Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston
NobleMotion launches its 18th season with the world premiere of CHANT, a futuristic ritual of sound, movement, and sensory-driven technology at the MATCH, August 15 & 21-22 at 8:00 PM. Set in a speculative, disconnected future where society yearns for ancient traditions, CHANT is part meditation, part kinetic protest. The evening features an original score by composer and multimedia artist Badie Khaleghian and vocal director Kari Francis. Together, they integrate live vocal chanting performed directly by the dancers, creating an immersive, multi-sensory interplay between breath, voice, and body. The choreography investigates how sound shapes physical movement and how communal vocalization can facilitate collective bonding and healing.
At the center of this futuristic world is “The Originator,” a pivotal role held by vocal director Kari Francis. Her live voice serves as the project’s primary “call,” which is layered and electronically manipulated in real-time to build an immersive soundscape. The twelve dancers function as a responsive, living choir under the guidance of Francis and singer Steven Bogard. CHANT utilizes breath and vocal improvisation to bridge the gap between physical movement and collective song, tracing a universal lineage of resonance that transcends specific cultural boundaries.
CHANT also marks a significant technological evolution in NobleMotion’s ongoing artistic partnership with Badie Khaleghian. To construct the production’s interactive environments, scenic designer Germán Cárdenas-Alaminos has engineered a network of four custom stage installations embedded with sensitive microphones and accelerometers. These instruments capture the dancers live vocal and physical data, instantly mapping their real-time biometric inputs directly into the electronic score and dynamic 2D projections. Returning from New York City to sculpt the atmospheric environment is lighting designer Bryan Ealey, whose designs respond to the evolving, high-stakes shifts in the performance space. Costume designer Barry Doss completes this world with garments that evoke a timeless chrysalis, symbolizing the metamorphosis of the human spirit.
By integrating the choreographers, choral directors, designers, and composer into every phase of the creative pipeline, CHANT unfolds as a unified, organic ecosystem. The performance moves seamlessly from moments of meditative, vulnerable introspection to a soaring, full-bodied crescendo. By stripping away traditional performance boundaries and fusing historical reference with speculative technology, CHANT invites the audience into an environment where sound manifests as physical motion, community transforms into a technological ritual, and collective human vibration becomes a transformative artistic act.
Angelica & Emily
Tyler & Campbell
Collaborators
Andy & Dionne Noble | Choreography
Badie Khaleghian | Composer, Multimedia
Kari Francis | Voice, Vocal Director
German Cardenas Alaminos | Set Design
Steven Bogard | Voice, Set Construction/Carpentry
Bryan Ealey | Light Design
Barry Doss | Costume Design
Aiden Moody | Costume Construction
Movement Artists
Dillon Bell | Wesley Cordova | Deontay Gray
Lindsey McGill | Tyler Orcutt | Jacob Regan
Amy Symonds | Angelica Villa | Emily Wang
Noelani De La Garza | Campbell McMillin | Reese Merideth
CHANT COLLABORATORS
Dionne Sparkman Noble is co-artistic director of NobleMotion Dance and a Professor of Dance at Sam Houston State University where she directs the graduate program. Dionne received a BA in Dance from the University of South Florida and an MFA in Modern Dance with an emphasis in dance and technology from the University of Utah. In 2023, Dionne was a contributing author to a TEDx Talk delivered by Andy Noble, Science Worth Dancing About. Additionally in 2023, Dionne worked as part of an arts/science team that created Meeting of Minds, a 35-minute duet where both dancers wear brain caps and explore neural synchrony. This work was presented at the United Nations “AI for Good Global Summit” in Geneva, Switzerland in May 2024. Her choreographic work has also been featured on ABC’s television series “American Crime” and performed in venues such as The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, The Ailey Theater in NYC, and Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts. Dionne was named one of Houston’s 100 Creatives.
