Choreographers break out in 'NO BOUNDARIES'
David Lyman, Cincinnati Enquirer
March 20, 2009
Dancer, choreographer, artistic director, educator, producer - Mason performs "No Boundaries: Dancing the Visions of Contemporary Black Choreographers" at the Aronoff Center this weekend as a part of Contemporary Dance Theater's Guest Artist Series.
read more |
|
Humanity Dancing: The Evolution of Black Dance
Danielle Marie Georgiou
March 9, 2009
Have you ever wondered what those “crazy” modern dancers are doing on stage? What’s with all the crawling, yelling, killing, crying, gyrating and smiling? Seriously, what are they doing? Well, Dallas natives Gesel Mason (a Booker T. Washington alum) and Cheles Rhynes have the answer for you - the dancers are doing whatever they want! Because in modern dance, there is no right or wrong - just enjoy it.
read more |
|
Yes we can! Let's have more Gesel Mason!
Cathy Harding; C-ville
January 19, 2009
With “No Boundaries” Mason’s purpose is to question whether there is a single entity called “black dance” and to spotlight how useless that phrase can be when the work coming from African-American choreographers is so varied. She made that point, ably. A larger point for the Charlottesville community, however, rests in Mason’s own multiple talents. Dancer, choreographer, and Hemings historian: We need to get this woman in our midst again and soon.
read more |
|
Moving in a New Direction
Marissa Newhall, The Washington Post
July 19, 2008
Dancer and educator Gesel Mason, co-founder and artistic director of Capitol Heights-based Mason/Rhynes Productions, will be taking her solo show "No Boundaries: Dancing the Visions of Contemporary Black Choreographers" on the road during the 2008-'09 arts season.
read more |
|
Race, sexuality at the center of fest's opening works
Lucia Mauro; Chicago Tribune
March 12, 2008
The "body-based artists" featured in "Choreographing Coalitions: Dancing the Other in the Self" push themselves beyond dance to address socially relevant issues channeled through personal experience. Curated by local choreographer Peter Carpenter, the monthlong festival at Links Hall explores how these artists use their bodies as catalysts for change in matters of politics, race and gender identity.
read more |
|
Waiting to Exhale
Lisa Traiger, Danceview Times
February 11th, 2008
Camille Brown has that ineffable performance quality that makes you want for more. Saturday evening at Dance Place, this rising New York choreographer – her company debuted at Joyce SoHo in December 2006 –- gave just a taste of what she can accomplish on stage.
read more |
|
Hip-Hop Festival at Dance Place
Pamela Squires; The Washington Post
February 5, 2008
The artists and groups were diverse, but there were two common themes: hip-hop can be a positive social force (such as helping kids by involving them in dance), and commercial hip-hop too often glorifies money, violence and "bling."
read more |
|
Gesel Mason Performance Projects: A Review
Corey Harrower, The Brooklyn Rail
December 2007
Gesel Mason opened her November performance at the Joyce Soho with a quote: “The work of black artists is as diverse and wide as the colors of the rainbow.”
NO BOUNDARIES: Dancing the Visions of Contemporary Black Choreographers, featured six works by six black choreographers, including mostly solos choreographed by Mason, Reggie Wilson, David Roussève, Donald McKayle, and Bebe Miller.
read more |
|
Black and Boundless: Gesel Mason
Eva Yaa Asantewaa; InfiniteBody Blog
November 17, 2007
As a young dance student, fan and developing writer, I straddled the dividing line between firmly-defined, traditional modern dance (Graham, Ailey, etc.) and experimental postmodern dance. I remember how confusing and even upsetting it used to be for some audiences and critics to see Black dance artists color outside the box and explore uncharted territory.
read more |
|
Three Local Lights, Dancing On Their Own
Barbara Allen; The Washington Post
November 14, 2007
"Three Dancers -- The Essence of Dance," Monday night at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, was a beautiful gem of a program. It featured a trio of the area's finest dancers -- Gesel Mason, Tehreema Mitha and Nejla Yatkin -- performing self-choreographed solo pieces and then a group improvisational finale.
read more |
|
The Essence of Dance, Subject to Interpretation
Lisa Traiger; The Washington Post
November 9, 2007
A fiery phoenix rising from the ashes.
A biting satire about stereotyping and race.
An elegant tribute to the roots of Indian dance, with a modern twist.
All will be on display as three women, as different as their performances but united by their passion for their art, dance Monday evening at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington.
read more |
|
Gesel Mason Alone: Memorably Moving
The Washington Post, Sarah Kaufman
October 23, 2006
Gesel Mason's one-woman show Saturday at Dance Place was the sort of performance that in any other realm would enshrine her among a select few standouts. You could compare it to a pitcher's no-hitter, a senator's 12-hour filibuster, a lone cyclist's daylong, head-into-the-wind breakaway in the Tour de France.
read more |
|
'Facing West': Sizing Up L.A. Dance Pioneers
Lisa Traiger; The Washington Post
June 13, 2005
The work was featured Saturday in the culminating program of a week of lectures and classes examining West Coast modern dance, with a focus on three choreographers who worked in Los Angeles: Horton, Japanese American Michio Ito and Bella Lewitzky. Together these three represent a little-acknowledged branch in the family tree of modern dance, which is so deeply rooted in dance-centric New York. At the Lincoln Theatre, the "Facing West" program presented surviving examples from these three, as well as the progressive yield of their proteges, validating that as early as the 1930s a great deal of modern dance bloomed outside New York.
read more |
|
In Praise of Women
Christopher Correa
June 11, 2005
Facing West: Celebrate Ito, Horton, Lewitztky
Miyako Nitadori, Kristina Berger and Regina Larkin
Lincoln Theatre
Washington, D.C.
June 11, 2005
read more |
|
Dance Masters From Coast to Coast
Lisa Traiger; The Washington Post
June 3, 2005
AN INVISIBLE BARRIER splits the dance world in two. And it's not the narrowing rift between ballet and modern dance, or the one between concert and social dance, but a divide built on geography: East Coast vs. West.
read more |
|
BlackeXpressions
By Clare Croft
January 26, 2004
Friday night's "BlackeXpressions," a showcase of Washington's and New York's emerging black choreographers at the Lincoln Theatre, represented a broad spectrum of artists and styles. Though the evening's theme proved powerful, the program suffered from vast differences in quality among the young choreographers.
read more |
|
|
|
Visit the EVENTS page for more.
|
