns, lifts, and leaps. Slowly, the lights looming above the dancers disappeared, and we were left with a single performer dancing alone in dim light as the curtain lowered. Notes on a Farewell serves as an apt example of the athletic prowess of this particular group of dancers.
HQ Review: RESILIENCE Dance Company presents “Collective Realities”
Since its inception in 2019, Resilience Dance Company has strived to not only platform and spotlight its own cohort of artists, but to uplift and support the work and livelihoods of the growing community of dance artists that have made St Louis their home. Through Collective Realities, an evening of dance choreographed entirely by six of Resilience’s eight company dancers and performed by an ensemble of seventeen local dance artists, Resilience has managed to double, even triple down on this mission. While the greatest sentiment of the evening was undoubtedly the wonderfully diverse range of voices in our community and the beauty that comes with pure creative inhibition, it would be a disservice not to acknowledge the impressive and generous feat of an organization (one only in its sixth year at that!) not only offering time and space to its own artists to develop and grow their own creative ideas, but being able to provide equitable financial, career, and health resources for a group of over 15 local artists, particularly in the face of such tumultuous times in arts funding.
HQ Review: Saint Louis Ballet presents “To Love!”
Over Valentine’s Day weekend, Saint Louis Ballet presented "To Love!," featuring three pieces choreographed by Justin Peck, Christopher D’Amboise, and artistic director Gen Horiuchi. While the program notes highlight how the evening’s performances draw a through-line between ballet and Broadway—perhaps a foreshadowing of Saint Louis Ballet’s spring performance, "Feels Like Broadway"—and while the name of the show and its Valentine’s weekend timing may have suggested a romantic theme, the evening’s true intrigue stemmed from how the show order showcased growth in multiple forms. The trio of works asked audience members to consider the growth of the organization, the development of dancers within it, and the transformation of dance in popular culture.
HQ Review: chew + spit’s “say la V”
chew & spit’s stated aim was to be a residency for St. Louis based artists which would prioritize process over product. The collaboration resulted in a dance piece called say la V, which incorporated movement, text, music, and sound. say la V was performed in-the-round at Hope United Church and produced by Space Station Dance Residency, a hub for experimental performance work in St. Louis. chew & spit was conceived and directed by Marlee Doniff.
HQ Review: Karlovsky and Company Dance presents PLAYFUL PAIRINGS
Fresh movement, sounds, foods and drinks were the buzzwords for “Playful Pairings,” a truly collaborative site-specific concert by Karlovsky & Company Dance at .Zack. First occurring in 2017, the event features light fare and strong drinks — with mocktail options — crafted to pair with each work’s movement qualities, live music and environment.
HQ Review: MADCO presents Hope Alive: Moving Stories
“Community. How do we show up for each other?” In her opening speech, artistic director Arianna Russ states that themes of community have been central to the work of MADCO’s concert “Hope Alive: Moving Stories.” Russ continues to remark that this concert was produced in collaboration with MS Bright Spots of Hope, an organization that seeks to “educate, empower, spark creativity, and enhance wellness for the MS (multiple sclerosis) community.”
HQ Review: RESILIENCE’s “Entry Points”
Dancers enter the stage slowly, house lights still up, softly taking the shape of cluttered furniture, discarding belongings in a scrap pile of junk one might find in a broom closet or unfinished basement. As the gentle strumming of the intro music fades into roaring chatter, the stage is prepared with a gentle fervor - a construction ladder is taken off stage right, a dry-mop swept across the floor - before the dancers and the music both climax into a melodic scream, relenting only out of shock of their own volume. This act of preparation serves as an eloquent metaphor for the meticulous groundwork and constant growth that has paved the way for Resilience Dance Company’s explosive entry into its fifth anniversary season. The 2024 edition of Entry Points, Resilience’s annual fall repertory concert, holds absolutely nothing back in its physicality, artistry, and production. Featuring five pieces, all by female choreographers, Entry Points is a thundurous, contemplative, and inspiring journey that digs into and showcases the undoubted range, power, and humanity of Resilience’s eight-person ensemble.
HQ Review: Leverage Dance Theater’s Nightmares and Dreamscapes
A haunted house turned immersive dance theater thrill ride, Leverage Dance Theater’s third installment of Nightmares and Dreamscapes serves as a fitting grand finale for both their 2024 production season and the Halloween season at large. Filled with classic horror tropes from ghoulish twins to haunted dolls (and ample screams), the production showcases what Leverage has become best known for - bringing meticulously crafted immersive dance experiences to unconventional spaces. Presented at 2715 Cherokee Street, a near blank slate of a building located steps away from The Luminary, Nightmares and Dreamscapes journeys the audience through every inch of the building’s chilling crevices.
