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: New Movements at Greenfinch Theater and Dive
Nestled into the quaint black box theater at Greenfinch Theater & Dive on a breezy Friday night, an oversold audience crowded into and spilled around an assortment of eclectic, makeshift seating for New Movements, a mixed media performance assembled as a fundraiser for Saint Louis Sudbury School. There’s something beautifully charged and welcoming about the makeshift aesthetics of the performance space, a place that feels incredibly fertile for experimental performance.
HQ Review: Karlovsky and Company Dance presents SHIFTING TIME
One step. The unfolding of a toe. The releasing of breath as sand spills over. Time undulates. Bodies convulse. Kinner releases her grasp. Orion speaks into microphone. Schenkein supports the torso. Shreds of paper confound. Time and its precious nature. Time and its inevitable plight. We are not infinite creatures. Yet we transmute through space regardless. Disparate moments coagulate into a whole. “Shifting Time,” choreographed by Dawn Karlovsky alongside guest artist Megan Nicely is difficult to parse out into singular moments. But it is in its convolution that this work excels.
HQ Review: WashU MFA Dance Concert
Kapwa. Tapestry. Shared identity. Woven memory. These concepts thread themselves through the embodied research of these Washington University MFA candidates: Christopher J. Salango and Lorraine Stippec. Their respective works “Kapwa: Jukebox Rebolusyon!” and “Trauma’s Tapestry,” unravel dense thematic material with physical maturity, unveiling how dance can contribute to our cognitive understanding of humans in ways that other forms of research cannot.
HQ Review: Collective Pulse’s inaugural performance “What Moves Us”
Collective Pulse’s concert “What Moves Us” premiered for one night at the Sun Theatre on March 14th. With eight pieces ranging in both tone and style, it featured performers from local companies, freelance artists and full-time professionals with careers outside of the dance industry.
HQ Review: Resilience Dance Company and Continuum Vocal Ensemble present Speak Easy Move Loud
Under the lavish chandelier of the Mahler Ballroom, Resilience Dance Company and Continuum Vocal Ensemble came together with a similar extravagance for “Speak Easy Move Loud” February 6 and 7. The two young companies combined their hunger for interdisciplinary collaboration with a cross-era program, aiming to bring the political and creative upheaval of the 1920s into conversation with America’s current climate.
HQ Review: MADCO’s Dare to Dance - Saturday
Saturday Night Performance | MADCO’s 2026 Dare to Dance Festival at the Center of Creative Arts
HQ Review: MADCO’s Dare to Dance - Friday
Friday Night Performance | MADCO’s 2026 Dare to Dance Festival at the Center of Creative Arts
HQ Review: Space Station’s Winter Weekend with Chew + Spit
Dyke Devotions, the second iteration of Chew & Spit, took the stage at Hope United Church of Christ on January 17th. The performance featured fourteen dancers, including Marlee Doniff, the project’s architect, who appeared briefly in a cameo at the top of the piece.
HQ Review: “Music in Motion” presented by Saint Louis Dance Theatre with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
The Inspiration for the Saint Louis Symphony’s (SLSO) program titled “Music in Motion” was a quote by the late choreographer, George Balanchine, “Dancing is music made visible.” Conductor of SLSO, Stéphane Denève, wanted his audience to not only hear the wonderful ballet scores of the night but to experience them visually as well. The result: a collaboration with the Saint Louis Dance Theatre (STLDT) to perform one of the four pieces conducted during the program, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite.
HQ Review: Space Station’s Winter Weekend with Miller, Halm, and Sapozhnikov
Launching Space Station’s 2026 season, Winter Weekends assembled six seasoned artists for a split-bill evening. Touring from Illinois with her collaborators, Anna Sapozhnikov presented “Good House Keep.” St. Louis-based artist Melissa Miller presented “Daphne” alongside her collaborator Laura Halm visiting from Baltimore, Maryland. Each work surfaced questions embedded in the subtle—yet pervasive—aspects of the feminine experience.
