TFAA is happy to promote the Dance Salad Festival
A Touring Taste of Dance Salad Festival
Thursday, December 1, 2011
6:30 p.m.
The Museuem of Fine Arts, Houston
Brown Audtiorium Theater
1001 Bissonnnet
Free Admission, Open to public, Reception follows
Enjoy an evening of world-class dance captured by award-winning video artists Bob Ball and Laurie McDonald. This special screening of A Touring Taste of Dance Salad Festival presents excerpts from the spring 2011 Dance Salad performances. Houston´s premier international dance festival showcases renowned performers of modern, contemporary, and classical dance in a program that offers a magnificent fusion of styles and music with a sampling of the most renowned dance companies in the world.
Don´t miss this unique opportunity to relive highlights of the choreographic masterpieces featured in the Dance Salad Festival by leading dance companies including Beijing Dance LDTX, Ballet National de Marseille, BJM Dance Montreal, National Ballet of Canada, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company with Ahn Trio, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Zoran Markovic & Mas¡a Kolar, Jasmin Vardimon Company, the Estonian National Ballet, Eastman, and Staatsballett Berlin.
Following the film screening, Dance Salad Festival artistic director Nancy Henderek will discuss the performances with the audience.
For more information, please visit the MFAH site at http://www.mfah.org/calendar/special-screening-and-discussion-touring-taste-dan/4889
For information on the upcoming 2012 Dance Salad Festival at the Wortham Center´s Cullen Theatre on April 5, 6, and 7, please visit www.dancesalad.org/.
Film project funded by a grant from the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.
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April 21, 22 and 23
7:30 pm
Wortham Center, Cullen Theater
Now celebrating the 16th anniversary season in Houston and the 19th season since its inception in Brussels, Belgium, Dance Salad Festival promises another gathering of world-class performers. Famous in their own countries, the dance companies have won praise from critics and audiences wherever they have toured.
One of the companies that has been secured for the 2011 Dance Salad Festival is the Ballet National de Marseille:
Ballet National de Marseille, considered one of France's most prestigious dance companies, will premiere in North America the multifaceted work Metamorphoses, set to a mix of musical works by various composers and groups, created by Belgian avant-garde and interdisciplinary artist, Frederic Flamand, now the Artistic Director of the Ballet National de Marseille and also the Cannes Dance Festival in France. DSF will present a curated version of this work. Flamand’s inventive choreographic vision is known for pioneering the collaboration and dynamic involvement of architecture and visual art elements that are created and used 
as an active part of the choreography. Metamorphoses opened the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007.
Metamorphoses was inspired by Ovid's collection of mythological poems, “Metamorphoses,” which defies and explodes classical order. It is about being immersed in Ovid’s imagination, through different times and spaces. The approach of myths is an opportunity for us to reflect on the forces that make up human nature, the manifestations of desire, and the eternal battle between good and evil. Metamorphoses is filled with “…intimate duets to exhilarating large-scale set pieces, this remarkable company’s dancers-lithe, athletic and rigorously disciplined - seek out this creative hinterland between order and chaos, stability and change, irrationality and cold logic.” Brighton Dance Festival, 2008.
The production is set to the flamboyant urban design of Brazil's award-winning designers, the Campana Brothers, who were invited specifically to work with the dancers and the choreographer to create a kinetic hybrid of sculpturesque sets and costumes using recycled and handicraft materials. The Compana Brothers’ work has been exhibited in museums and institutional collections around the world. Some of their designs are now in the permanent collections at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York, US; Montreal Museum of Decorative Art, Canada; Vitra Design, Germany; Don Edelman Foundation, Switzerland; Jacqueline Vodoz and Bruno Danese Association, Milan.
Price range of tickets is $20-$50.
For a discount use Promotion Code: TFAA 2011
Buy tickets online at www.dancesalad.org. Click: Tickets and print them out yourself!
For the latest information on the upcoming season and downloadable photos of the dancers, visit www.dancesalad.org
Dance Salad Festival office: (713) 621-1461
Other Important Events in Dance Salad Festival Week
Choreographers’ Forum: A Conversation, Wednesday, April 20, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 6:30 pm, is a special opportunity to glimpse the creative process from some of the Festival’s invited choreographers; to hear their points of view and to see film clips of their work. This highly anticipated event is generously co-sponsored by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, lectures@mfah.org. There will be a reception following the Forum at the MFAH.
Classical, modern and contemporary dance share the Dance Salad Festival stage to form a mix of movement and compelling choreographic invention. Members of some of the world’s best dance companies come to the city to participate in this week long Festival. Each night’s production is uniquely curated and designed as a coherent, expressive performance. To see the full range of the choreography it is highly recommended to attend at least two of the three evenings.
This multicultural presentation has received international recognition for its quality and innovativeness and because of the Festival’s broad international nature it has consistently been a source of cultural pride for many of the expatriate and ethnic communities that reside in Houston. The city's 83 member Consular Corps is a community partner and many country members serve as sponsors and hosts. Director Nancy Henderek strongly believes that through the arts, bridges can be built between different countries and cultures.
During the Festival week, Artist to Artist Workshops will be held in various locations throughout the city so that students and professionals can learn from these invited master choreographers.
Dance Salad Festival has been praised by local, national and international publications. Dance Magazine said: “Producer Nancy Henderek’s eye for some of the best international dance is unparalleled…(Dance Salad Festival) could wind up as the premier contemporary dance festival between the East and West coasts.” In a special section of The Houston Chronicle entitled “Houston’s Ultimate People,” Nancy Henderek is described as a “one-woman United Nations.”