HQ REVIEW: Saint Louis Dance Theatre opens its 24/25 Season with (RE)CLAIM
The opening visual is striking. Sergio Camacho in tasseled silver pants, crawls and undulates on the floor. Two others run in a circle, connected, yet seemingly lost. There is something just beyond their yearning fingertips. What is this world we have been dropped into? It reverberates with liminality. As though they are stuck between two worlds and are not sure how to escape. As this stark scene dissolves, a single dancer joins from the dark abyss upstage as another leaves. Sinewy textures build and collapse within their bodies as they build tableaus of relationships that dissipate just as quickly as they were formed. “Come…The Sun Doesn't Wait,” choreographed by Omar Román De Jesús, builds this world, then elongates its presence, allowing the viewer to mull over its internal atmosphere for the length of its duration. The reprise of this work in Saint Louis Dance Theatre’s concert “(RE)CLAIM”, Program B Matinee, set the stage for the ensuing journey that this concert of four male identifying choreographers had in store.
HQ Review: Saint Louis Ballet’s “Western Symphony,” “Serenade,” and “After The Rain”
Loose clusters of women stoically stand, arms outstretched diagonally above them. As the romantic swells of Peter Tchaikovsky’s music churn, the dancers’ arms softly ripple through space, and the dance commences with a harmonious simplicity that calls to life the spirit of George Balanchine. This opening tableau came to life when Balanchine first choreographed this work, “Serenade,” in 1934. During the rehearsal process, Balanchine saw the dancers blocking the sun out of their eyes, and he extracted this accidental encounter and utilized it as the opening gesture from which this choreography is born. That is just one of the ways Balanchine expanded how the form of ballet was created. He allowed the process itself to shape a work’s form. In addition, that form did not need anything outside of itself, be it narrative or preconceived context, to evoke emotion. This pioneering work continues to be an evocative piece that brings to life the beginnings of Balanchine’s career in America. It also makes one consider how the legacy of Balanchine continues to have a stronghold upon both the advances and limitations for how ballet exists within America.
HQ REVIEW: “Half Baked” presented by Big Plate Dance
Half Baked, produced by Big Plate Dance and performed at Greenfinch Theater & Dive, was a showcase of three works in progress by Abby LeBaube with e-Gos, Josiah Gundersen, and Erin Morris with Steve Davis. The evening was a stripped-down performance in a space akin to a black box theater with no curtain, simple lighting, and a few rows of chairs ascending on three sides of the stage. The performance pieces were distinct; ranging in texture, style, and content, and each was immediately followed by a Q+A with the artists. These artist talkbacks were facilitated by Big Plate Dance Artistic Director Tayler Kinner who followed Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process – a curated method of receiving and offering feedback to a work in progress.
HQ Review: “IN TWO” by Brendan Fernandes at The Pulitzer Arts Foundation
The Pulitzer Arts Foundation is a building that seems to emphasize its empty spaces; holding the weight of its own openness with thick concrete and large stretches of glass. It is an austere, contemplative space, with natural light fracturing and reflecting from a pool in the center of the building, sending wavy lines onto the gray ceilings, walls, and floors. The building was constructed in 2001 by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, known for his minimalist approach. I describe the space at some length here because it served as an important element and the context for In Two, a dance performance choreographed by Brendan Fernandes. In it, four dancers (Sergio Camacho, Xenia Mansour, Christopher Salango, and Carly Vanderheyden) responded to the most recent exhibit in a series of interweaving duets. But the dancers’ relationship to the building was just as remarkable as, and amplified by, their connection to the art and other bodies within the walls.
HQ Review: MADCO presents two weekends of “Bound” at The Luminary
MADCO in partnership with The Luminary presents its Spring Concert titled, “Bound,” April 19 & 20, and 26 & 27, 2024, 8pm. “Bound” features premiere choreography by Arianna Russ and CJ Burroughs.
HQ Review: WashU’s 2024 MFA Dance Concert
Washington University in St. Louis Performing Arts Department presents its 2024 MFA Thesis Concert.
HQ Review: “STORYSCAPES” by Karlovsky and Company Dance
In Karlovsky & Company Dance’s evening-length work, STORYSCAPES, the program posed the questions: “What are the stories and attitudes shared that get passed down through the generations? What stories do we want to continue to embrace? What stories should we re-evaluate? What stories should simply end?” If the stories we tell ourselves create the landscapes we live in, then investigating those stories for veracity, usefulness, and value becomes paramount.
HQ Review: “Picture Studies” presented by The Big Muddy Dance Company in collaboration with The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
The Big Muddy Dance Company performed the work in partnership with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. Retracing the origins of this work is a little like a spiral diagram of overlapping collaborations and inspirations: composer Adam Schoenberg was invited in 2013 by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City to compose work inspired by certain pieces of visual art. Thus the first iteration of Picture Studies was born. More than ten years later The Big Muddy Dance Company has been invited to respond in movement to Schoenberg's music, which the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra brought to stunning life. Artistic Director and choreographer Kirven Douthit-Boyd notes in the program that inspiration was taken from both Schoengerg’s score and some of the original works of visual art from which they originally sprang. The result was a stunningly successful melding of artistry and disciplines.