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    Delving into Dance

    The year in contemporary dance: Festival imports and original works cement thecity's place on the scene

    Theodore Bale
    Dec 31, 2011 | 5:45 am
    • The most adventurous, if not spectacular, work this year from a Houston-basedchoreographer was the premiere of Karen Stokes and Bill Ryan’s The SecondaryColors in October at The Hobby Center.
      Photo by Lynn Lane
    • Abou Lagraa’s simultaneously stark and densely complicated A World in Itself,performed by France’s Compagnie La Baraka and courageously presented by Societyfor the Performing Arts in February, could be seen as a kind of omen.
      Photo by Eric Bourdet
    • A synthesis of musicians and dancers on stage was offered as well by EmilyJohnson and Blackfish at Diverseworks in April with The Thank You Bar.
      Photo by Cameron Wittig
    • Dance Salad, one of the greatest contemporary dance festivals on theinternational scene and without doubt the biggest feather in Houston’s dance cap
      Photo by Carol Rosegg
    • Artists of NobleMotion Dance
      Photo by Julian Grandberry

    This year, a profusion of new choreography in Houston confirmed that our contemporary dance scene is hardly provincial. In 2011, the city held its rightful place within an ever-changing global context.

    While not enough work by local choreographers was exported (a challenge faced by companies everywhere), it certainly held its own beside a number of glorious imports, resulting in a thrilling season.

    Spring

    Abou Lagraa’s simultaneously stark and densely complicated A World in Itself, performed by France’s Compagnie La Baraka and courageously presented by Society for the Performing Arts in February, could be seen as a kind of omen.

    Ithelped establish the evening-length, self-contained work (often with music, performed live) as the norm. It was a high-budget and artistically difficult act to follow, to be sure. With the members of Lyon’s Debussy String Quartet interspersed on stage among talented dancers from Peru, Cameroon, France, Morocco, and Senegal, it used nothing less than the theme of the Big Bang as its starting point.

    The music might not have been newly composed, but Bach, Webern, and Cage were sophisticated choices. Lagraa worked in choreographic variation, showing the body free of ornamentation and the stage absent of sets or props.

    The most adventurous, if not spectacular, work this year from a Houston-based choreographer was the premiere of Karen Stokes and Bill Ryan’s The Secondary Colors in October at The Hobby Center.

    A synthesis of musicians and dancers on stage was offered, as well, by Emily Johnson and Blackfish at Diverseworks in April with The Thank You Bar, a striking rumination on home, identity, and Native American mythology.

    What a strange coincidence that Johnson’s intimate piece was also a “world within itself.” But where Compagnie La Baraka asserted a refined spectacle, Johnson made you feel like her younger sibling.

    The relationship of the performers to the audience was unstable at the least (we had to shift our seats to follow the action around the room) and weirdly intimate at best (Johnson made sure to mention every audience member’s name in each performance). Will we ever forget huddling around her at the conclusion as she buried herself in a kiddie-pool filled with dried leaves?

    Also in April was Dance Salad, one of the greatest contemporary dance festivals on the international scene, and without doubt the biggest feather in Houston’s dance cap. Festival director Nancy Henderek emphasized new dance from China in 2011, bringing huge ensembles of talented young artists such as Beijing’s Lei Dong Tian Xia (a name which means “Thunder Rumbles Under Heaven”).

    Sang Jijia’s Standing Before Darkness, in particular, was an unforgettable highlight, not to mention Cui Tao’s manifestation of the Tibetan diaspora (Pilgrimage) or Li Han-Zhong and Ma Bo’s rousing re-interpretation of Stravinsky’s le Sacre du printemps, titled All River Red.

    Summer

    Jijia’s work is greatly influenced by one of his mentors, the legendary American choreographer William Forsythe. But Houston dancers were lucky enough to work with another of Forsythe’s protégés when Infinite Movement Ever Evolving premiered Maurice Causey’s Grim Eye at The Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex in August.

    Set to a recording of Gabriel Prokofiev’s (grand-son of the legendary Sergei) Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra, the dance not only asserted current trends in classical ballet, but even hurled the dancers and their audience far into the future.

    Certain pieces have a way of getting under your skin, and this one is still tickling my nerve-endings. It’s the kind of dance that when you exit the theater and get into the car with your companion, you both shake your head and ask, “what just happened in there?” Let’s hope that iMEE revives it, and soon, so that we can have a second look.

    An acquaintance who rarely attends dance events told me that he had never seen anything quite as exciting as NobleMotion Dance’s Splitting Night, which premiered at The Barnevelder in August.

    Dance Salad, one of the greatest contemporary dance festivals on the international scene, is without doubt the biggest feather in Houston’s dance cap.

    An extraordinary evening-length collaboration with light artist Jeremy Choate, this was a sensual and powerful work in which each dancer emerged as a striking soloist and then came together in the strongest of ensembles.

    It’s difficult to say what it was about rather than what it simply was: visceral, emphatic, somehow always reaching towards a more heartbreaking climax than the one which preceded it. Choreographers Andy Noble and Dionne Sparkman Noble describe it as an opportunity to “enter a world where light and dance bend reality,” which doesn’t quite capture the emotional intensity. And like Lagraa and Johnson, it was without doubt “a world in itself.”

