DANCE

Houston Metropolitan Dance Company (Houston Met Dance) presents Mixing it Up, Again, a powerful evening of dance that will delight and intoxicate the senses. The company will perform six works - five premieres and one work from the Houston Met Dance repertoire - on April 30, 2010 at 8 PM in the Cullen Theatre, Wortham Center. The evening will showcase the beauty and power of this technically distinctive company, while conveying their emotion and passion for their craft.

Houston Met Dance will perform five sections of Braham Logan Crane's dance theatre piece History, which premiered at QuirkyWorks Texas in 2009. This emotion-packed work features intense choreography set to a powerful score sung by Angela Ai. The choreographer examines the premise: how would you live your life if you only had a year left inspired by his reading of A Year to Live by Stephen Levine.

Choreographer Kate Skarpetowska continues her collaboration with Houston Met Dance setting a new work, Consumed on the company. NYC-based Skarpetowska, a native of Poland, explores the globalization of humanity in this powerful, frenetic work set to a cacophony of music and sound. Soloist Kerry Jackson struggles to break free of societal conformity as the other dancers challenge his every movement.

Also on the evening program is a sultry trio Passade by internationally renowned jazz choreographer Pattie Obey. Choreographer Kiesha Lalama-White, honored as "One of the 25 to Watch" by Dance magazinein 2009, has set a multi-media piece, Unsung Moment, on Houston Met Dance. Her work explores the human condition and how we never understand how people honestly feel about difficult situations such as war.

Former Houston Met Dance member/choreographer Joe Celej, who currently performs with Elisa Monte Dance, has created a powerful duet, Bound, which features Kiki Lucas, Resident Choreographer and Marlana Walsh-Doyle, Managing Director of the company.

Kiki Lucas, created her new four section work, Semi-Detached, for the company. The powerful and athletic piece touches on different elements of control.

Houston Metropolitan Dance Company is funded in part by grants from the Houston Endowment Inc., The City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, the Texas Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Founded in 1995, Houston Metropolitan Dance Company, familiarly known as "Houston Met Dance", embraces a comprehensive dance style that fuses the dance idioms of contemporary dance, jazz, tap and ballet. The company is committed to commissioning new works by internationally renowned and emerging choreographers as well as nurturing the creative talent from within the company

Photo Courtesy of Houston Metropolitan Dance Company.  Dancer Kiki Lucas by D. Garson.