Unafraid Of Controversy

A dance company on the move: Urban Souls tests the boundaries of a season

Leonard Price and Quincy Toliver
Photo by Shawn Welling
Tiffany Hall and Walter Hull in "Scarlet Situation"
Photo by Todd M. Spoth
Quincy Toliver in "Scarlet Situation"
Photo by James Weisman
Michael Baerga and Quincy Toliver
Photo by Shawn Welling

Five is the magic number for dance companies. Urban Souls Dance Company may be celebrating their fifth anniversary, but this year they present their very first season. For artistic director and founder Harrison Guy, now is the time to bite the season bullet.

On Saturday night, Urban Souls launches its season with "Touched by 5," a tribute to five individuals who shaped the company: Troy Powell, associate director of Ailey II. Travis Gatling, associate director of dance at Ohio University, Kenneth Epting of explanation dance company, Dorrell Martin of The Joffrey Ballet School New York and Guy.

Guy felt the inaugural season should open with a focus on the company's history. The concert closes with a Guy's "Dancumentary," which tells the unique story of Urban Souls.

On Feb. 12, Urban Souls takes a tour through Houston's historic Fourth Ward in "Whispers from the Colored Section," with original music by Malcolm Rector of St. Thomas University.

"The Fourth Ward may be the oldest African American neighborhood in Houston," Guy says. "It was home the city's first public housing project. "

This piece is a collaborative effort with the African American Library at the Gregory School.

Guy is a dance man with a mission: to present dance stories that matter and touch our souls. In the past, the company has addressed the crisis in Darfur and AIDS/HIV. No subject is too complex, which sometimes makes them controversial.

Guy doesn't want to shy away from difficult subjects that are deeply entrenched in the African and African-American experience. Having trained at the Ailey School in New York, Guy immersed himself in the work of other African-American dance leaders, yet he's not interested in duplicating what has gone before him. For Guy, the African-American experience in dance has room for many voices. He describes the company's artistic vision with a thoughtful passion.

"We are soulful, interested in real life stories that surpass the simplicity of happy and sad dances," Guy says. "We are more complicated than that. It's an anxious voice; there are a lot of untold stories that need to get out. "

Guy hopes to forge connections to other African-American dance companies in Houston. Recently, he served on a panel addressing the history of African-American dance in Houston.

"I was so happy that Lauren Anderson had heard of us," Guy recalls. "But we still need to get out and see each other's work. The identify of African-American dance is evolving. The first step in establishing an collective identity is mutual support."

Early in the process Walter Hull joined the effort as a dancer and general manager. Hull also directs the youth company and serves as the liaison between the board and the company. Hull has big plans for the troupe.

"His vision is for Urban Souls to produce high quality art that crosses all boundaries and expectations,eventually developing into a international touring company," Guy says.

Guy also credits Andrea Cody, executive director of Dance Houston, for starting a company in the first place. Urban Souls presented one piece for several years on Dance Houston's various city-wide dance festivals. The experience gave Guy a chance to imagine having a troupe of his own.

"Andrea pushed me to form the company," remembers Guy. "We also learned so much from all the other companies at the festivals."

Cody has an eye for rising talent and has played a crucial role in the local dance community.

"I’ve always supported Harrison’s vision and I believe in his integrity as a person," Cody says. "When I first worked with him, I saw his potential to bring a lot to the stage and to the community. He had training, passion, vision, and discipline. That’s the kind of artist I wanted to encourage to become a leader in the arts."

All shows take place at the Morris Cultural Arts Center on the Campus of Houston Baptist University. "I love that space, it's perfect for us," Guy says.

The season closes with a big old dance party called "Playlist" on June 18.

"This show is about dancing to great music like Earth, Wind and Fire and other R & B legends. We are such serious people most of the time," admits Guy. "Sometimes in our eagerness to share bold stories we forget about the simple things in life that make us feel good, like hearing our favorite song. Music has a way of bringing out the warm and fuzzy in us all."

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Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess