“These pitiful souls being tossed to and fro in the waves among you, their stories are mine as well,” decrees the magician Prospera in the Open Dance Project’s All the Devils are Here: A Tempest in the Galapagos.
The pandemic may have forced the cancellation of this year’s Fusebox Festival, one of the nation’s largest annual interdisciplinary performing arts festivals, but the Austin organization continues to present and nurture artists.
The dance company Pilobolus has many missions: to tell stories with the human form, to test the limits of human physicality, to explore the beauty and power of connected bodies.
I caught up with musicians from nine distinctive ensembles in Houston to reflect on the past year and look to the future. In Part Three, I visited with the Axiom Quartet, Houston Brass Quintet and Texas New Music Ensemble.
Houston is home to numerous chamber music ensembles that have thrived alongside each other, carving out their own niches with unique visions of how to present music and connect with audiences.
El Paso-based artist Haydee Alonso was working as a manager in a gallery during March of 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the space to close for an undetermined amount of time.
“I mean, I’m exhausted most of the time,” laughs Marlana Doyle, founder and executive/artistic director of Houston Contemporary Dance Company (HCDC), who is also president and CEO of the Institute of Contemporary Dance (ICD).