Maggie Foyer introduces Dance Salad 2015’s three nights of great dance.
Dance Salad Festival is celebrating its 20th year in Houston with a vibrant mix of international dance. The regular guests were here. There were dancers from Dresden SemperOper, Norwegian National Ballet and Armitage Gone! Dance Company while Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and his Eastman company from Antwerp presented an original curation, Rigor Mortis. Newcomers included Queensland Ballet, Bereishit Dance Company from Korea, Introdans and also for the first time, dancers from Houston Ballet.
Running over three nights the programme lasted around three hours provided a Texan size helping of dance. Each evening contained a slightly different mix but each evening closed on Rigor Mortis which featured an international mix of four musicians and seven dancers. Seeing the line-up at the curtain calls makes you acutely aware of the multicultural, multi-ethnic depth of the dance world today.
Probably the most talked about event was the Norwegian production of Ghosts a uniquely collaborative affair between theatre director, choreographer, musicians and dancers. Live musicians were also featured in Park Soon-ho’s Balance and Imbalance. The Korean musical ensemble of five percussionists, Noreum Machi, sitting side stage beat up a veritable storm to accompany the dance.
The duets ranged from contemporary, Karole Armitage, Ligeti’s Essays to David Dawson’s post-modern Opus 11.Between these poles came Andrew Simmon’s, Through to You and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa Shadow Lovers danced by Melody Mennite and Connor Walsh. Midsize works included the foursome from Introdans in Jiří Kylián’s Trompe L’Oeil and six of Queensland Ballet’s dancers in Nils Christe’s Short Dialogues.
Check out Maggie’s reports on each company as they come in.
