The Arthropologist

Your guide to National Dance Week: From the Salad maker to the Ahn Trio to Japandisaster relief

Artists of Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, New York, performing "Temptation of theMuses," choroegraphed by Nai-Ni Chen
Photo by Carol Rosegg
Alisa Mittin in CORE Performance Company's "In the Mood," free on April 29,World Dance Day, at Miller Outdoor Theatre
Photo by Mark Teague
Thang Dao
Photo by Eric Livey
Bridgett Zehr and Zdenek Konvalina of National Ballet of Canada performing"Impromtu," choroegraphed by Derek Deane.
Artist of Eastman, Antwerp, Belgium, performing "Faun," choroegraphed by SidiLarbi Cherkaoui
Photo by Hugo Glendinning
Ballet Ausin II in Thang Dao's "Quiet Imprint"
Photo by Anne Marie Bloodgood
Artists of Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, New York, performing "Temptation of theMuses," choroegraphed by Nai-Ni Chen
Photo by Carol Rosegg
"Madame Butterfly" choreographed by Stanton Welch with artists Sara Webb and IanCasady
Photo by Jim Caldwell

Dance is its own planet. National Dance Week, leading up to World Dance Day on April 29, seems a fitting time to honor some of its prize citizens making a difference in the global community — many who just happen to have shows coming up this week.

Here they are: Thang Dao, with Ballet Austin II and the Vietnamese Culture & Science Association (VCSA) in Quiet Imprint on Saturday at The Hobby Center; Nancy Henderek of the Dance Salad Festival, Thursday through Saturday, at Cullen Theater Wortham Center; and Nao Kusuzaki and her colleagues at Houston Ballet and the Japan-America Society of Houston in Dancing for Hope, a benefit for Japan, Thursday night at The Hobby Center.

International dance right at your door

Whenever international dance people find out that I live in Houston, their first question is, "Do you know Nancy Henderek?"

The global curator of the Dance Salad Festival has been putting Houston on the world dance map for the past 16 years. She has some delicious delights up her international sleeve with a return of one of my favorite choreographers, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, along with an impressive list of rarely-seen-in-Houston troupes.

I appreciate the way Henderek puts her support behind rising choreographers, giving us a chance to see how they are developing. With Cherkaoui's third appearance on the Salad, he's now a force of nature dance maker on the scene.

The same holds true for Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, who made her U.S. debut as a choreographer in 2006 with her powerful duet, One, created especially for Jacoby & Pronk, who also made their company debut. Expect a strong Asian contingent too, with Beijing Dance/LDTX and Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company performing with the accomplished Ahn Trio, who were just on the SPA stage earlier this year.

After a few years of highlighting mostly male choreographers, this year's bill is a boon for women dance makers, and includes Ochoa, Masa Kolar, Jasmin Vardimon, Ma Bo, Nai-Ni Chen and Oksana Titova. Henderek often includes a nod to Houston's dance history, and this year is no different with National Ballet of Canada principals and former Houston Ballet dancers Bridgett Zehr and Zdenek Konvalina returning to perform Derek Deane's romantic duet, Impromptu. I know the city welcomes these two favorite dancers back.

A Houston Ballet soloist rallies her troupe

I met with Kusuzaki and Connor Walsh two weeks ago in the Center for Dance's swanky new dancers' lounge to hear about "Dancing for Hope, A Japan Relief Fund," a fundraising event that came together in record time.

"Growing up in Japan, and having my entire family as well as many close friends on the island, this recent disaster hit me close to my heart," said Kusuzaki, who is from Ehime, Japan. She quickly teamed up with Shizu Yasuda, of Ad Deum Dance Company, who are also performing in the show.

"Helplessness overwhelmed me initially, which turned into a realization that there is always a way to make a difference," Kusuzaki says.

She joined forces with the Japan-America Society of Houston, with additional help from the Japanese Association of Greater Houston and assumed the role of artistic event coordinator, something she has never done before. She convinced 21 fellow company members, including several principals, to participate.

In no time, Kusuzaki came up with program (with some advice from her HB colleagues), which includes excerpts from Christopher Bruce's Hush, Le Corsaire, La Bayadere and Stanton Welch's Mediaeval Baebes and Madame Butterfly, to name a few. Rehearsals and planning took place on days off and down time. This is one industrious and disciplined tribe.

Welch is completely behind the project, giving the team full access to his ballets and rehearsal space.

“I am very proud to have so many of Houston Ballet’s dancers pull together and take part in a relief benefit for Japan. Houston Ballet feels personally connected, since we have numerous Japanese professional dancers and academy students. Fortunately, all their families were safe and sound after the disaster,” Welch said. “The Japanese culture is so very rich, deep, and has inspired me as a choreographer many times and in many ways.

"I am glad that a part of Madame Butterfly can be included on this important occasion."

Kusuzaki will be dancing Welch's breathtaking pas de deux from Butterfly. The evening also includes Otro Portal, danced and choreographed by Houston contemporary choreographer Paola Georgudis.

Telling the story of the Vietnamese Diaspora through dance

Dance can be a way of telling your story. That's one of the things New York choreographer Dao found out when he embarked on creating Quiet Imprint for Ballet Ausin II.

"My mother never talked about her history," said Dao, who spent the first six months of his life in a prison in Danang, Vietnam.

Trained at The Juilliard School, Boston Conservatory and New York University, Dao made Texas headlines when he was selected for Ballet Austin's New American Talent contest. He went on to win the Audience Award all four nights. When Ballet Austin artistic director Stephen Mills and associate director Michelle Martin invited the rising choreographer to create a work on Ballet Austin II, Dao considered a dance based on his heritage, but then told Martin he wasn't quite ready.

