Dance Fever? June has a Plentitude of Dance Concerts

Is June the unofficial dance month in Austin? It feels as much with no less than five companies presenting dance concerts.

Last weekend, it was PerformaDance’s “Artist and Muse.” On June 7-9 Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance presents “Company”; Shay Ishii Dance Company has a concert June 9; Jennifer Sherburn debuts “Drive-In” June 13-16, and Heloise Gold and Natalie George collaborate on “For A Limited Time” June 14-17. See below for complete listings.

Like a group exhibition, “Company” is a show of short dance works, with Kathy Dunn Hamrick debuting two new works herself, a departure from her usual evening-length dances. Company dancers Alyson Dolan and Lisa Anne Kobdish each debut a short dancework as does the company’s resident lighting designer Stephen Pruitt. Finally, all-male New York-based dance company, Project 44, joins the roster too.

Dolan’s “I’d Like to Solve the Puzzle” is a duet with dancer/collaborator Jessica Boone that explores sensation, rhythm, and repetition as, Dolan says, “a sort-of meditative gateway; sometimes spilling into an urgency to push forward, construct, and understand a future, other times our overindulgence in questioning gets the better of us. Once the process has begun we have no choice but to be open to what lies ahead, be it a solution or more questions.” Drew Silverman created an original score for “I’d Like to Solve the Puzzle.”

In “For A Limited Time,” Gold and George likewise build on the psychic and emotional elements of the current national zeitgeist.

For the past year, Gold explored the notion of limitations in various creative ways. In public places she went — museums, Austin’s new central library, a driveway, the beach  — she made 30-second micro-dances dictated by her surroundings. Gold video-taped these short dances which will be interlaced with videos of George executing the movement of each dance, but in the cavernous warehouse space of George’s production studio.

(Gold and George have collaborated on several occasions including 2015’s critically lauded “1000 Forest Gorillas in Kansas.”)

Gold built two other dances that riff on limitations including one for a trio — dancers Rosalyn Nasky and Katy Taylor and musician Henna Chou — who respond to specific prompts. And Gold performs solo that was molded by outside direction and text. And the prompts and direction? Memory, privilege and race, recent news stories and bugs

Although whimsy and chance play a foundational role in Gold’s choreographic methods, sensitivity and thoughtfulness remain the underpinnings to her practice.

“I’m interested in how we find freedom within the limitations of this time now,” says Gold. “How can we thrive within a world of constraint, whether that constraint is political, social, personal or emotional?”

“Company” 
8 p.m. June 7-9, 4 p.m June 9. Ground Floor Theatre, 979 Springdale Road, kdhdance.com/upcoming-performances/

“For A Limited Time”
8 p.m. June 14-17, 3 p.m. June 17, Ground Floor Theatre, 979 Springdale Road. nataliegeorgeproductions.com/tickets

“Dancestry: Provenance:
In the Blanton’s atrium, the Shay Ishii Dance Company presents “Dancestry,” its fascinating recreations of seminal early modern dances by pioneers such Loïs Fuller and Isadora Duncan.
6:30 and 8:30 p.m. June 9, Blanton Museum of Art, eventbrite.com/e/dancestry-provenance-tickets

Lily of the Nile from Shay Ishii on Vimeo.

“11:11:2018: Drive-In”
Micro-cinema and modern dance merge choreographer Jennifer Sherburn takes up car movies and their cultural underpinnings “Drive-In” in an exploration of grit, film noir, and immersive momentum. An outcome of Sherburn’s year-long “11:11” program of site-specific dance, “Drive-In’ features 10 dancers — and their vehicles — on an expanse of open land. Original score by William West.
7:30 p.m. June 13-16, 3506 Rogge Lane, 1111austin.com

Vote – Drive-In from Jennifer Sherburn on Vimeo.