Four world premieres and more than 20 total works are the foundation for Dallas Black Dance Theatre’s 47th season, and that’s the sort of abundance that artistic director Melissa M. Young loves to see.
It’s the start of my whirlwind tour of the Dallas Arts District. Improbably, in all the years I have lived in Houston (23) and all the time I have been an arts writer in Texas (5), I had never been to Dallas. I am here now as a first time arts tourist, eager to absorb the wonders of a new place, open to every experience that might come my way.
In Kinetic’s collaborative model, each of the 16 musicians in the conductorless string ensemble brings his or her creative voice to the table, to the rehearsal space, and to the concert stage.
A historic ice storm. The four seasons. Industrial sites colliding with the natural world. A farmer’s life and its links to the land. A glacier that melted away.
The Dallas Opera had just begun rehearsals for a landmark event: the company’s first production in more than 30 years of Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlo, a drama whose challenges tower nearly as high as its musical splendors.
Emotion, individualism, unfettered expression, fruitful rebellion, and spontaneous movement are not often the makings of everyday life. But sometimes the storm and stress of life bring such things into being.
Artists grappling with the political has been the norm for thousands of years, but when art and social-political questioning merge at an interdisciplinary performance festival like Austin’s Fusebox Festival 2020 (April 15-19), the results can sometimes expand artistic boundaries.