World Premiere
Choreographer: Travis C. Prokop / Prokop_Theory Dance
Music: Judy Garland
‘You have some queer friends, Dorothy,' she said. The queerness doesn't matter, so long as they're friends,' was the answer. - Frank Baum, The Road to Oz
Photo by: Amitava Sankar
World Premiere
Choreographer: Natasha Adorlee
Music: Michael Wall, Reimagined by Natasha Adorlee; Ori Lichtik; Paul Anka
OCTANE is a relentless exploration of momentum, control, and collapse. It delves into the cycles we live in—how tension builds, breaks, and rebuilds, how power shifts, and how movement becomes both survival and inevitability. Communication fractures, bodies push forward, energy combusts, and still, the pattern repeats. At its core, OCTANE examines the forces that drive us—the ones we fight, the ones we surrender to, and the ones that refuse to stop.
World Premiere
Choreographers: Kacie Boblitt, Taryn Vander Hoop
Music: Basic Channel, Loscil
World Premiere
Choreographer: Stacey Allen
Music: Jewel Brown
Suite Ms. Jewel is a celebration of movement inspired by the music, life, and legacy of the incomparable Ms. Jewel Brown. This work honors her indelible contributions to the Houston music scene and her lasting influence as a trailblazing artist.
World Premiere
Choreographer: Nao Kusuzaki
Music: Mandala, Yumi Kurosawa Trio
The piece is inspired by a female leader in our community. She is of Japanese heritage, whose father fought in the 442nd Service Company in WWII. She grew up in rural Texas farming, and became a CEO of a chemical company as a single mother. The three dancers represent women like her who come from different walks of life, and through friendships and empowering one another, became an independent, successful leader in this community.
Regional Premiere
European premiere in 2019 at Schrittmacher Festival, Aachen, Germany; North American premiere in 2019 at BAM Fisher
Choreographer: Yue Yin
Stager: Grace Whitworth
Original Music: Juliane Jones and Doug Beiden
Costumes: Olivia Salazar
Citizen is a physically demanding ensemble piece performed by the full company of Houston Contemporary Dance Company. Its dynamic and expressive movement, together with dramatic original musical scoring, reflects the intensity of the times we were living then and now, the challenges we face together and the political environment that surrounds and influences us. The dancers and their movements celebrate our common sense of hope and determination.
World Premiere
Choreographer: Brandon Coleman
Music: Bruno Sanfilippo, Peter Gregson, Daniel Pioro, Carducci String Quartet
World Premiere
Choreographer: Jack Wolff
Music: "Mi - Soul Channel Rework" by Nils Frahm, Soul Channel; "Do - Databoy78 Rework" by Nils Frahm, Databoy78; “You - Bug Lover Rework” by Nils Frahm, Bug Lover; “La - Sebastian Freij Rework” by Nils Frahm, Sebastian Freij; “Mi - Soul Channel Rework” by Nils Frahm, Soul Channel
This piece is an exploration of the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. How do they inform the human experience?
World Premiere
Choreographer: Andrea Dawn Shelley
Music: Frédéric François Chopin, Johann Sebastian Bach, Aram Khachaturian
Poetry excerpts from "Immortality" by Clare Harner
In a society that focuses on life rather than loss of pregnancy, many women avoid open discussion of their loss. Miscarriage is often stigmatized and considered to be a taboo topic. The predominant emotions in women after miscarriage are self-blame, shame and guilt. Breaking the silence and shattering the taboo surrounding pregnancy loss is paramount.
World Premiere
Choreographer: Norbert De La Cruz III
Music: Christian Reindl, Christopher Cerrone, Oliver Davis
“Sincerely Yours” (excerpts), choreographed by Norbert De La Cruz III, is an original restaging reimagined for Houston Contemporary Dance’s 2023-2024 performance season. “Sincerely Yours” was initially created for the Midwest Trust Center at JCCC’s 2023 New Dance Partners for Owen/Cox Dance Group. The process of creating and developing this piece is the discovery that there is, of course, no set rules that govern our human relationships.
World Premiere
Choreographer: McKinley Willis
Music: Lesley Gore, Max Richter, Bobby Vinton, Angelique Kidjo, Bill Haley & His Comets
World Premiere
Choreographer: Yoshito Sakuraba
Music: Shakespeare Sonnet 154 read by Bohdan Poraj, Ludwig van Beethoven, John Philip Band & LeAnn Rimes, Joe Thwaites, Hammond Bennett
The new work ‘The American Land’ is an ironic piece about farmers facing the burgeoning future and apocalypse as a consequence of soil erosion-as some experts say the Earth will run out of usable topsoil that causes massive crop production cuts. The work is mixed with a hint of narrative imagery idiotically and awaits its moment to erupt. The work's last track uses the voice of Hammond Bennett, who created the Soil Conservation Service in the 1930s to counter the effects of the Dust Bowl. "We Americans have been the greatest destroyers of land of any race of people, barbaric or civilized."
