A Thought-Leader In Family & Children’s Dance Classes | Houston, TX
Frame Dance is a thought leader in dance education, inspiring the next generation of movers, makers, and world changers by offering dance classes for adults & children, multi-generational ensembles, professional performances, networking events, and film festivals. We are nestled between West U and the Museum District.
We believe in developing the whole dancer, teaching critical life skills such as creative thinking, leadership, collaboration, and resilience through our artful and playful dance curriculum at our studio and in partner schools.
Our adult modern dance classes are designed to offer you the joy and magic that’s possible when you create space in your life to move, to grow, and to share in the creative process with a like-hearted community.
For more than ten years, Frame Dance has brought radically inclusive and deeply personal contemporary dance to Houston. Led by Founder and Creative Director Lydia Hance, whom Dance Magazine calls “the city’s reigning guru of dance in public places,” the professional company is made up of six acclaimed co-creators committed to collaboration. Frame Dance has created over 50 unique site-specific performances and nine dances for the camera screened in festivals all over the United States and Europe. With an unrelenting drive to make dance in relationship to environment, Frame Dance has created dance works for and with METRO, Houston Museum of Natural Sciences, Houston Parks Board, Plant It Forward Farms, CORE Dance, Rice University, Houston Ballet, 14 Pews, Aurora Picture Show, and the Contemporary Arts Museum. Frame Dance’s productions were described by Arts + Culture Texas Editor-in-Chief Nancy Wozny as “some of the most compelling and entertaining work in Houston.” Creative Director Lydia Hance is a champion of living composers and is dedicated to work exclusively with new music.
What are the 20 best foods to eat for breakfast? Some of these may surprise you. Read the article from Health.com to get more details. Some of these had my brow furrowing skeptically….
Oatmeal
Greek yogurt
Wheat germ
Grapefruit
Bananas (I thought we were off of these)
Eggs
Almond butter
Watermelon
Flaxseed
Blueberries
Strawberries
Coffee (yay!)
Tea
Cantaloupe
Kiwi
Orange juice (what?! Didn’t we JUST hear about all the sugar in this?)
Cranberry juice (I’m imagining in small doses, but boy do I love this)
The 2015 Frame Dance Music Composition Competition submissions are closed. We are actively reviewing and thrilled about the submissions this year! Here’s a look at some of our previous winners, and remember that it could be you for 2015! Next week, we will tell you what the past winners are up to now…
I thought when I went back to school to get my MFA that I would be entering an uptight academic environment. I was so preoccupied with the idea of school and relocating my life that I forgot I would be entering a community of like-minded peers. In undergrad, even among dance majors, I was considered the “dance nerd,” In grad school I was surrounded by not only dancers but specifically “dance nerds,” people who wanted to explore, dissect and reveal as much about the art as I did. This community turned out to be a vital support group throughout the process of completing my degree. Having others to bitch to, socialize, laugh, and share my fledgling art with became essential for my survival during this stressful time. These bonds were not only a lifeline during the process but created many long lasting friendships and an excellent network that stands strong long after graduation.
The teacher/student relationship has evolved
When you enter a graduate program you have already passed a test in the eyes of the faculty. You have already completed one major academic step and have decided to continue onto another. There are fewer grad students for them to keep track of and you yourself are probably a much better student. For me this reduced a lot of the intimidationI felt with my undergraduate professors. Continue reading →
For links we like we thought we’d throw back to some Frame Dance Tiny Dances from our show called The Black Space. We made a series of these tiny silent films that were made to be viewed on a smart phone. Stay tuned for the second one next Friday.
Last week for submissions to the Frame Dance Music Composition Competition!
We’re calling all composers to submit to our annual music competition to find a collaborator for one of our live dances, and/or one of our dance films. We’ll be using the winner’s music in one of our pieces for the Spring season.
We do not accept works previously licensed to third-party publishing companies. This requirement, of course, does not limit works that are self-published where the composer has not entered into a licensing relationship with a third party.
The entry fee is $15.00. Composers may submit one, two, or three pieces for the single entry fee.
Submission Guidelines
Works may be written for solo, duet, trio, quartet, or quintet.
Acoustic works that utilize electronic playback are also acceptable.
Electronic music is accepted and encouraged.
Happy New Year! Beginnings are my favorite. There’s so much hope and there hasn’t been time for discouragement yet. There hasn’t been time yet for failure or hurt. There hasn’t been time to hurt others. It’s clean and everyone is trying to be his or her best self. I wonder, why can’t each new day have the promise of the new year? I think it requires stepping beyond the past.
