‘Tis the Seasons: Beginnings and Introductions

‘Tis the Seasons: Beginnings and Introductions

by Kerri Frame | Work Interviews News & Updates

So far, 2019 in Houston has been wet, but at least the plants are happy. It’s been chilly, but the northern transplants (like me!) who suffer through the summer are happy in their scarves and underused winter wear. It’s been cloudy and gray, but…the…people who worry about skin cancer are happy, I guess? Oh, forget it; it’s bleak out there, folks. I truly love weather that inspires one to sit inside and read, but even I – and definitely my eight year-old – could use a little more sun and little less puddle-making rain here at the end of our holidays.

There has been one big bright spot shining at Frame Dance headquarters, however, and I am excited to share it – or, rather, her – with you all. Yesterday’s post was a misty-eyed goodbye, but today’s is a bright hello. It is my great pleasure to introduce Frame Dance’s brand new Program Manager, Bobbie Hackett! Bobbie is a grad student in Arts Leadership at UH who has worked with ROCO and the Houston Arts Alliance, so she’s already family in terms of the Houston arts and nonprofits community. Look for Bobbie at upcoming Frame Dance classes and events, and here’s a little “Bobbie Hackett 101” to encourage you to say hi.

Intro to Bobbie: Very Important Questions

Bobbie, tell us: salty or sweet?

I like a good combo of both, but if forced to choose, I’d choose salty.

Coffee or tea?

I drink coffee more often, but I prefer tea.

Slide or Swings?

Swings!

If you could turn anything into an Olympic Event, what would you get the Gold medal for?

Laughing so hard that I cry over something completely arbitrary and not being able to explain why it struck me as funny.

What songs have you completely memorized?

I’m so bad with song lyrics it’s unreal, but I most often sing along with Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, or Taylor Swift.

What is your personal arts background?

I’ve always been involved in the arts in some way. My mom is a pianist and she and my dad were church worship leaders for awhile, so I started as a piano and choir geek pretty early on.

I have an associates and a bachelor’s degree in music/voice/opera, but I really just wanted to know how to sing, I never considered being an opera singer professionally. In hindsight, majoring in music was not the most practical decision, but it’s not one that I regret. I love what I’ve learned and I’m certain none of it was a mistake.

Can you tell us about your masters program, and what led you there?

Yes! I’m in my last semester of the Arts Leadership program at the University of Houston. The Arts Leadership degree is essentially an Arts Administration degree, but it differs from other programs in that it was designed to produce good leaders as well as good administrators. While we learn all the hard skills of administration like financial management, strategic planning, etc. we are also encouraged and trained to learn, explore, and develop soft skills and our personal leadership styles.

Because I never intended to make a living as a musician, I was pretty limited in terms of jobs after finishing undergrad. I floundered around a little and worked for a bank, did technical support for a tax prep company, and taught voice lessons on the side. I was really struggling with a combination of poor managers, low pay, and feeling like I wasn’t doing anything meaningful, but I also didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I started to see a pattern in all of my jobs though; I consistently had leadership and management roles thrust upon me, but I was always reluctant to accept them. I was really afraid that I wasn’t cut out to manage or lead. Those fears didn’t really stop me from thinking of ways that my managers could do things better or differently, though. I finally realized that if I kept wanting things done differently then maybe I should just do it myself. I bit the bullet and started looking for Arts Administration programs.

I stumbled upon the Arts Leadership program by accident. I had already been accepted to another program in Ohio, but my parents really wanted me to stay in Texas, so I applied to the University of Houston to appease them. Once I got my acceptance letter from UH I was overwhelmed about choosing between Ohio and Texas, but in-state tuition won in the end. I enrolled in classes and I’ve never been happier!

You actually know a lot about Frame Dance, even though you’ve just started! Can you tell the readers about how you learned about Frame Dance (and what you learned?!)