Andy Noble is Executive/Co-Artistic Director of NobleMotion Dance and an Associate Chair/Professor at Sam Houston State University. He also serves as the Associate Artistic Director of the Dance Gallery Festival, an international festival that occurs every year in New York City and Texas. During the summer, Andy is a faculty member at Dance Italia in Lucca, Italy. Houston Press recognized Andy as one of Houston’s 100 Creatives. Andy’s body of work includes 24 evening-length productions and over 175 dances. His focus on innovation and interdisciplinary work has led to collaborations with neuroscientists, A.I. designers, industrial designer, light artists, composers, poets, musicians, and photographers. Most notably, he worked with Academy Award winner John Ridley to create original choreography featured on the Emmy Award Winning and Golden Globe Nominated ABC TV show “American Crime.” Additionally, his choreography has been selected three times for the National Dance Festival at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and performed at Wolf Trap for the Performing Arts. Andy is part of an art science collaborative team that is examining the neuroscience of dance. In November of 2023, he presented a TEDx Talk titled “Science Worth Dancing About,” that discusses the impacts of dancing on brain development and health. This research was performed at the United Nations in Geneva, May of 2024.
Badie Khaleghian is a composer, multimedia artist, and researcher whose work explores collaboration as both an artistic method and a performative medium. Working across music, movement, visual art, neuroscience, and technology, he creates environments where artistic meaning emerges through shared authorship, collective attention, and the interaction between performers, audiences, scientists, and computational systems.
At Bowdoin College, Khaleghian directs the Center for Experimental Multimedia Art (CEMA) and leads the Bowdoin Electroacoustic Ensemble. He teaches courses in electronic music, immersive media, composition, and interactive art, encouraging students to approach artistic practice as a form of experimentation, collaboration, and research. His work has been showcased internationally, including at the United Nations AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, performances and presentations across Europe, Asia, and Americas. For the 2026–27 season, Khaleghian has also been appointed Guest Creative Director of Third Angle New Music, where he will curate Extended, a performance project exploring expanded forms of music, movement, technology, and human presence.
Kari Francis is a choral musician whose work explores the resonant spaces between improvisation, early music, and the unbounded freedom of the human voice. She can be heard singing with the NYC-based choir Choral Chameleon and beatboxing on Season 3 of NBC’s The Sing-Off with Kinfolk 9 and on GRAMMY-winner Cory Smythe’s album Accelerate Every Voice. Her approach to ensemble directing centers living and historically underrepresented voices as part of equitable, creative, and learner-centered pedagogies, while her composing merges elements of psalmody, vocal jazz, renaissance polyphony, and contemporary a cappella. She has written chapters for books published by GIA Music and the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), and maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor and clinician. Kari is the Director of Choral Activities at Bowdoin College and the choir director of The Walden School Young Musicians Program.
Kari holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Teachers College Columbia University, the University of California at San Diego, and the University of Notre Dame. She is composer-in-residence at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Detroit, Michigan. Her doctoral thesis, Not An Object But Motion: Choral Improvisation Through Vocal Painting, offers techniques for conductors to foster individual and collective artistic agency in choral ensembles while expanding concert programming to include collaboratively realized works.
Germán Cárdenas-Alaminos is a Scenic Designer, Painter, and Technical Director and an Assistant Professor of Theater at Bowdoin College. Before starting teaching at Bowdoin College, Cárdenas-Alaminos was Associate Professor at Rider University. He holds a BA in Architecture from the National Autonomous University in Mexico (UNAM) and received an MFA degree in Scenic Design at Yale School of Drama in 2010. Cárdenas-Alaminos has designed for Theater, Dance, TV and Opera in Mexico and in the USA. He states “I study spaces, our physical and emotional relationship to them and how we perceive their qualities, their potential to be transformed. I play with space and the best place to do this in a controlled environment is the stage.”
Steven is happy to share the stage with Noble Motion. As a performer you may have seen him in the Broadway National Tours of Guys and Dolls (Calvin/US Sky Masterson) and Jekyll and Hyde (Lord Glossip/US Jekyll). Other credits include; Chess (Anatoly Sergievsky), Titanic (Thomas Andrews), Jesus Christ Superstar (Pilat), Singin’ in the Rain (Don Lockwood), Children of Eden (Adam/Noah), Grease Das Musical German Tour (Vince Fontaine/Teen Angle). At TUTS here in Houston, you may remember him from; Rock of Ages (Dennis Dupree), Elf (Santa), and Mama Mia (Bill Austin). Currently, Steven is Master Carpenter/Shop Supervisor at The John Cooper School in The Woodlands. A big thank you to The John Cooper School for loaning the shop space and time to build this set and Jon Schroeder for his help with the sound design. Steven is proud to have been a board member with NobleMotion for the last 6 years and is the current board president. Now is the time to get involved with the arts. Please donate to the art that feeds you.
