Editor’s note: Art and the City is a special project by The Dallas Morning News arts and entertainment staff. We asked more than 100 members of North Texas’ creative community to tell us in their own words how they are living life and making art during the great shutdown of 2020. We also asked artists to share a piece of work that is especially meaningful to them right now. You can contribute to this project by emailing us at artslife@dallasnews.com or share your work online with the hashtag #DFWArtMatters. We are sharing work weekly in our free Arts & Entertainment newsletter; sign up at join.dallasnews.com/newsletter.
Want to see more from Art and the City 2020? Check out the links below:
- Photography
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- Pop music
- Theater
- Dance
- Gallery art
- Curated art
- Indie art
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‘People cried, left speechless’
TITAS dance is all about the “live” experience. Inspirational, awe-inspiring performances. Betroffenheit by Canadian [choreographer] Crystal Pite has to be one of the most cathartic performances we’ve ever presented. A work about going through something so traumatic that you reach a point of speechlessness — betroffenheit. People cried, left speechless, and spent days talking about this performance. Innovative companies like Diavolo and MOMIX have wowed audiences to standing ovations. Along with performance, educational outreach is central to what TITAS brings to North Texas. Master classes with up to 100 aspiring dancers and interested community members continue to be central to the TITAS mission. We will be back soon!
— Charles Santos is executive and artistic director of TITAS.
The art of recovery
Like dance, life is about the art of recovery. We can all relate to putting forth our best effort as we navigate through our daily struggles and triumphs. Although the world is currently on “pause,” let this be an opportunity to begin again. Allow your spiritual compass to be the driving force as you regain stability to better understand your life’s purpose with increased clarity. Dallas Black Dance Theatre’s On. Toward. Press. is fitting for what we are experiencing in these unique times. Choreographed by Hope Boykin, this beautifully layered work follows a solemn journey for acceptance. It’s about carving a path not yet understood and growing in strength within a world of confusion and frustration. A story not so unfamiliar — a truthful sharing of a life feeling unworthy, straining for the prize only faith can provide. This work is a demonstration of perseverance at the most human level.
— Melissa Young is the artistic director of Dallas Black Dance Theatre. dbdt.com.
‘Stress, anxiety, isolation and community’
What We Do With Time is a quirky, rhythm-driven dance-theater work that explores the universal themes of stress, anxiety, isolation and community. The title is from a quote by Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart: “You can’t talk about rhythm without talking about time. Rhythm is what time does, whether it comes to us in the pattern of the seasons or in the pattern on the face of a Rolex watch. Or better still, it’s what we do with time.” This feels remarkably relevant to me right now because we are experiencing real-world events that are invoking a deep need to stay connected in alternative ways, to manage the crushing amount of stress and anxiety, and to quite simply, manage our time.
— Brandi Coleman is an assistant professor of dance at Southern Methodist University.
What lies beneath
The Piñata Dance has been performed in many iterations and in many cities including Dallas, Houston, Chicago and Boston. The performance varies in length from 5 to 45 minutes and depicts me personifying a piñata. In between dancing, I tell anecdotes and cultural criticism about femicide, Chicanisma (Mexican-American feminism), cultural appropriation, cliches, wage disparity for Latinas and many other hot-takes concerning first-generation Americans like myself. The Piñata Dance is both passionate and compassionate. It is about being taken for granted. It is about being broken apart. It is about a Latina woman repeatedly falling down, beaten, but most importantly, it’s about watching her get back up. And that means the world to me.
— Christian Cruz is a Dallas-based performance artist.
Dancing in 360 degrees
Click here to view a special, 360 video of the performance.
In February, Avant Chamber Ballet premiered 19th Amendment with my choreography and new music by Quinn Mason at Moody Performance Hall. The work was inspired by the suffragette movement and the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote. At its heart, the ballet is about community and coming together to make a difference. The day we had to close our studio and stop rehearsals I got this video from MAKE, the musicians who performed with us. It was so different to view the work now with what is happening in the world as a backdrop.
The world of dance has really opened up on social media. From when we are small children, we normally share the daily ritual of dance class with a room full of our colleagues. Because we can’t do that for the first time in our lives, dancers are live streaming, zooming and sharing everywhere. It’s amazing. I am normally so busy running rehearsals that I never have time to dance myself. It’s been a very meditative thing to actually take ballet Barre myself and spend time with my body since I am normally too busy directing. Even if it’s in my kitchen.
— Katie Puder is a Dallas-based choreographer.
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