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8th Annual Big Range Dance Festival

Presented by Big Range Dance Festival at Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex

June 5-June 19, 2010

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Founded in 2003, the Big Range Dance Festival (BRDF) seeks to foster quality dance theatre that explores diverse ideas and the fusion of theatrical arts. The Festival encourages choreographers to experiment in movement invention and the creation of a uniquely personal dance language, invoking the spirit of the modern and postmodern dance pioneers. BRDF seeks to engage the audience through new works that break boundaries, with a strong emphasis on the unique individual vision of the choreographer.

The 8th Annual Big Range Dance Festival will run June 5 through June 19 at the Barnevelder Theater in downtown Houston, showcasing brand new, highly engaging, and innovative choreographic works in the modern/post-modern genres.  This year's festival features three distinct main-stage programs (programs A, B, and C), with each program running for two consecutive nights, one program per weekend. 

Presenting work on these programs will be established local independent choreographers Jennifer Wood, Jacqueline Nalett, jhon r. stronks, Leslie Scates, Daniel Adame, Erin Reck, and Becky Valls, local up-and-coming choreographic sensations Catalina Gutierrez Molnari, Allison Chavez Duncan, Kristen Frakiewicz, and Michelle Garza, and veteran choreographers/performers recently transplanted to Houston or visiting Houston as Festival guest artists - Rosie Trump, Alison Bory, and Karen Schupp.

In addition, mid-week on the second week of the Festival (Wednesday, June 9)  will be a unique and unpredictable, one-night-only journey of spontaneous physical theatre entitled "Venturing Out" from the fertile and mysterious mind of jhon r. stronks.

With the original Houston Big Range Dance Festival now in its eight year, 2010 marks the third year of a simultaneous sister festival, Big Range Austin, in our state capital, organized and produced by Spank Dance Company. Visit the Big Range Austin website for more details.

2010 Big Range Dance Festival  -

BRDF is funded in part by grants from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, Houston Endowment, Inc., and the Texas Commission on the Arts. LAST FEW DAYS OF MAY, FIRST TWO WEEKENDS OF JUNE and Each weekend an entirely different program!

Program A
Saturday, June 5, 8:00 pm
Sunday, June 6,  7:00 pm
$18  at door
$14  in advance

Why Do We Need Extra Buttons (excerpt)
Choreographer: Catalina Gutierrez Molnari
Performers: Joani Trevino, Michelle Garza, Lauren Cohen, Catalina Gutierrez Molnari
Music: composed by Alan Roy Rodriguez Ponce
Elaboration and comments from choreographer: “Why Do We Need Extra Buttons” explores closeness, intimacy, comfort, and trust. It is a kid-like sketch that plays with intimacy and catching air to release, fall, and eventually let go.

Unite Dynomite and Smite You White Backbiting Mites
Choreographer: Jennifer Wood
Performers: Alex Soares, Jessica Harper, Lindsay Gee, Lindsey Thompson, Prudence Sun, Daniel Adame, Kristen Frankiewicz, Ashley Horn
Music: "Unite Dynomite and Smite You White Backbiting Mites" by J. Woo. The electronic sound score is derived from sound sources such as water drips, noisy air, motors, clock ticks, bubbling water, and some recognizable percussion instuments.
Elaboration and comments from choreographer:  A new piece for 8 dancers with a completely original score by Ms. Wood's longtime collaborator, J. Woo.  We explore very tiny movements and large expansive movements.  All of the movement serving as raw material was generated by the dancers, who either were given directives in long lists that designated which body parts to use in what order and with what movement quality and what specific geometry in space, or were given short lists of movements that had to occur in a specific order, but they could fill in the in-between spaces with their own movement. There is a sense of people trying to reach out to each other, but in the end they remain in their own space.

liquidbreathlandscape
Choreographer: Jacqueline Nalett
Performers: Victoria Pierce, Jacqueline Nalett, Reagon Rucker, Kristina Prats
Music: rain sounds, and music by Maxwell
Elaboration and comments from choreographer: This dance is inspired by the organic, twisted, flowing shapes of nature. The constant undulating of ocean waves is expressed in the third section of the dance with circular body motions and sequential, rotational movement. The video playing behind the dance is a layered contrast designed to serve as an equal participant in the choreography.

New Skin
Choreographer: Allison Chavez Duncan
Performers: Stephanie Chavez, Deanne Court, Jessica Cortez, Allison Chavez Duncan, Nikeda Janelle Fowler
Music: Moby
Elaboration and comments from choreographer: "No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved."

Venturing Out
Wednesday, June 9,  7:00 pm
$14  at door
$10  in advance

Venturing Out … Round 2: The Pic Nic Dialogues
Artistic Direction: jhon r. stronks
Performers: varied and exciting, TBA
Elaboration and comments from choreographer: This year’s event will be processed through a series of working sessions taking place between May 18 and June 8, 2010. In addition to creating space for personal creative exploration and reflection, the time placement of each working session allows the collaborating artists the opportunity for collective excavation, free movement, and dialogue.

The process was designed with the understanding that the dance collaborators are independent artists with physical and intellectual faculties that can be used to express diverse relationships, creating a unique subject matter driven by their own unique life experience. The movement work incorporates the physical and personal histories of each dance artist as well as that of artistic director jhon r. stronks.