World Premiere
Choreographer: Kia Smith
Music: Raphael Beau, Travis Lake, The Avalanches
World Premiere
Choreographer: Andrea Dawn Shelley
Music: Rolling Stones; Harry Nilsson; Madison Beaty Johnny Greenwood; Helen Forrest; “Letter", arrangement by Andrea Dawn Shelley of lyrics by the SUUNS; Q Lazarus
World Premiere
Choreographer: Peter Chu
Stager: Jenni Gordon
Composer: Djeff Houle
Lighting Designer: Sarah Jean Elliott
Costume Concept: Peter Chu
From the choreographer, Peter Chu: “My time at Perry-Mansfield inspired me to reimagine, restructure, and nurture an existing work initially developed for and commissioned by New Dialect in 2015 –– Two Yous. Newly titled, 4yous plays out the inner dilemma of an aging person as they distrust their perception of reality and struggle with the ability to perform. The mirrored role pushes the physical bounds of movement with sharp, isolated and liquid like energy coupled with interlacing exchanges. Wrestling with the past, a heightened sense of urgency is driven by the inability to control behavioral patterns. An involuntary slip of the mind seduces bewilderment.”
World Premiere
Choreographer: Eoghan Dillon
Music: Tom Lehrer
"The body that reached her ‘Embalm-a’, was one that had known how to live."
Houston Contemporary Dance Company with Say Girl Say World Premiere
Choreographer: Robbie Moore
Music: Say Girl Say
Say Girl Say is a genre-bending multi-instrumental duo from Houston, Texas composed of members Brigette Yawn and Suad Ihsan, known for their hypnotic vocal harmonies, lyrical finesse, and entrancing melodies backed by eclectic instrumental production. What began as a casual friendship in 2012, grew into a local staple within Houston's artist community. In May 2015, the band released their first self-titled record “Say Girl Say”, an all-acoustic album featuring ukulele, guitar, harp, and violin, accompanied by many sounds of worldly percussion. Since then, Say Girl Say's sound has evolved over the years while writing and recording their sophomore album “Let My Hair Down”, which debuted May 2021. "Let My Hair Down" is a concept of finding yourself by stumbling through the human experience in search of love, empowerment, forgiveness, and compassion.
Houston Contemporary Dance Company and Kinetic Ensemble World Premiere
Choreographer: Keerati Jinakunwhphat
Music: 'Tenebrae: 1.' by Osvaldo Golijov, 'Britten: String Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25: IV. Molto vivace' by Benjamin Britten, String Quartet No. 5: II.' by Philip Glass, and ‘String Quartet No. 5: IV.' by Philip Glass performed by Kinetic Ensemble
From the choreographer, Keerati Jinakunwhphat: "In collaborating with Kinetic Ensemble, my initial instinct was to focus on sense memory in relation to music. Using this as a catalyst, I then, with the help of Bree Ahern, discovered and compiled different tracks that represent each of the four seasons. For many, music can boost memory, mood, and connect people through time and space. Each season can come with its own joy, nostalgia, trauma, and emotional ties. Changes in weather or daylight can greatly affect our psyche and behaviors and this new work will embody the different mental states that each season can potentially ignite. In the process with the dancers, I am interested in discovering and understanding how each others' sensations and memories can vary even within the same season. We make room for different stories and perspectives and also discover what can remain consistent throughout all four seasons. The work will narrate and progress as the dancers process through each season and their individual, emotional journey together.”
World Premiere
Choreographer: Mario Alberto Zambrano
Text: Autumn by Ali Smith, Anchor Books, 2016
Music: Johann Sebastian Bach, Cello suite No. 4 in E-flat major, Sarabande
Inspired by a chapter from Ali Smith’s novel “Autumn,” her first installment in a quartet series, ‘Autumn Winter’ is a juxtaposition of recited text and embodied responses to observations and reflections from a modern day political climate. A world premiere, this collaboration with Mario Alberto Zambrano was choreographed remotely during the month of January. Special thanks to Risa D’Souza and Dwain Travis for being so generous and adaptable throughout this Zoom experience. So timely the text, so visceral their interpretations.
World Premiere
Choreographer: Joe Celej
Music: Mike Maltese
Costume Designer: Candis Cannon
Originally created pre-pandemic, “Intersections” consists of four movement sections that can be arranged in any order and whose order will be determined randomly for each performance. The structure of the piece is inspired by Sol LeWitt’s work “A Square Divided Horizontally and Vertically into Four Equal Parts, Each with a Different Direction Alternating Parallel Bands of Lines” (1982). Each section will live and move on the planes demonstrated in LeWitt’s work... horizontal, vertical, and each of the diagonal planes. The mood of the work is existential in nature and focuses on the idea that our individuality is both isolating and a commonality that we all share.