HQ Review: Saint Louis Dance Theatre and Jazz St. Louis present “Gaslight Dreams”
In its second such collaboration, Jazz St. Louis and Saint Louis Dance Theatre, under the direction of Victor Goines and Kirven Douthit-Boyd, respectively, presented Gaslight Dreams at the Skip Viragh Center for the Arts. Joined by special guest Denise Thimes, this holiday-themed production featured some Christmas classics as well as a reimagining of The Nutcracker Suite by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.
HQ Review: Ballet 314’s “The Nutcracker and the World’s Fair”
This season marked Ballet 314’s seventh production of their particular version: “The Nutcracker & The World’s Fair.” In this clever retelling, choreographers and directors Rachel Bodi and Robert Poe incorporate an exciting chapter of St. Louis’ history into the ballet. The World’s Fair serves as an ideal backdrop for this magical story—a real-life event that engendered wonder and novelty, catapulting people of the time out of their everyday lives and connecting them with exciting new ideas and cultures. The fair offered everyday people a chance to engage with wonder: miniature Ferris wheels, colorful banners, towering exhibition halls, exciting inventions,
HQ Review: RESILIENCE hosts local arts’ new works at Seen: STL
This past weekend, I stepped foot into Intersect Arts Center in order to watch a showing of Seen: STL. The semi-annual viewing is both financially accessible and ruleless, with dancers signing up to show pieces that they have been working on. No rules, no time limit, just pure artistic movement made accessible for the Saint Louis community.
HQ Review: Grace Meraki Dance Company presents its first performance “Finding Home”
Encircled by stained glass and pews, Grace Mareki Dance Company made its performance debut at Hope United Church of Christ. The church served as a poignant setting for the Christian dance company’s first show, “Finding Home.” Director and choreographer Nina Serigos began incubating the idea for the production through conversations with her mentors while deliberating about her next steps in her career.
HQ Review: STAGED presented by Karlovsky and Company Dance
On November 21-22, 2025, Karlovsky and Company Dance showcased 5 pieces, each created by a different choreographer: Corpus Missa, Last Train Home, Catching, How Come We Never Talked About It, and Seeing You, Seeing Me. With the collaboration of nine company artists, twelve guest artists, three musicians, and one set designer each piece was filled with a unique voice and powerful emotional resonance.
HQ Review: Washington University Dance Theatre presents “Something is Happening”
On November 14, 15, and 16th, WashU’s WUDT performed their annual concert, this one entitled Something Is Happening, at Edison Theater. The talented students had the amazing opportunity to work with choreographers Elinor Harrison, Liz Lloyd, David Marchant, Ron K. Brown, and Xi Zhao. The dancers performed in works of many different genres including classical/neoclassical ballet, contemporary, West African and modern dance influences.
HQ Review: Saint Louis Dance Theatre’s Love Languages Fall Series
On Saturday, November 15, 2025, Saint Louis Dance Theater (STLDT) celebrated its 15th season by hosting its “Movers and Shakers Ball: Cristal Anniversary” gala. Many donors, dancers, and patrons came adorned in glittery themed formal wear. The night began with champagne toasts, a buffet, and a cocktail hour. The audience was already buzzing with excitement for what STLDT has to offer when the performance began for the first installment of their Love Language season, aptly titled Fall Series.
HQ Review: SIUE presents Timeless Reflections Fall Dance Concert
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville presented their fall dance concert, Timeless Reflections at Dunham Theatre in Edwardsville, IL, featuring choreography by Carly Vanderheyden, Maria Majors, Kristin Best-Kinscherff, Geoff Alexander, Omar Olivas, Lindsay Hawkins, Snack Break Movement Arts, and Brenda Serrata Tally.
HQ Review: Webster’s New Works Concert
On November 6th through the 7th, Webster University's dance department performed original choreography at their annual New Works Concert. The talented BFA students learned challenging choreography from both alumni and faculty, with styles such as jazz, contemporary, and modern being highlights of the show.
HQ Review: Ballet 314’s Fall Fête Angels and Demons
On October 18, Ballet 314 presented Fall Fete: Angels & Demons at UMSL’s Touhill Performing Arts Center Lee Theater. Ballet 314 delighted their audience with an intimate matinee performance as well as a luxe evening performance and fundraiser. This review is for the 3:00pm matinee performance.