DANCE

Suchu Dance premieres Masters of Semblance March 24-April 3, 2011, at Barnevelder Theater 2201 Preston.

When it has its premiere at the Barnevelder Theater in March, Jennifer Wood's new evening-length Masters of Semblance will have been in development for over four years, or just over two months. This is either an indulgently luxurious amount of time to spend creating a new work, or not enough time at all. No need to be alarmed, Wood has a plan: she is drawing on smaller segments from dances created four years ago or more for source material, re-working the material, mixing it up and re-assembling it into a new evening of work.

"Some hardcore fans might recognize the pieces we are quoting from," states Wood," but none of it is done verbatim and the music, costumes, cast and light design are quite different than from the original." Also unique about this work is its structure: a cast of eight dancers with a set of eight chairs and a large wooden table that stays onstage for the length of the work. When viewed throughout the entire piece, the furniture gives the dances a continuity that spans the entire evening.

"The chairs and table were used before, and we are very definitely using much of the original choreography from the original show that they are from," states Wood, "but I felt that the way I utilized them in the past was too haphazard and arbitrary in that sometimes the table and chairs would be onstage and then we would take them off to do a dance, then they would come back on again for no particular reason. Therefore, I decided to keep the chairs and table onstage at all times, no matter how inconvenient their presence might be.

In the sections of the show that are more 'dancey' and take up more space, I asked the dancers to incorporate the furniture in the development of their movement. It is an interesting challenge, choreographically, to create a dance with physical obstacles in the floor space. The choices are either to avoid the furniture by going around, or to go over and on top of it, or to move the furniture. Another interesting aspect of utilizing the table and chairs is that they provide a larger selection of levels to choose from- the dancers can be very high if they are standing on the table for example!"

While the chairs and table solidify the space adding a certain weight to the stage, acting as anchors, the movement quality of the dancers varies from crude, sinister, expansive, athletic, ridiculous and mysterious - with more theatricality and individual personality than recent shows.

"I feel that over the past few years Suchu Dance has traveled an arc beginning with being highly theatrical, then, over the years, I have been stripping things down and trying to get at the essence of things." says Wood. "Much of the work we have done in recent years has been nearly minimalist, relying on only the dancer's bodies and the dancer's movements alone. With Masters of Semblance I am feeling a strong urge to engage spectacle again. At every juncture I'm asking myself what could we do here that would be a surprise? Also, visually, I am excited by the idea of a cluttered stage, since we have had such a starkness in our visual design for a long time."

Suchu Dance, under the direction of Jennifer Wood, is in its 12th season of creating and performing its own brand of dance theater. Known for its frequent creation of new works and its attention to visual design, Suchu Dance continues to evolve its exploration of bodies in space. Founded in 1998 and based in Houston, Suchu Dance is a postmodern dance/theatre performing group with 12 company members. Founder and Director Jennifer Wood acts as choreographer, costume designer and, frequently, composer in the direction of each dance work.

Suchu Dance values the creation and development of new works, averaging 2 evening-length premieres and 5-6 performances a season in Houston and beyond. Suchu Dance has been presented in many venues around the Houston area, including DiverseWorks, Wortham Theater, Miller Outdoor Theater, the Jewish Community Center, Main Street Theater Chelsea, Atomic Café, University of Houston Cullen Theater, the Heinen Theatre, Sam Houston State University, University of Texas, Texas A&M and at it's home base, the Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex, which Suchu Dance constructed and founded in 2003.

In 2008 Suchu Dance was invited to perform at the historic Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, MA where it was the first company of the season to perform on the Inside/Out Series. That same year Suchu Dance also travelled to Atlanta, GA to perform at Emory University in a joint concert with Staib Dance. Every summerm Suchu Dance produces the Big Range Dance Festival, a three week festival focusing on new modern and postmodern works by local, national and international choreographers.

Don't miss our Opening Night Reception @7pm in celebration of our March 24th premiere! Catered by Houston's very own Radical Eats, a fantastic wine selection donated by Nature's Market, then desserts by Pat Greer's Kitchen and the live beats of Justin Klein. Tickets for reception $15. "Pay what you can" for the show. Yes, don't forget your tickets to the show! They are sold seperately this time around.

Pictured above: Alex Soares, Kristen Frankiewicz, Tina Sharrifskul, Shanon Adams, Leo Munoz.

Pictured below: 
Image 1:  Prudence Sun, Alex Soares, Kristen Frankiewicz
Image 2:  Daniel Adame, Prudence Sun, Alex Soares, Tina Shariffskul, Kristen Frankiewicz, Leo Munoz, Shanon Adams
Image 3: Lindsey Thompson, Daniel Adame