Frame Dance Productions presents portions of Mortar, Sylphs Wrote @ Archway Gallery (www.archwaygallery.com), 2305 Dunlavy, 7:30 Saturday, May 21. Free, but donations accepted for the dancers.

You’re invited to experience Frame Dance Productions as they dance surrounded by paintings of donna e perkins’ Caliente: Full Frontal show currently at Archway Gallery . The structural lines for these paintings were drawn from Frame Dance Productions dancers.

Frame Dance Productions Dancers: Jacquelyne Boe, Lauren Cohen, Kristen Frankiewicz, Ashley Horn, Alex Soares, Amber Whiddon

Frame Dance Productions is a dance and technology company directed by Lydia Hance. Her work focuses on collaboration with diverse artists as well as finding connections with technology. www.framedance.org | www.framedance.org/frame | @framedance.

About Lydia Hance
In 2010 Lydia Polhemus Hance founded Frame Dance Productions, a contemporary dance company, to connect Houston’s vibrant art community to the Web 2.0 social networking infrastructure, an emerging, media-rich forum for new creative expression. Her work has been presented at Texas Weekend of Contemporary Dance, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Rice University Dance Film Festival, Houston Fringe Festival, in San Francisco, New York, Virginia and Malaysia. She is the recipient of a Puffin Foundation Grant as well as the Individual Artist Grant from the Houston Arts Alliance. She has a BFA in Dance Performance and BA in English Literature from Southern Methodist University.

It’s up, it’s up, the short is up and it’s called “There’s a Height Limit.”  Let me know what you think!  Go to www.framedance.org to watch it.

yes, very soon.  I usually make you all wait for weeks, sometimes months for the debut of a new film.  But in keeping with its nature (a short) I figured I would give you a short time to wait.  It’s called “There’s a Height Limit” and I think you’ll like it.  Stay tuned here, Facebook, and twitter to be the first to see it at www.framedance.org.

Mark your calendars….

May 15 2pm at Barnevelder we perform in the Fieldwork Showcase.  You will see brand new dance, fabulous dolls, poems and short stories this year. ALSO, BIG RELEASE of my new short at this event.  Can’t wait to show you! I’ve written about Fieldwork on here before.  Read further to hear more.

May 21 7:30 pm at Archway Gallery.  Our artist collaborator, Donna E. Perkins’ paintings are in exhibit and we are dancing amongst them.  Frame dancing among paintings created from Frame Dancers.  It doesn’t get more saturated than that.  This is a “don’t miss” event.

June 10,11 8pm at Barnevelder we perform in the Big Range Dance Festival.  It’s a full bill with lots of exciting choreographers and new work.  And they do sell out.

A little more about Fieldwork:

Fieldwork has changed my life as an artist in several ways.   First, it has given me structure and accountability.  To have a group ready and willing to give feedback on my works-in-progress every week has been a challenge to continue to create new work.  While there is never any guilt if I don’t have work to show at a weekly session, I recognize it as a lost opportunity to gain valuable feedback from the artists.  It’s a momentum that all artists need.

It has changed my perspective on creating work.  Fieldwork has given me permission to linger in the process, and to realize that I’m free to create work even if it doesn’t result in a final product to show publically.  It’s exercise, it’s struggle, it’s sinking into creation.  For me, art is between 98 and 99.9% process, versus the final product.  Showing work that is mid-process has always felt risky.  But through Fieldwork I’ve challenged myself to show work in its first stage, when it’s barely begun.  While this is very vulnerable, it opens the work to so many more possibilities and freshness outside of my own boundaries.  Invaluable.  In this way, Fieldwork had allowed me to grow in my perspective of my work and myself.  It isn’t about proving myself, but allowing the work to develop— surrendering to the process.

Thirdly, Fieldwork has provided a community of diverse artists.  Poets, dollmakers, choreographers, filmmakers, actors, musicians, costume designers… I relish the valuable perspectives of artists outside of my genre.  It’s really all about opening ideas and breaking my self-constructed boundaries in the way I approach my work. I’ve come to use their words, reactions, experiences, and perspectives on my work as fuel to grow and take the work in new directions.

I recommend Fieldwork to everyone who considers herself an artist—professional or amateur.  We all possess creativity, and it must be nurtured.