DANCE

Discovery Green, in partnership with Bayou City Arts Festival Downtown, presents Wise Fool New Mexico:  Flexion, Thursday, October 7 at 7pm. (Music begins 30 minutes prior to showtime).

Dance?  Theatrics?  Acrobatics?  Flexion is an outdoor, aerial and stilt movement spectacle, created and performed for the first time in Houston by the nationally acclaimed troupe, Wise Fool New Mexico.

"Superhuman...pushing the limits of what's physically possible." - Cynthia Archbold, Miami Sun Post

Originally commissioned by the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, Flexion is stunning aerial theatre on the cutting edge of humanity and grace. Flexion is performed each year by Wise Fool artists at festivals across the United States. Past venues include Bumbershoot, Artown Reno, Detroit International Arts Festival, Cherry Creek Arts Festival, and Flint Hills International Children's Festival.

Flexion features five acrobats on stilts rolling into backbends, splits and a myriad of sculptural forms which literally stretch one's perception of the human body. Strutting and dancing, suspended and flying, their pincer-like metal legs slice the air as they spin and swim like fencers in a sea, barely missing each other in their fervent exploration of their metal home. Shedding layers of armor, the acrobats slowly transform from superhuman warriors to fragile nymphs balancing high above the audience, hanging precariously from straps, the cage and each other and finally descending to earth.

Originally commissioned by the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, Flexion premiered at the Carnival Center in January of 2007 as the inaugural performance of their outdoor programming. Flexion was Directed by David Clarkson, Costumes Design by Haydee Morales, Choreography by Ray Sullivan, Light and Set Design by Fernando Calzadilla, and Original Music by Luis Guerra (www.luisguerramusic.com).