Catapult: Dance Meets Design

 

To create the evening length work, Catapult: Dance Meets Design, NMD partnered with an industrial design engineer to create 5 custom built interactive sets that shape the space and offer new terrain challenges for the dancers. Deconstructed tunnels, flipping doors, and a 12-foot spinning/teetering propeller are a few of the landscapes. The structures offered surfaces for projection mapping and were engineered as a surreal dancer obstacle course, providing innovative ways to climb, swing, and vault. Dance meets parkour with a dash of cirque in this physically exciting show that will tour to various festivals and dance galleries in the coming year. Look for opportunities to see Catapult in a theater near you!

About the dances

Stone Mill: Ziggurat, a world premiere in collaboration with Jared Doster and David J Deveau, is inspired by the structural feats of early civilizations. Dancers construct a 12-foot stone mill structure on stage and portray a societal hierarchy from laborers to deities. At times mythical, Ziggurat has an old-world feel and showcases the dancers’ physicality and teamwork. Ziggurat will be the first dance made for a new mix of dancers as NobleMotion is welcoming several fresh faces to the company this season.

 

Doors: Portal reimagines how doorways can be used as dancers jump through memories to pivotal moments of life. Two doors transform into a table, a seesaw, and ramps as scenes of children playing, love teetering, and family conflict unfold. Some moments nostalgic and others surprising, portal comments on the universal nature of love and loss. Choreography and set concept by Andy Noble, industrial engineering by Jared Doster, projection design by Jonathan Kinsey, and light design by Bryan Ealey define the world.

 

Tunnels: Aorta is a female take on the superhero genre and plays with the notion that “behind every good man is a woman.” Choreographed by Dionne Sparkman Noble in collaboration with light artist Bryan Ealey, Aorta uses tunnels to excavate a relationship rife with complexities. “It’s like looking into a telescope at a hero’s moment of weakness,” states Sparkman Noble. The tunnels and cyclical movement create an illusory effect that draw the eye deeper into the action as the dancers propel through lifts and momentarily dance sideways on concave walls.

 

Ramps: Echo is a dynamic and socially conscious work that examines a war torn community. Composed in two parts, Echo features 25 dancers storming down ramps into the chaos of battle. It continues NobleMotion’s trend of putting big visceral dance on stage. The second section, an introspective duet, shows a couple left picking up the pieces. The juxtaposition of the two sections speaks to the world’s current challenges as well as the endurance of the human spirit.

 

Chamber: Last Flight Home quietly looks at the final moments of a loved ones battle with terminal illness, specifically cancer. Using a striking set comprised of a glass chamber, hanging plastic, and a large digital clock, images of childhood memories wrap themselves around abstracted CT scans and chemo treatments. Last Flight Home uses techniques from theater of the absurd to question the meaning of life. “It is a thoughtful work,” states Andy Noble, “it slows down time and takes you to still waters.” Set and light design is by Noble and David Deveau and projection design is by Jonathan Kinsey.

 

Tickets range between $25-$35. Student and Group Discounts are available. Tickets can be purchased online at www.TheHobbyCenter.org or by calling 713.315.2525.

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“This project is generously funded by Mid-America Arts Alliance, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Windgate Charitable Foundation,
Inc., and the state arts agencies of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.”

“This organization is funded by grants from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance.”

“This performance is supported in part by Dance Source Houston’s Production Micro Grant program”

Become a Super Sponsor of NMD

Get more visibility for your business by asking how you can secure a corporate or individual sponsorship with NobleMotion for Supernova or any other upcoming event. Contact Andy Noble at andy@noblemotiondance.com.