There is not only Soccer: There is Dance
Taken from Dora Isabel Franco’s article in El Norte on October 30, 2005
When the weekend arrives and it is time to make a plan to have fun and relax, most people think of soccer, going to the theater to see a movie, or staying home and watching TV.
To include contemporary dance in this menu of options is a difficult task but it is not impossible, says American choreographer Dominic Walsh.
Once the beauty of the movement is discovered, the only thing that the public desires is to re-live the experience.
“More than a spectacle, contemporary presentations are works that provoke the audience to become involved in the show and take home with them a personal interpretation,” says the artist.
Accompanied by his dancers, Walsh, who in 2002 founded the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater in Houston, will perform tonight in the City Theater as the strongest participant of the Extremadura International Contemporary Dance Festival 2005.
By using the body, he and his company can express to the audience the subjects that are troubling to them.
“We feel so comfortable with the spoken language that in a sense, we are unaware of its power, yet it is different with something visual. You can’t analyze the visual message without experiencing and experimenting,” he pointed out during the interview.
Born in Chicago, Walsh, 34, arrived in Houston and joined the Houston Ballet at the age of 16. He went on to become a principal dancer for the company only to leave it at a later time to enter the world of contemporary dance.
“It really made an impression on me that what you give returns to us, so you must make allowances. You have to be able to learn a new technique,” he said when remembering his first experience with this discipline.
It is not the technique, which requires perfection, that is difficult for Walsh as the head of a company. It is the need for funding to bring in choreographers and performers that is the most limiting factor in the creation of contemporary dance around the world.
“It is a very expensive art form. What you do not think about in great performances is that you have to pay dancers and they have to eat.”
Furthermore, it adds up, the shows require many other elements: scenery, lights, costumes, tech crews for production, and marketing.
“The large corporations which used to support the arts are now focusing on charitable organizations. It is happening everywhere, even in places like Europe where there is a strong tradition of supporting the arts.”
“It is really sad because culture is our humanity,” he said.
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