    Fall

    The most adventurous, if not spectacular, work this year from a Houston-based choreographer was the premiere of Karen Stokes and Bill Ryan’s The Secondary Colors in October at The Hobby Center.

    Collaborative in the truest sense, composer Ryan and choreographer Stokes showed three distinct strategies in each movement of their wide-ranging work. There was no narrative, but in another sense, every interior narrative of everyone involved (included an ensemble of highly accomplished musicians) unfolded in some kind of multi-voiced fugue.

    Was it just a coincidence that the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts premiered red, black & Green: a blues a week later at University of Houston, with music, dramaturgy and original music created by Marc Bamuthi Joseph and the Living Word Project?

    Entirely different in its pursuits, it’s nonetheless intriguing that two established choreographers started with abstract color in order to say something profound about their dancers, musicians, and audience. The charismatic Joseph’s dance focused on what he described as “the greening of the ghetto” and managed to characterize the history of a community with startling clarity, honesty, and compassion.

    Sometimes a lone voice, however, could be just as compelling as that of an entire community. The world premiere of Jack Ferver’s Two Alike at Diverseworks in September, with mystifying sculptural sets by Marc Swanson and a shadowy soundscape by Roarke Menzies (Joshua Lubin-Levy provided dramaturgy) displayed a remarkable sort of inner beauty.

    The experience was not unlike leaving a sunny Houston street for the cool interior of a darkened movie theater — you had to wait a bit for your senses to adjust. It should be noted, however, that esteemed choreographers such as Ferver, Joseph, and Causey came to Houston this year to premiere their latest work, making the city much more than just a stop on the touring circuit.

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    Movie Review

    How to Train Your Dragon remake puts a fresh twist on the original

    Alex Bentley
    Jun 12, 2025 | 4:14 pm
    Toothless and Mason Thames in How to Train Your Dragon
    Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures
    Toothless and Mason Thames in How to Train Your Dragon.

    Let’s get it out of the way right at the top: The new live-action How to Train Your Dragon, coming a mere 15 years after the original animated film, serves no real purpose other than to make more money for Universal Pictures and Dreamworks Pictures. However, unlike Disney’s approach toward remaking their animated movies, this attempt manages to succeed on its own merits instead of being a half-baked vessel for nostalgia.

    As fans will remember, Hiccup (Mason Thames) lives in Berk, a town on a remote island populated by Vikings who constantly have to defend themselves against rampaging dragons. Hiccup’s dad, Stoick (Gerard Butler), is the community’s vaunted leader, with a legacy that seems impossible for Hiccup to measure up to, especially since he’s stuck in the armory alongside Gobber (Nick Frost).

    But Hiccup has a knack for inventions, and his use of one new weapon during a dragon attack takes down a feared Night Fury. Finding the wounded dragon deep in the forest, Hiccup decides against killing it, leading to an unexpected bond between the two of them. Most of the film shows Hiccup trying to prove himself to his townspeople, including the fierce Astrid (Nico Parker), while also nursing the dragon he dubs Toothless back to health with the help of another one of his ingenious creations.

    Written and directed by Dean DeBlois (who’s had the same roles on all four HTTYD films), the film is most notable for how engaging it is despite it retelling a story many already know and love. The biggest reason for this is a pivot away from telling a story mainly for kids toward one that feels like an extremely light version of Game of Thrones. Almost right away, there are real stakes for the people in the film, and the way DeBlois and his team stage the scenes, the danger can be felt by the audience.

    This sense of “realness” comes through especially well in the scenes between Hiccup and Toothless. The design of Toothless is faithful to the original, but the CGI makes the dragon feel amazingly believable. And when they start flying, the film literally and metaphorically takes off. At multiple points, the camera seems to have trouble keeping them in frame, a smart move toward verisimilitude when the filmmakers clearly could have made it an overly smooth watching experience.

    Even though it’s more serious than the original, the film still has plenty of fun to offer. Characters like Gobber (who replaces his two missing limbs with odd contraptions) and the ragtag group of teenagers who come to be in awe of Hiccup’s skills at taming dragons provide more than a few laughs. Hiccup isn’t quite as goofy as he was when voiced by Jay Baruchel, which turns out to be a good thing as his sense of purpose amps up the drama of the story.

    Thames’ performance gets better and better as the film goes along, as Hiccup goes from town whipping boy toward hero. He really shines in the last act when he’s given a few scenes that show off his acting range. Parker is equally good, demonstrating the girl power needed for the role, but also the softness of a potential love interest. Butler, the only actor reprising their voice role, is a great presence who sells the outsized personality of Stoick.

    Against the odds, this new version of How to Train Your Dragon is equal to the success of the first film, accomplishing the goal of making it feel like you’re watching the story for the first time. If live-action remakes are going to continue to come out, future filmmakers should study this film for how to respect both the history of the franchise and the audience paying good money to be entertained.

    ---

    How to Train Your Dragon opens in theaters on June 13.

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