The Bach Society Houston will offer this season’s audiences some of its namesake’s profoundest music. But even the iconic Bach doesn’t live by devoutness alone.
For a while, many dancers and choreographers had no other outlet: The pandemic shutdowns cut them off from live audiences, so they showcased their work to online viewers on video.
One bustling summer stands between Marlana Doyle and a milestone—the 5th season for Houston Contemporary Dance Company (HCDC) and the Institute of Contemporary Dance in Houston, two organizations she founded in 2019.
Houston Grand Opera’s 2023-24 season is nothing short of epic. “We are producing some of the grandest and most mature artistic works in the repertoire all in one season,” says Khori Dastoor, HGO General Director and CEO. “Verdi’s last opera, Wagner’s last opera, late Mozart—these pieces are Mount Everest, each one of them.”
In 1995, South African novelist and playwright Zakes Mda wrote a book called Ways of Dying that features a character named Toloki, a professional mourner at township funerals in post-Apartheid South Africa.
Think about classical ballet’s signature repertoire—The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Cinderella. Each of these canonic story ballets is drawn from a European folk tale or story, and set to music by a European composer. Is it time to ask, “what other stories can ballets tell?”
In one of the biggest Texas dance stories of the year, ISHIDA Dance Company, a contemporary dance company co-located in Austin and Houston, has just made Dance Magazine’s 2023 “25 to Watch” list, one of the most coveted accolades in the dance industry.
Booth hopes that the program will continue to prove Houston’s cultural excellence to go along with the city’s reputation as a home to global business innovators.