2014 has been a fabulous year for us at Frame Dance, and so much because of the support of our audience, friends, donors, and family. It’s not easy creating something out of nothing, and now in our fifth year, we feel like we really have something to be proud of. The dancers and collaborators have worked so hard, and I am truly in awe of how much of themselves they have put into the work we’ve done. Sometimes it can be lonely figuring out how, exactly, to lead a new arts organization– how to
Photo by David DeHoyos
pursue a vision, but be smart and strategic in the practicalities, thinking of the artists and how to challenge them and showcase their strengths, thinking of our community and the art that would enrich it. There are a lot of moving pieces I consider in how to make Frame Dance a thriving, growing, relevant arts organization serving its community.
The dance we’ve made has the fingerprint of so many artists. Frame Dance is a manifestation of dancers, composers, photographers, writers, children, parents, musicians, chefs…(shall I go on?) It is the manifestation of the board and of myself and the many, many people who have fought for it. It is the manifestation of those who have given us opportunities, spoken and written supportive words, commissioned new works, and those who have given us a critical eye, and a corrective voice.
While it is cleaner to let go of the past while embarking on this new year, I choose to remember the past, with gratitude and a breath of distance. Onward and upward, soldiers. There’s more art to be made. You are a part of it whether you create it, support it, experience it, or share it. We need all of you.
We’re calling all composers to submit to our annual music competition, for a chance to find a collaborator for one of our live dances, and/or one of our dance films. We’ll be using the winner’s music in one of our pieces for the Spring season.
We do not accept works previously licensed to third-party publishing companies. This requirement, of course, does not limit works that are self-published where the composer has not entered into a licensing relationship with a third party.
The entry fee is $15.00. Composers may submit one, two, or three pieces.
Submission Guidelines
Works may be written for solo, duet, trio, quartet, or quintet.
Acoustic works that utilize electronic playback are also acceptable.
Electronic music is accepted and encouraged.
It started when I wanted to see what came up on Google if I typed in “MFA dance programs.” What came up was a list of what are possibly the largest and most well known MFA
programs– and those with their SEO figured out. I sat there staring at the first hit, and then scrolled down wondering which school I should click on first. I clicked, and apparently unclicked my self-confidence. (Could they see me through the screen? Were they laughing at my ignorant query into their top tier elite institution?) That suffocating, diminishing blanket that hovers and squeezes you whenever you walk into an audition came right back over me. I thought I had grown larger than that blanket, but apparently I’ve just felt mostly comfortable for some time. I hadn’t felt that vulnerable exposition in a while.
That little anecdote is really leading to two things:
1) Applying for programs is scary. You are brave. Auditioning is scary. You are brave. Interviewing is scary. You are brave. Doing things where you put everything on the table– where you go all in– and might not get anything back is terrifying. I’ve known some people to LIVE on that feeling. I, however, want to shrink into the smallest version of myself. I’ve always wanted more courage because that shrinking feeling is the absolute worst. If you’re a shrinker like me, practice putting yourself in places that are scary. People tell you to “fake it til you make it” but I can’t think of too many things more miserable than wearing a false self. So I try to go back to the place where I do feel confident, where I feel like I am my full self, and pull of those things into the new, scary place. It takes some discipline to not let the fears run rampant.
2) Let’s do something that pushes us out of our comfort zones this year. I mean really, actually pushes you. I think we all take some small and fairly safe risks. But it takes courage and motivation to really push yourself. And maybe it’s only one thing this whole year. And I want to know what it is. Share, because you will inspire someone.
Today we were listed in Arts + Culture’s 16 Standouts of the Fall 2014 for Truck Dances at the Dance Source Houston’s 10th Anniversary Party and DiverseWorks’s Fashion Fete. We are honored and thrilled! I was a choreographer on the Afoot! project with Forklift Danceworks and Houston Arts Alliance. Afoot! was the big marching band project in the East End earlier this year. What a full Fall we had! We also performed in Austin with the Baylor Percussion Ensemble and composer Robert Honstein as well as at the Brazos Contemporary Dance Festival at A&M University. Not to mention METRODances on the light rail. I need a breather! Photos by Jonathon Hance, Charles Halka, Lorie Evans, Lydia Hance.
What are the 20 best foods to eat for breakfast? Some of these may surprise you. Read the article from Health.com to get more details. Some of these had my brow furrowing skeptically….
Bananas (I thought we were off of these)