"You are ready," Martin replied back. After numerous interviews with several Houston members of the Vietnamese community, Quiet Imprint took shape.

Set to songs by Trinh Cong Son, sung by the legendary Vietnamese singer Khanh Ly, the ballet comes to life through the music Dao grew up hearing. Getting the iconic singer aboard was not easy.

"A ballet? I don't know if I'm the right person," she told the young choreographer. "I know you are the right singer," he replied back, with enough passion in his voice to change her mind.

Dao played dramaturg with the Ballet Austin II dancers as they immersed themselves in the interviews to better embody these stories.

"The more I learn about these individuals, their living history, the more I was able to shape the narrative in each song vignette," Dao said. "Their stories became the framework for how I would craft each dance using distinctive movements particular to the narrative and gave emotional texture that drove the direction of the choreography."

Dao heads up the Thang Dao Dance Company in New York. He received a 2008 Princess Grace Award and a 2009 Special Projects Grant to develop Quiet Imprint. The VSCA joined forces with Ballet Austin II to present this show as part of their cultural programing. A strong showing of the community showed up to the Kim Son Ballroom two weeks ago to meet Dao and Martin in person, and hear his moving tale of creating a dance based on the stories of many people in that very room.

Dao's ballet has a dual focus: To find out more about his own origins, and to share his art form with his parents. He has succeeded at both.

If your dance card is still not full, can I suggest Houston Ballet Academy Showcase, on April 29 & 30, Core Performance Company's In the Mood... for Dance at Miller Outdoor Theatre, on April 29, or Between the Lines at UH's School of Theatre & Dance, April 29-May 1, or The Thank You Bar at DiverseWorks, April 28-30.

There's more, don't you know it, as Houston celebrates National Dance Week Lone Star style all month.

Thang Dao and Ballet Austin II in Quiet Imprint

National Ballet of Canada principals Bridgett Zehr and Zdenek Konvalina are simply gorgeous in this pas de deux

An excerpt of Stanton Welch's haunting Mediæval Bæbes is on the Dancing for Hope Program

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Movie Review

Star TV producer James L. Brooks stumbles with meandering movie Ella McCay

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Emma Mackey in Ella McCay.

The impact that writer/director/producer James L. Brooks has made on Hollywood cannot be understated. The 85-year-old created The Mary Tyler Moore Show, personally won three Oscars for Terms of Endearment, and was one of the driving forces behind The Simpsons, among many other credits. Now, 15 years after his last movie, he’s back in the directing chair with Ella McCay.

The similarly-named Emma Mackey plays Ella, a 34-year-old lieutenant governor of an unnamed state in 2008 who’s on the verge of becoming governor when Governor Bill (Albert Brooks) gets picked to be a member of the president’s Cabinet. What should be a happy time is sullied by her needy husband, Ryan (Jack Lowden), her agoraphobic brother, Casey (Spike Fearn), and her perpetually-cheating father, Eddie (Woody Harrelson).

Despite the trio of men competing to bring her down, Ella remains an unapologetic optimist, an attitude bolstered by her aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), her assistant Estelle (Julie Kavner), and her police escort, Trooper Nash (Kumail Nanjiani). The film follows her over a few days as she navigates the perils of governing, the distractions her family brings, and the expectations being thrust upon her by many different people.

Brooks, who wrote and directed the film, is all over the place with his storytelling. What at first seems to be a straightforward story about Ella and her various issues soon starts meandering into areas that, while related to Ella, don’t make the film better. Prime among them are her brother and father, who are given a relatively small amount of screentime in comparison to the importance they have in her life. This is compounded by a confounding subplot in which Casey tries to win back his girlfriend, Susan (Ayo Edebiri).

Then there’s the whole political side of the story, which never finds its focus and is stuck in the past. Though it’s never stated explicitly, Ella and Governor Bill appear to be Democrats, especially given a signature program Ella pushes to help mothers in need. But if Brooks was trying to provide an antidote to the current real world politics, he doesn’t succeed, as Ella’s full goals are never clear. He also inexplicably shows her boring her fellow lawmakers to tears, a strange trait to give the person for whom the audience is supposed to be rooting.

What saves the movie from being an all-out train wreck is the performances of Mackey and Curtis. Mackey, best known for the Netflix show Sex Education, has an assured confidence to her that keeps the character interesting and likable even when the story goes downhill. Curtis, who has tended to go over-the-top with her roles in recent years, tones it down, offering a warm place of comfort for Ella to turn to when she needs it. The two complement each other very well and are the best parts of the movie by far.

Brooks puts much more effort into his female actors, including Kavner, who, even though she serves as an unnecessary narrator, gets most of the best laugh lines in the film. Harrelson is capable of playing a great cad, but his character here isn’t fleshed out enough. Fearn is super annoying in his role, and Lowden isn’t much better, although that could be mostly due to what his character is called to do. Were it not for the always-great Brooks and Nanjiani, the movie might be devoid of good male performances.

Brooks has made many great TV shows and movies in his 60+ year career, but Ella McCay is a far cry from his best. The only positive that comes out of it is the boosting of Mackey, who proves herself capable of not only leading a film, but also elevating one that would otherwise be a slog to get through.

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Ella McCay opens in theaters on December 12.

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Movie Review

Star TV producer James L. Brooks stumbles with meandering movie Ella McCay