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: 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: 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: The Big Muddy Dance Company’s final concert of its 23/24 Season unveils its new “IDENTITY” as Saint Louis Dance Theatre
Identity, an evening-length show by The Big Muddy Dance Company, was performed at the Catherine B. Berges Theatre. Program C consisted of three pieces, Come...The Sun Doesn’t Wait by Omar Román de Jesús, Notes on a Farewell by Tommie-Waheed Evans, and PlayFolk by Bradley Shelver. At the top of the show Executive Director Erin Prange took the stage to share some of the plans for the company in their next season as well as to introduce one major change. In the season ahead The Big Muddy Dance Company will transition to a new name: Saint Louis Dance Theatre. Described in their already updated website as a “repertory dance company that showcases high caliber artistic experiences” which aims to be “an instrument of optimism through inclusivity, collaboration, and artistic excellence,” we look to see the continued unfolding of Artistic Director Kirven Douthit-Boyd’s vision for the company in the season ahead.