It's common for dancers to twirl, leap and soar through space as if suspending, perhaps defying, the physical laws of gravity. One local dance troupe is taking it one step further.
Vault Dance Company, a project of choreographer and artistic director Amy Ell, is all about dancing on air. It isn't like Cirque. It isn't modern dance. It isn't traditional aerial dance. You could say it lives somewhere in between all these genres.
Thread begins on the ground but soon launches upwards as it explores the movement vocabulary of eight women dressed in white fabric. It's feminine, but not girly. The choreographic piece is a general metaphor for the journey of life. Themes of possibilities, limitations and revelations are viewed through an aesthetic microscope that magnifies the tender emotional content. Swaths of white silk support airborne maneuvers that, at their root, attempt to be programmatic in nature.
Having debuted last September in Penasco, N.M., Thread christened the company's new art space at Spring Street Studios. Dance Source Houston's Neil Ellis Orts described it as "an evening of striking images, full of strength and beauty."
Dance Source Houston's Neil Ellis Orts described it as "an evening of striking images, full of strength and beauty."
Thread is on its way across the pond to perform at the Aerial Dance Festival in Letterkenny, Ireland — that's if an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign is successful at raising $12,000 to underwrite the cost of transportation, room and board for six dancers and the company's rigger.
Catch vignettes from Thread in this short Houston's Voice video, produced by Human Films. Although it's not the complete piece, the two-minute sample typifies Ell's unique movement lexicon.
Editor's note: Hidden Houston, an interactive multimedia series, aims to reveal the many things that are unique about the Bayou City and its surrounding areas.
The 2-minute sample video typifies Amy Ell's unique movement lexicon.
