Reviews for Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company Performances
Review: Gimpses of the Tenth Austin Dance Festival, Organized by Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on April 15, 2025
Quick looks at the sixteen pro presentations of KDH Dance Company's tenth annual Austin Dance Festival.
Quick looks at sixteen presentations over three days in Austin “How the West Was,” KDH Dance Company, Austin, TX. The title keys our expectations for this company for quirky, absurdist, and athletic performances underlain by deep themes of protection and commitment. Although many in the audience are familiar with the company, now under new leadership (Alyson Dolan, stepping forward for the retiring Kathy Dunn Hamrick, still beautifully present), we …
Review: Smoke, A Dance in Several Parts, by Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on May 21, 2024
The dancers in Kathy Dunn Hamrick's SMOKE created these palettes of imagination and released them to the audience as invitations to unlock their own dreamlike imagery.
Frenzy. Dreams. Desire, confidence, touch, smoke, departure. Stillness… . These are some of the images and impressions of the mosaic abstract Smoke, A Dance in Several Parts, a new contemporary dance performance from the Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company. The dance is a composite of choreographed and improvisational sections created by the five highly skilled dancers of the company. Acting Artistic Director Alyson Dolan directed the ensemble. Their own choreography had to include an …
Review: 25th Season Finale, Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on December 11, 2023
KDH's season finale was a dance rollercoaster of joys and sorrows by a company that lost city funding and stays alive thanks to private donations.
A dancer set down on the floor in stillness holds the pose in release and surrender, perhaps finality. She holds the shape for a minute or more before the light begins a gentle, achingly slow fade. The image takes us to full darkness and the end of a piece entitled “Dust.” The multitalented Alyson Dolan clearly has the confidence and boldness to offer such intimate expression, as does her choreographer Kathy Dunn Hamrick. …
Review: These Events are Fortunate by Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on June 05, 2023
This company's dancers, with only a few spoken lines for humorous effect, were luscious to watch. All have mastered modern dance technique and the quick-firing energy of movement that created surprising moments throughout the show.
These Events Are Fortunate is a rather vague title for a time of life at the entryway to summer filled with hope and excitement just one week after Memorial Day. But the title raises a question—what events? —that the audience tries to answer while watching the performances of the highly skilled, trained, athletic, and attractive dancers of the Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company (KDHDC). As the website program notes: “Hamrick has created a world where …
Review: Dance on Film by Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on March 29, 2023
Dance on Film 2023 provided an evening of well-made and often intriguing films of immense diversity and much good humor.
The long-running Dance on Film series of the Austin Dance Festival presented yet another strong set of dance films, not merely cameras pointed at dance stages or rehearsal floors, but dances imagined and performed for the camera. In these dances cinematography is very much a partner of choreography. That quality opens the dance world to cinema's near-infinite variety of sets and settings, lighting designs, soundtracks, and costumes. A brief interview with Ilana …
Review: We're Here by Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on December 14, 2022
WE'RE HERE was yet another gemlike dance event given to the world by the Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company. They are indeed here, and we wish fervently for them to stay.
We’re Here was the December 2022 offering of the Austin-based Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company, headquartered at Café Dance in west Austin. Ever-innovative, Dunn Hamrick the choreographer and her company formulated a visual guide for the aid and assistance of audience members. It was a rebuslike mural or map of symbols (hiking boot, cloud, microwave, etc.) taking us from the beginning to the end of the show. So we wouldn’t forget, the hardcopy map covered …