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.
We had our first rehearsal last week for Framing Bodies. It was very fun and exciting to start the process of making this piece. One of the first assignments we had, was to write continuously for about 10 minutes in response to the statement “Love, I felt it when.” I agree with Lydia’s process to think and then move. I know it helped me develop a sense of self for this piece and feel more comfortable, while working with others that have another point of view about love and dance. I am not a dancer, but love dance and I enjoyed the task of having to create movement from my own literature. The more you are open and giving during this process the more you will gain and learn about others and yourself. I met some very lovely people, and I am really looking forward to how we develop this piece. Can’t wait for next rehearsal to see what Lydia will have us do.
Framing Bodies: LOVE ME premieres Oct. 14, 15 at Spacetaker.
Lydia Hance is a recipient of an Individual Artist Grant Award. This grant is funded by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance. Frame Dance Productions’ Framing Bodies is funded in part by the Puffin Foundation. Frame Dance Productions is a recipient of a Rice University Dance Program Space Grant.
When my friend Lydia told me about her new project Framing Bodies, I was psyched! The project involves a group of people, dancers and not dancers, sharing stories of love, loss, and loneliness. It involves writing, and movement. Two art forms combined. It was really exciting to hear about so when she sent out emails inviting all to join, I jumped on the chance.
Those who know me well, know I love the idea of writing, but when comes to the “sit-down-and-do-it,” well, I kind of fall short there. But so far I believe one of my expectations of this project is coming true: I’m actually sitting down and writing!
The First Rehearsal
So I must admit I was really nervous on my way to the first night of rehearsals. There were so many things to worry about: will traffic let me get there on time, will I get lost, will I look stupid? As it turned out I wasn’t the only one walking in a little late and Lydia hadn’t started without us. I did stumble through the short interview. Even though she only asked us what we did for a living, what our reactions to the project were, and expectations, it seemed like I couldn’t find coherent words to express myself. Yay for editing! Right? When we started warming up, Lydia surprised me by having the curtains closed, covering all the mirrors. My initial reaction was, “Wait! I won’t be able to see if I’m doing this right!” but my second reaction was sort of a humorous feeling of relief. “I won’t be able to see myself, and therefore how stupid I think I look.” So anxieties were destroyed. Though, I still felt awkward moving around being as I haven’t been to a dance class in about ten years. But I started to get used to it as the rehearsal went on, and it was really fun, and inspiring.
I think about half of the room was professional dancers who knew each other, but everyone was very open, especially for a first session. I really enjoyed the exercise we did with movement and words. Lydia had us move as if a part of your body was pulling you (like your hand, or knee or head). Someone said a word, like “Love” and we would all move, then someone else could say another word such as “Comfort” and we would stop moving until someone else said another word.
Besides movement, we each had a notebook. Inside the notebook was a writing prompt. We were given a few minutes to write on the prompt before warming up. My prompt was “I felt love when…” I thought of the first time my husband kissed me. It felt great to write in those few minutes. Later, we were split into small groups. Each person shared what they wrote with their group and the rest of the group wrote what they felt were key words to their stories. Then we all shared our notes with our group. It was so interesting and really amazing to see what people get out of other people’s stories, even simple words. In our group Denise used colors as vivid personifications. Instead of writing words from the stories, Cassie chose to use words and phrases that came to mind from hearing the stories. From the stories Lydia had us pick certain words or a phrase and start to create movement to go with that phrase. I tried to find a rhythm in my phrase before moving. That helped me a lot. Although I still think my movement imagination is a bit limited. The exciting thing is how that will change in the next month. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to next Wednesday.
Here it is. Here is the teaser for Framing Bodies: LOVE ME. Up next? Look for blog posts on here written by the cast members about the process of making this film. Switch is to 1080p for best quality.