I do know a lot about Frame Dance! I took a Strategic Planning course in the spring of 2018; rather than just having my class learn about strategic planning, my professor put us all into groups and paired us with various arts organizations in Houston and asked us to create a strategic plan for them based on their needs.

My group was paired with Frame Dance, so I actually created the fundraising portion of Frame’s strategic plan. It was a lot of hard work, but it was so rewarding. I remember being grateful to be paired with Frame because everyone in the organization was so gracious and kind. Frame was really open with us about what they wanted and needed; they were also flexible and willing to let us bring in new ideas and plans and shake things up a bit. I was really drawn more to the people than to the organization, but at the end of the day, the people are the organization. 🙂

Anything else you’d like to share?

I’m really looking forward to working for Frame Dance. I don’t have a lot of dance knowledge. I took a few classes in undergrad and really enjoyed it, but I’m a rookie at best.

I think every job is a new learning experience and I’m excited to learn and help!

Isn’t she amazing?! Bobbie, welcome to the team. This is going to be great.

‘Tis the Seasons: Endings and Goodbyes

‘Tis the Seasons: Endings and Goodbyes

by Kerri Frame | Work News & Updates

A Frame Dance Farewell

We’ve all bid farewell to 2018, and, perhaps, to holiday guests and household symbols of the season. Maybe you were traveling and had to say goodbye to beaches or ski slopes, or to some version of family and home. Endings can be tough; it takes a special fortitude to make a graceful exit from the things that bring us comfort and joy, and no judgement if you need to give in and ugly cry. Here at Frame Dance, we have an extra hard goodbye to say, and that is to our Cori, the exquisite Ms Capetillo, who has relocated to Portland, Oregon, with her beautiful family. Are we separating with graceful eye-dabbing or snotty sobbing? No comment.

Perhaps you know Cori as the “front desk” face at Frame Dance classes, or perhaps you saw her perform in My Beloved…meet me at the prom last spring, mere weeks before giving birth to her son with the equally amazing Alberto Capetillo, who also danced in that performance. Perhaps, like me, you’ve had the fun of dancing with Cori in a Baby-Wearing or Multi-Gen class at Frame, or you’ve performed under her capable and easy-going stage management. Whatever your interaction, you probably appreciated Cori’s unflappable cool and adept problem solving, her smarts, her creativity, and her humor. Cori made us all feel safe in her hands, and lucky to be there.

About Cori, from Lydia:

When I started Frame Dance it was a one-woman leap of faith. As I made work, wonderful people started to emerge as the helpers. Mr. Rogers always told me to look out for them. We’ve had the great privilege and fortune to work with incredible collaborators, artists, teaching artists, donors, students, volunteers, and board members. But, administratively, it was all me for a long seven years. Then, because of all of the helpers along the way, Frame Dance got to a place where I could hire Cori Capetillo to work with me. With her organization, her ability to create structures and policies, to remove some of the administrative duties from my plate, and her belief in Frame Dance’s mission, we grew more last year than we ever have. She did this all with a new baby. I dreamt about the day when I could have a partner-in-good like that. And way too soon (as far as I’m concerned!) she’s off with her beautiful family to begin a new adventure in Portland.

Cori, I wish you the very best. Thank you for your work. Godspeed and best wishes.

xo Lydia

P.S. “You did a great job!”

About Houston, from Cori:

A few things the Capetillo family will miss about living in Houston:

1) We will miss chips and queso without a question.

2) We will miss the hustle and bustle of the city. There’s a vibration to this city that’s unlike any other.

3) We will miss dancing in the MultiGen class. The class served as a stress release for us and served as a way to bond with our new son. We found another family where we were safe to express ourselves freely without judgement. In that hour and fifteen minute class, our troubles were left at the door and only love and gratitude could be felt. Our people is what we will miss the most.

Cori

 An Irish blessing to go with you as you exit our particular stage:

May your days be many and your troubles be few.

May all God’s blessings descend upon you.