Bryan Ealey is an MFA Lighting Design graduate from the University of California San Diego and a resident Lighting designer /technical director & Board Member of NobleMotion Dance. He was born and raised in Houston, TX, and holds a BA in Drama from Prairie View A&M University. Following undergrad, he went on to work at local Houston theaters as an audio and lighting technician and has toured across the country in concert venues such as The Fox Theatre (Detroit) and Madison Square Garden (New York) as an Audio Assistant with International R&B Artist, Teena Marie - all while being an Audio Engineer and Lighting Designer at House of Blues - Houston and Lighting Director for River Pointe Church in Richmond, Texas. In the 15 years of his professional career, he worked as the AVL Supervisor and Associate Production Coordinator at Stages Theatre (Houston) until he arrived at Sam Houston State University - Dance Dept. (2015 - 2020) as their Dance Technical Coordinator / Director. Throughout his career, he has been fortunate enough to design for several theater and dance companies such as Main Street, 4th Wall, Stages, The Landing Theatre Company, Houston Grand Opera, Unity Theatre, Horse Head Theatre, Classical Theatre Company, NobleMotion Dance, Open Dance Project, Social Movement Contemporary Dance, Houston Contemporary Dance, Urban Souls Dance, and Von Ussar Danceworks (New York Dance Festival) at the Alvin Ailey Theater.
A native Texan, Barry received a BA in Theatre with a minor in Fashion Design from TCU graduating with honors in 1991. He worked as Resident Costume Designer for the Indianapolis based modern dance company, Dance Kaleidoscope until 1996, collaborating with Artistic Director, David Hochoy creating costumes for Scheherazade, Girl at the Piano, Carnival of the Animals, Carmina Burana, Seasons, and The Planets. After a European Tour of the musical HAIR as a performer, he moved to NYC where he worked in wardrobe and costume design on and off Broadway in costume shops, for TV pilots and independent film, as well as numerous Broadway musicals and plays. Some notable wardrobe jobs include Phantom of the Opera, 1776, Finian's Rainbow, Jane Eyre the Musical, Chinglish, The Scottsboro Boys, Putting It Together (starring Carol Burnett), The Vertical Hour (starring Julianne Moore), and Three Days of Rain (starring Julia Roberts). For over five years he worked on the wardrobe crew as stitcher maintaining the Tony Award winning costumes for the hit musical Wicked. At Lincoln Center he was Wardrobe Supervisor for ANN, and designed Holland Taylor’s Tony Awards gown. In 2014 he returned to the Lone Star state to create a new Costume Crew course and Work Study Program for the Dance Department of Sam Houston State University. Barry is now the Costume Design Coordinator for the SHSU Department of Theater and Musical Theater. He was awarded Best Costume Design by the Houston Press for Stages Repertory Theatre's production of Marie Antoinette, worked with The Alley Theatre in Houston designing three new staged works in launching the first annual, Alley All New Festival, and he designed Opera in the Height’s 20th Anniversary production of Orfeo ed Eurdice directed by Leslie Swackhamer.
M. Aiden Moody is an aspiring costume designer and actor from Richmond, Texas. She is currently pursuing a BFA in Theater Studies at Sam Houston State University. Her credits at SHSU include Gertrude in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (2024), as well as serving as Costume Design Assistant for Head Over Heels (2025) and Picnic (2026). Upon graduation, Aiden plans to work in the Houston area as a costume designer and actor.
This production is funded in part by awards from The National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, The City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance, Dance Source Houston’s Groundwork Grant Program, Bowdoin College, & Private Donors and Supporters of NMD.
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Get more visibility for your business by asking how you can secure a corporate or individual sponsorship with NobleMotion for CHANT or any other upcoming event. Contact Andy Noble at andy@noblemotiondance.com.