DANCE

Ad Deum Dance Company presents We’ve Been Moved, an eclectic evening of dance works by national choreographers that have inscribed their signature styles upon the chameleon artists of Ad Deum. Premiere works have been designed by dance makers Ryan Corriston, formerly with Doug Varone and Dancers NYC, Andrea Dawn Shelley of Infinite Movement Ever Evolving, Ad Deum’s own Shizu Yasuda from Japan, and founder/director Randall Flinn.

The theme and the variations of this performance find harmony in the kindred inspiration that drove each choreographer. Dancers are continually being moved by outside sources, namely the choreographers or instructors who tell them how and where and why to move. This performance will also open the path to give freedom to the dancers to be a moving witness to what moves them in spirit, soul and body and how that is revealed in the fullness of their expression, belief and artistry, when the dancer becomes the dance.

In Corriston’s Ave Maria, the dancers are given space to mediate upon and interpret the layers of emotions that must have been experienced in the life of one of the most significant Biblical characters. It also deeply reflects upon the life of her son and all those who bore witness to the humanity and divinity of the son of God born of a woman.

Shelley’s Be of Two Minds is an ensemble work that revolves around Sigmund Freud’s concept that The Ego and the Id are built upon the presupposed existence of conscious and unconscious thoughts. Are the Ego and Id at odds or do they form a relationship that coexist with each other? How does Self find solace within the equation and make significant choices that will guide her path? There is chaos and harmony, diversity and conformity, balance and choice, and the movement tells it all.

Transitions in Time designed by Yasuda is a telling of change, both predictable and unpredictable, planned and unprepared. There is shift, there is rise and fall, there is surrender and summons to higher places. The musical score by composer Hans Zimmerman is epic, haunting, exhilarating and emotionally exhausting at times, but the final note is to carry on. Yasuda says it well as a personal witness of a dancer changing in body and perspective, with struggle, surrender, perseverance and hope.

Flinn has been moved to create Hymns – Testaments of Faith, a lineage of work based on classic hymns of the Christian faith that have served as pillars and memorial stones in Flinn’s own spiritual journey and understanding. There is no cozy or sentimental cliché to be found here. Hymns are a work of great depth, challenging to grasp and a struggle to contend with in its conception and even still in its delivery. It is a work that calls for response, there is no neutrality offered, the current is strong and its power will move you.

We’ve Been Moved premieres May 19th at 8pm and May 20th at 3pm at Barnevelder Movement/Arts Center,2201 Preston in downtown Houston.