May peace be within you. May your heart be strong.

May you find what you’re seeking wherever you roam.

Break a leg, Cori.

Forces of Movement

by Kerri Frame | Work News & Updates

Core Dance Opens Human Landscapes Tonight at Harrisburg Art Museum

Travel. Attach. Separate. Expand. Contract. Lean. Turn. Fall. The movements of the body are also the movements of peoples, communities, cultures, and both domains are investigated by Core Dance in choreographer Germana Civera’s conceptual dance piece Human Landscapes, performed October 25, 26, and 27 at Harrisburg Art Museum in Houston’s Second Ward.

 

In Human Landscapes, Civera confronts the effects of migration both on the body and culture of the exiled and on the people and areas they contact and influence, inspired by the artist’s familial history of exile from Francoist Spain. Civera is part of the generation that had roots in a more democratic republic of Spain but came of age during the decades of Fascism when those who disagreed with Franco’s ultra-conservative nationalism either left Spain – carrying their influence to Europe, Africa, and the Americas – or went into an “internal exile” of quiet resistance in their increasingly repressive and artistically sterile homeland. It is easy to see why Civera, who resides in France, has developed sophisticated ideas about why and how one moves, and what results from those movements. It is easy also to see why these ideas are of critical importance for us as viewers today.

 

Civera is an artist whose work happens actively both on and off stage, and for whom collaboration, mutual influence, is paramount. She has worked with dancers, writers, visual artists, and musicians in her repertoire, and in Human Landscapes she brings fellow French musician and composer Didier Aschour into the process with rich, panoramic music composed especially for this piece.

 

We Houstonians are lucky to share Core Dance with Altanta, GA, under the capable and eminently creative leadership of Co-Founder and Artistic Director Sue Schroeder, Company Manager D. Patton White, and Executive Director Elizabeth Labbe-Webb. Happy 39th Season, friends!

 

We Framers are especially excited to see our own Rocket Repass, dancer in the Frame Dance Youth Ensemble, perform in Human Landscapes. Congratulations, Rocket, and break a leg!

 

Be Advised: this performance contains prolonged periods of full adult nudity.

 

Photo by Simon Gentry

Your Specific and Inventive Take on a Drumroll, Please!

Your Specific and Inventive Take on a Drumroll, Please!

by Kerri News & Updates Uncategorized

Frame Dance Productions Announces 2018 Composer Competition Winners

The selected musicians join an illustrious list of composers whose works debuted with Lydia Hance’s choreography in performances on screen, on stage, and even on Houston’s MetroRail. The Houston arts community waits with bated breath, eager eyes, and expectant ears for the union of Frame Dance with the following composers and compositions.

Congratulations to…

Karl Blench for Axiom

Karl Blench is a composer and conductor who holds degrees from Rice University and the University of New Hampshire. His music has been performed throughout the United States, Asia, Europe, and Cuba. Most recently, his work “Axiom” as well as several of his arrangements for string quartet were toured throughout China by the Axiom Quartet.  He has been the recipient of the Indianapolis Symphony Prize, and an ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award. When not writing, Karl can be found stuck in Houston traffic, discussing wine, or brewing beer.

Daniel Harrison for Breathing, Being

Cincinnati-based composer Daniel Harrison (b.1987) writes music that is recognizable for its poetic melodic and harmonic expressiveness. His works are characterized by uniquely striking combinations of instrumental colors and unfolding linear forms. His music has been performed by numerous outstanding performers and ensembles such as members of Fifth House Ensemble, Del Sol String Quartet, Columbus Ohio Discovery Ensemble, Iktus Percussion Ensemble, All of the Above, the CCM Chorale, and Hypercube. In 2015 and 2017, he was a finalist for ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award. In 2015 he was awarded a commission to compose a new work for chorus and electronics for a recording project for the CCM chorale. He was recently named the Ohio Music Teachers Association’s commissioned composer for 2016. Recently his piece “Sometimes My Arms Bend Back” was selected from a call for scores for performance at the upcoming 2018 Contemporary Music Festival at the University of Tennessee at Martin. He currently is an Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of Northern Kentucky.

