A tribute to the legacy: KDH Dance Company performs honestly original new work

This upcoming season KDH Dance Company honors its legacy through presenting original abstract modern dances.  At the same time, the company is exploring new territory—literally—by dancing outdoors on a basketball court in East Austin. Performances of Magic Hour will run from Nov. 5 – 7 at Alamo Pocket Park. (Rain dates are Nov. 12-14.)

Austin’s longest continually running modern dance company was founded in 1999 by Kathy Dunn Hamrick.  Hamrick served as principal choreographer and artistic director until her cancer diagnosis in 2023. At that time, she appointed company dancer Alyson Dolan as acting artistic director and Drew Silverman as executive director and composer-in-residence.

Hamrick and Dolan’s shared aesthetic vision made for an easy leadership transition. Dolan explains, “both Kathy and I were drawn to creating oppositions in the body and moving with volume through lots of space.”  She adds, “Kathy was intensely musical, and musicality as a vital part of dance creation is also very important to me.  We both loved playing with tempo and speed.”

Given Austin’s abundance of musicians, Hamrick frequently collaborated with local composers to present live music and dance.  Under Dolan and Silverman’s leadership this practice will not only continue, but increase, even to the point where “every show will have live music, if possible.” says Silverman.  “For the November show we’ll have probably three to four musicians, but our multi-talented musicians play multiple instruments,” he adds.

Another way the company will honor its founder’s legacy is through presenting choreography generated by emotional honesty. Dolan notes, “Kathy would authentically make dances from wherever she was—emotionally, spiritually—or from any other place. She would make fun, humorous dances at times and emotionally darker ones at other times.”

While the November performances will occur less than a year since Hamrick’s February 2026 passing, the new work is anything but mournful.  “For this dance, and in our continued work together as a company, we’re trying to allow for outlets of joy.  It’s not as though we’re done grieving and it’s time to celebrate—not at all—but we do feel like there is so much to be grateful for,” Dolan explains.

It was a 2026 Fusebox Festival event in Alamo Pocket Park that inspired Dolan to also set a piece there.  As she watched performers on the recreation court, she thought, “Why don’t we set a dance here? It would be so cool!”  Once the space was secured, Dolan began to consider how she and the dancers would craft the work.  “The piece’s design will be simpler, like washes of movement through space, since the space is a major part of the piece.”  She explains.  While longtime company lighting designer Stephen Pruitt will enhance the space, the court’s inherent qualities will be the highlight. “For example, November in Austin can still be hot, and we (audience and performers) are going to enjoy the nice tunnel of air that wafts through the space.  We are keeping these and other sensations in mind in our rehearsals,” she says.

This premier also features what Dolan describes as, “a sense of play. The dance isn’t literally about games, but I want to emphasize a sense of playfulness. Yes, because of the park and this is what parks are used for, but also because it’s been a heavy couple years for us.”

By, “for us,” Dolan means Silverman and herself, but also the entire KDH Dance Company as it is a full-year ensemble—not a project-based pick-up company.  The company tenure runs from two to fifteen years, and the dancers attend weekly rehearsals and classes together.  Dolan explains, “Kathy said, ‘The whole reason I started a company was to grow with a group of people from year to year.’  Being in a company is my jam, too.  I want us to know and deeply trust each other, and so we don’t have any plans to change that structure.”

When Hamrick handed the company reins to Dolan and Silverman, she also gave them the freedom to “change it all, change the name, change everything!” according to Silverman. “She said, ‘If I were you, I would do all these changes.’ But we said, ‘We’re not ready for that. We love what you’ve built,’” he recounts, adding, “We have changed things here and there, but at the same time we really appreciate what she built.”

While both directors realize that change is inevitable, they insist one thing will not change: KDHDC will remain “unapologetically” a modern dance company. “We’re not going to compromise our legacy of modern dance—dance that can be abstract or even mysterious at times, dance that is rooted in the humanity of movement,” says Dolan. She explains, “This is the kind of work that feels so good to us, and it is through these dances that  we really want to invite others in.”

—TARA MUNJEE