Reviews for Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre Performances
Review: Here. Now. by Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on May 17, 2025
HERE. NOW. was a patchwork quilt of diversity, teaching the lesson of the common search for identity, purpose, and meaning across every culture.
Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre (AADT) continues its winding path along the leading edge of the Austin performing arts community with Here. Now. The show is an essential dance show with exquisite live music accompaniment. The show is a compound of techniques and themes that Ariel has addressed in her 35-year Austin dance career. It intentionally incorporates elements of AADT’s Community Voices workshops, endowing it with reflections and echoes of AADT’s 2024 Borderless show. …
Review: Borderless by Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on July 02, 2024
Andrea Ariel's multi-ethnic, multi-generational workshop exercises flowered orange into a collection of borderless stories danced by talented performers to driving music with Latino/Western flavor.
Borders aren’t just the boundary lines between nations. Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre explored the many meanings of the term and how at the center of the concept borders divide. Hence the title Borderless and the theme of overcoming divisions among people. As Andrea Ariel writes in promotional material, “What connects us and disconnects [us] as humans across ethnicities and cultures?” She asked guest choreographers and musicians to answer that question and bring together their …
Review: REIMAGINE: Celebrating 30 Years by Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on May 02, 2022
Reimagining such bright art works is challenging creative exploration. Quoting T.S. Eliot: ". . . the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
What does it mean to reimagine? To imagine again, after having imagined a thing once? What does that mean? Stepping through the door to imagination, that some think of as a storage closet door, one revisits the private universe that everyone has, colored with the crayons of childhood memories, dream fragments, visions, epiphanies, ambitions, primal fears, and the pixillating disintegration of lost passions. Yes, the imagination vault can be bright and creative, but it is …
Review: Rally by Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on June 22, 2019
In RALLY the conversion of movement and music into Soundpainting by Andrea Ariel and the company was an immensely generous community approach to performing art.
What does the word “rally” mean to you? My ideas run heavily to baseball teams who go on scoring frenzies when trailing on the scoreboard, as teammates in the dugout wear their ball caps inside out. I thought I was solid with the concept when I attended a show of the same name at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center off Rainey Street. Four powerful, athletic dancers entered the stage one by one …