Program B
Friday, June 11,  8:00 pm
Saturday, June 12,  8:00 pm
$18  at door
$14  in advance

The Big Empty: Two Solos about Lack, Absence and Holes
Solo 1: Choreographer and Performer: Alison Bory
Music: “There's a Hole in the Bucket”, Harry Belafonte and Odetta, Brendan Townsend and “There's a Bottom Below”, Malvina Reynolds

Solo 2: Choreographer and Performer: Rosie Trump
Music: “Deep Water” by Portishead

Elaboration and comments from choreographers: In a time of budget cuts, evaporating resources, and widening gaps, dancemakers Alison Bory and Rosie Trump battle with the “big empty”. Organized around the theme of “lack, absence and holes”, this project motivated us to create a shared movement score from which we would craft ten-minute solos, as a movement-based conversation on living with lack. In so doing, we are presenting a range of personal and political ruptures, frustrations, and cavities that attempt to simultaneously speak to the state of our lives and the state of the world.

The Truth About Dragons … Falso Pudor
Choreographic Direction: jhon r. stronks
Performers: Matthew Cumbie, Kerry Jackson Jessica Romero, and jhon r. stronks
Music: “Not For Sale” by CocoRosie, “Fear Not Man” by Mos Def, “Childhood2” by Craig Armstrong
Sound Design: DJ Chicken Flava
Costume Design: Rae
Text: “Don’t Bite the Hook” by Pema Chodron
Elaboration and comments from choreographer: A fable that explores the social and political polarities between feminist and masculist ideology, a dance that rides the line between what “it” is and what “it” can become.

Ole Skool Goldfish, and the Past Lives of Elephants
Choreographic Direction: jhon r. stronks
Performers: Matthew Cumbie, Marlana Walsh-Doyle, Jessica Romero, jhon r. stronks, and Jocelyn Thomas
Music: “Fast Atoms Escape, Ancient Campfire, Shenzhou, and Fast Atoms Escape” by Biosphere, “Elephants” by Rachel Yamagata, “Untitled Bright Format_v2” by Kiln, “Boyz” by M.I.A., “Is Anybody Out There (Interlude)” by Wunmi
Sound Design: Dj Chicken Flava
Costume Design: Rae
Text: “Power” and “Promised Land” by jhon r. stronks, “Lost Dogs” by Rumi (translation by Robert Coleman)
Voices: Katelyn Halpern and jhon r. stronks
Elaboration and comments from choreographer: A fable that acknowledges longing as a fluid part of life and essential to living rather than an indication of lack or expression of victim; a dance in honor of labor and the effort inherent in living and staying alive.

thre3fold
Choreographer: Kristen Frankiewicz
Performers: Daniel Adame, Kristen Frankiewicz, Alex Soares
Music: Overseer, Passion Pit
Elaboration and comments from choreographer: “thre3fold” is a personable and dynamic work that capitalizes on the individuality and uniqueness that is every person. Highlighting the chemistry people can share, “thre3fold” sincerely pursues what it's like to interact with those around you, what it's like to really be present in something, and what it's like to savor the moment.

Fair Unfear
Direction: Daniel Adame and KDN
Performer: Daniel Adame
Elaboration and comments from choreographer: “Fair Unfear” is a collaborative performance that finds its motivation in addressing the human condition as understood through emotions and interpersonal relationships. As a dance, it is spare and understated, it utilizes darkness as much as light, and likewise, sound as much as silence.

Program C
Friday, June 18,  8:00 pm
Saturday, June 19, 8:00 pm  w/ June 19 Closing Night party: DJ, food, libations, 9:30-11:30 pm
$18  at door
$14  in advance

$7 w/ show
$10 w/o show

Echolalia
Choreographer and Performer: Leslie Scates
Elaboration and comments from choreographer: Scates will create a new solo based on recent events surrounding her dancing body. Combining improvised and set choreography, Scates will dance about the perceived and concrete barriers between breath, skin and environment.

Natural Disaster
- Dissipating Pathways
- Shaking Loose
- Above Ground, Barely
Choreographer: Erin Reck
Performers: Erin Reck and Brit Wallis
Music: Sufjan Stevens, Billie Jo Spears, Faraualla
Elaboration and comments from choreographer:  This is an exploration of that which makes disasters natural (caused by nature, not humankind... normal, ordinary, common, standard). It is a solo and two duets that are inspired by the naturalness of disasters, from global to personal. It includes a road map, a bunch of bolts, and a pile of dirt.

Response
Choreographer and Performer: Karen Schupp
Music: "Pencil Stick" by Clogs
Elaboration and comments from choreographer:  “Response” is part of an ongoing series of choreographic self-portraits. Each self-portrait explores the relationships between personal volition and acceptance. They are highly athletic yet sensitive, and juxtapose complex dance vocabulary with sincere vulnerability. These autobiographical sketches are topical, imagistic, intuitive, and articulate. Each self-portrait relates my personal experiences to universal themes of resistance and yielding with an immediacy and urgency grounded in the present. “Response” is just that - a response of sorts to current surroundings, situations, and circumstances.

Unhinged
Choreographer and Performer: Becky Valls
Elaboration and comments from choreographer: Becky Valls is taking a break from working on her dance series, Memoirs of the Sistahood, and states that she is creating a solo work for herself about "nothing special". The solo is an opportunity for her to work with her own movement invention on her own body without having to transfer the movement to someone else (ah, the beauty of solo work!).

Liquid Damage
Choreographer: Michelle Garza
Performers: Tory Pierce and Michelle Garza
Music: “T.O.C" by Claire Diterzi ; "Disconnected" by Dictaphones; "Coco braise" by PercevalMusic
Elaboration and comments from choreographer: "Liquid Damage" was inspired by the concept of computer programming. When a series of binary codes are inputed into a computer, the final product gets translated into a command. As a starting point, the idea of how would two human bodies incorporate a similar concept initiated this work.

[as yet untitled]
Choreographers and Performers: Becky Valls and Leslie Scates
Elaboration and comments from choreographer:  This is the first time that Valls and Scates will choreograph and perform together. In the studio they are working improvisationally and will develop a dance together.