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: RESILIENCE Dance Company’s “Entry Points”
Resilience Dance Company’s newest works were shown at Intersect Arts last weekend and consisted of five distinct dance pieces by an array of choreographers. The evening offered dynamic movement and demonstrated a breadth of tone and content within a 75-minute runtime.
HQ Review: St. Louis Rhythm Collaborative’s “Live at the Last Hotel”
STL Rhythm Collaborative opened its season with Live at the Last Hotel, performed at Missouri Baptist University, October 6-8. This unique show featured tap, jazz, and modern dancers made up of company dancers and trainees from moSTLy Tap, Washington University dance students, Missouri Baptist University dance students, and individual dancers from the St. Louis community. They all shared the stage with The Hard Bop Messengers, who provided the live jazz music onstage for the entire performance.
HQ Review: Karlovsky and Company Dance’s “In Transit”
InTransit, a community project led by Karlovsky & Company Dance, began during the pandemic and has endured beyond those strict restrictions. In this year's iteration, audience members moved between five locations: four small, brief performances culminating in a finale at a fifth location. Audiences were invited to chose their own starting location: Tree Grove at the Pulitzer, Park-Like, Spring Church, or The Sheldon.
HQ Review: The Big Muddy Dance Company’s BLAZE
The Big Muddy Dance Company presented Blaze, its final show of the 2022-2023 season, from Friday, May 19 to Saturday, May 20 at COCA’s Berges Theatre. This review will focus on Friday night’s show, which the company performed in front of a packed house. The Big Muddy Dance Company will also stream Blaze online Friday, May 26, through Sunday, May 28. The Big Muddy performed three pieces in this evening-length show, in which the dancers embodied choreography that displayed contemporary movement that was both fluid and strong. Each piece had its own choreographer and concept, which treated the audience to a variety of dance to enjoy in one evening.
HQ Review: Ballet 314’s “Ragtime: The American Experience”
Ballet 314 presented two performances of Ragtime: The American Experience at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center on the campus of University of Missouri—St. Louis on Sunday, May 14. Robert Poe, Ballet 314’s Artistic Director, choreographed this full-length ballet based on the novel Ragtime, written by E.L Doctorow. The company had originally performed this ballet in 2021 with roughly a dozen dancers onstage. This past weekend’s performance not only showcased a cast nearly doubled in size comprised of both company members and local guest artists, but also marked Ballet 314’s performance debut at the Touhill. After both the 2:00 and 7:00 performances, the audience was invited to stay for an informal Q & A with members of the cast and the directors, which was moderated by Joanna Dee Das and Erica Hill, respectively.
HQ Review: St. Louis Ballet’s “Swan Lake”
Saint Louis Ballet presented Swan Lake at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on the campus of the University of Missouri—St. Louis from April 28-30. This production of Swan Lake was noteworthy for Saint Louis Ballet because it was originally part of the 2019/2020 dance season that the pandemic forced to an early end before Swan Lake could take the stage. The 2022/2023 season not only put Swan Lake back onstage, but it did so with live orchestra music for the first time in the company’s history, provided by the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.
HQ Review: RESILIENCE Dance Company’s “Come With Me”
It was a cold, grey Sunday morning and was well on my way towards spending it sprawled out on my living room couch. My weekend had been filled with eating, drinking, and balancing the realities of a visit from my in-laws. It was fun, but it had worn me out, leaving me craving an afternoon spent watching movies as big as Star Wars but as polished as something by Christopher Nolan. As I scrolled through Netflix, my Outlook calendar reminded me of the RESILIENCE Dance Company’s concert “Come With Me” at Intersect Arts Center in South St. Louis City. Their research-based movement approach and embrace of improvisation have captured my attention every time I’ve been fortunate enough to see them perform. Their dedication to fairly compensating their artists and providing them with access to mental and physical health resources should be an inspiration to other young dance companies.
HQ Review: An Introduction
The goal of this series is to provide a forum for discussion of the work being made in St. Louis. We hope for it to be a place where audience members and artists can find relevant information on the types of work being made, while also supplementing their experiences with the ideas of others. St. Louis Dance HQ Reviews will be a digital platform for dance to be documented and discussed in a manner that isn’t merely for the sake of archival, but also for the betterment of our small but mighty St. Louis dance community. With that, I’d like to quickly discuss the role of criticism, promotion, and perspective in our HQ Review series.