Mason/Rhynes Productions

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.

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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.

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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."

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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'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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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