VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The Jewish Community Center of Houston Deutser Art Gallery presents the exhibition Dance: Loli Kantor.  In celebration of Dance Month, the JCC will exhibit works by photographer Loli Kantor. On view January 9 through February 18.

During the years 2000-2007 Kantor documented performing arts, namely theatre, puppetry, acrobats and dance. The aesthetic and art of dance disciplines, from classical ballet to modern and contemporary dance, became an ongoing process in close collaboration with the dance companies being photographed.

From photographing the intimacy of daily classes, performance rehearsals, and behind the scenes to photographing the public manifestation of the works performed in front of audiences, the broad scope of this subculture is revealed. The images portray not only choreographed and staged movements, but also moments of a single dancer’s experience at rest.

Kantor was the resident photographer for the Bruce Wood Dance Company (2002-2004) while also photographing several additional dance companies in Texas, including Ballet Concerto, Texas Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Classical Ballet, and Contemporary Dance Fort Worth.

Loli Kantor is a fine art and documentary photographer based in Texas. Born in Paris, France and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel and Buffalo, New York. She has a keen interest in cultures and community.

Kantor’s current project portrays the disappearing population of Holocaust survivors in eastern Europe and the awareness and reemerging presence of Jewish culture and identity there. As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, she brings a deeply personal interest, as well as unique sensibility to this body of work.

Kantor’s work has been exhibited widely in the United States and internationally in China, Ukraine, Poland, and Czech Republic. She is the recipient of an award of excellence for her solo exhibition at the 2009 Lishui International Photography Festival in Lishui, China. She was an exhibiting artist at the 2010 FotoFest in Houston, Texas.

Her work is included in the collections of the Lishui Photography Museum in China, Lviv National Museum in Ukraine, the Drohobych Museum in Ukraine, the Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado, the City Center Library in Fort Worth, Texas, and numerous private collections in the US and abroad.

Pictured above:  detail Bruce Wood Dance Company, Fort Worth, Texas 2001 [ gelatin silver print ].