Joshua Hey for lensflare

Joshua Hey is a composer living in Philadelphia as a PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. His music has been commissioned and performed by the Daedalus Quartet, ICE, Ensemble Dal Niente, PRISM, Omaha Symphony, Quatuor Bozzini, Bearthoven, Variant 6, and Marilyn Nonken, among others. The work has been presented through MATA, Time of Music—Musiikin aika, June in Buffalo, the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, RED NOTE, and as composer-in-residence at ICon Arts in Sibiu, Romania.  In 2014-15, he was a visiting scholar at the Sibelius Academy on a Jane and Aatos Erkko fellowship from the American-Scandinavian Foundation.

 

Relaunch of Frame|Work [Blog]

Relaunch of Frame|Work [Blog]

by Kerri News & Updates

Hello, and welcome to Frame|Work, the revamped blog representing Frame Dance Productions. I am Kerri Lyons Neimeyer, and I sit on the board and dance in the Multi-Generational Ensemble. I am also involved in the new blog formatting. We intend this blog to be a connection and a frame (get it?!) of reference for content on modern dance, dance education, arts events in Houston, and other topics that uplift us here at Frame Dance.

Let me tell you why I am involved with this dance company, and give you an idea of the work we wish to share with our community.

In 2006 Kurt Vonnegut declined a request to speak at a New York high school by sending a letter of thanks that included the message he would have delivered in person. “To wit,” writes Vonnegut, “Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or how badly, not to get money or fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.”

Executive and Artistic Director of Frame Dance Productions Lydia Hance is of the Vonnegut school of arts practice. In her interview for the initial post of Frame|Work, Lydia says:

I want to help people get their heart back in their bodies, and use that to move, and to find out more about themselves, about who they were made to be, about understanding each other, with the understanding and the belief that they don’t need to change who they are to be better dancers. I mean, technically we want to grow and everything, but dance is this gift, and I want everyone to experience it. I think that in a lot of ways dance has become for a select few, and that makes me really sad because we find out so much about who we are and the world that we live in through moving and through dancing. This is how we are on earth; we are in a body. The capacity for the body to move, and do incredible things, small or big, changes how we think, changes how we see each other, and it changes how we feel about ourselves (emphasis added).

Lydia is more generous than Kurt Vonnegut. I am not. I practice arts because I discovered that these practices enrich and satisfy me; they make my soul grow. And, for the most part, I practice arts as an amateur, which is to say that I do it for love of the practice or field, not for mastery of the practice or field. Lydia, on the other hand, is a degree-holding, working dance artist who is respected, celebrated, and promoted by her peers. She created a professional company to realize her vision of artistic production, and then, seeing a need, she developed curricula for dance education with the same open yet specific spirit as her performance practice. Do you see in the quotes above how Lydia took the idea of practising art for self-discovery, for soul-growing, and expanded it to include community, the connection and interaction of souls, and the kind of understanding about oneself and one’s world that can only come from practices that are communal? Dance is a gift, and it can grow souls, and it can grow communities. This is what Frame Dance Productions offers its dancers, professional and amateur. This is what I get out of being a Framer. I hope you will join us; in classes, in audiences, and in our social media communications, which includes this re-imagined blog. Talk to us, here and anywhere. Be part of the community, part of the communication. Build this Frame|Work with us.

Looking ahead, Frame|Work will feature more interviews with Framers from the professional company, dance classes, youth and multi-generational ensembles, as well as behind-the-scenes folks and what I like to call Frame-adjacent creatives and professionals. There will be articles about the arts working in people, in education, and in the community. It will also offer a curated look at Houston-specific happenings, and some of our favorite places on the World Wide Web. Let us know what you like. Let us know what you need. We look forward to working with you.