DANCE

The first-ever Houston Dance Festival kicks off as a summer dance series of master classes and performances from August 5 through September 3 by Hope Stone Dance Company, Infinite Movement Ever Evolving (iMEE) and NobleMotion Dance (NMD).

Professional and pre-professional dancers from around the nation will have the opportunity to explore the hub that Houston is becoming for contemporary dance art with a three-day workshop feast of master classes led by Houston's finest dancers, movers, choreographers and master teachers in their fields including:

• Amy Cain & Dawn Dipple of Revolve Dance Company (jazz)
• Marlana Walsh Doyle of Metropolitan Dance Company (jazz)
• Amy Ell of Vault and GYROTONIC Houston (Gyrokinesis)
• Spencer Gavin-Hering of iMEE (contemporary ballet)
• Kim Kilway of the Houstonian (Pilates)
• Andy Noble of NobleMotion Dance (modern)
• Dawn Scannell of Houston Ballet (ballet)
• Leslie Scates (contact improvisation)
• Andrea Dawn Shelley of iMEE (contemporary ballet)
• Karen Stokes of Karen Stokes Dance and University of Houston (modern)
• jhon r. stronks of ...there in the sunlight contemporary dance (movement/improvisation structures)
• Dominic Walsh from Dominic Walsh Dance Theater (contemporary ballet)
• Jane Weiner of Hope Stone Dance Company (modern)
• Jennifer Wood of Suchu Dance (modern)
• Joyce Yost of Pilates Treehouse (Yamuna Body Rolling)

Houston Dance Festival 2011 Schedule of Performances:

Hope Stone Dance August 11, 12, 13, 2011
Lemonade Stand
Hope Stone Dance Company's Lemonade Stand will kick off the festival performances. During this tongue-in-cheek whirlwind of dance, Jane Weiner takes another look at her past work and extracts fun, zany excerpts from The Cooking Show, 's-a tale of possession, and earlier works. Weiner premieres a new trio with Melody Mennite, Kelly Myernick and Connor Walsh of Houston Ballet, and Denise Hazen of Cheeky Vintage resides as fashion consultant.

Infinite Movement Ever Evolving (iMEE)  August 18, 19, 20, 2011
Premieres
Infinite Movement Ever Evolving performs the second week of the festival. Set to the music styling of the '50s, iMEE Artistic Directors Spencer Gavin Hering and Andrea Dawn Shelley present Superfluous, their first-ever collaborative work which toys with excessive human idiosyncrasies and features set design by Hering. Internationally acclaimed choreographer Maurice Causey will premiere his aggressive and rough Grim Eye set to the avant-garde sound of London based composer and DJ Gabriel Prokofiev. Both works feature the internationally acclaimed artists of iMEE as well as the intoxicating light design of Jeremy Choate.

Noble Motion Dance August 26, 27 and September 2 & 3, 2011
Splitting Night
NobleMotion Dance closes the last two weekends of the festival. One of Houston's newest and hottest dance companies, NMD has joined forces with light artist Jeremy Choate to present Splitting Night: An Evening of Dance and Light. NobleMotion, known for integrating theater and technology into dance performance, will showcase a yearlong collaboration with Choate that has been described by critics as "hauntingly dreamlike" and "stunning."

Keep updated on the HDF website or Facebook page.