Review: Still. Here. Now. by Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre
by David Glen Robinson

 

In her curtain speech Andrea Ariel said this was the final element of a trilogy, a long story of identity, presence, and persistence. It was that and more, of course. Still. Here. Now was an artwork of beautifully blended dance and music, a textbook of community activism, a palette of the bright primary colors of love, and an arrow into the future showing us what we can find there and what we can become.

 

In short, hope.

 

 Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre has been around 32 or 34 years, depending on how one counts the enforced shutdown durng the Covid 19 pandemic.  This third installment of their dance-based trilogy firmly demonstrated that the company’s high creativity is unstoppable.

 

 

The structure of Still. Here. Now. is unusual for most Austin dance shows, in that dance and music bear equal weight. Andrea Ariel, choreographer with more than four decades of dance experience, produced the show. She gathered longtime dance collaborators Anuradha Naimpally, Cecily Fullylove, and Luis Ordaz Gutiérrez to create dances based on the great traditions of their different heritages. The live music component supported the newly created dances and flew far beyond them to new compositions and improvisations. Those iinterpretations were given plentiful time in live performance.

 

Several of the musicians have their own recent releases. They performed versions of those in the collective directed by Andrew Nolte, who led with keyboard and guitar and had also composed. Frederico7 performed on treble guitar,with Rey Arteaga on congas and additional percussion, Andrés Acevedo on bass guitar, Leila Henley on woodwinds, and Rishi Bajekal on drums. 

 

After an introductory ensemble dance choreographed by Ariel, Anuradha Naimpally presented “In Her Hands.” The program gave the theme as the transmission of dance and life from one generation to the next in perpetuity, but it was more than that. Naimpally’s masterful use of the vocabulary and methods of Bharata Natyam, a truly ancient dance form, evoked the beginnings of Indian civilization, giving her generational linkages great temporal depth. Accompanying Naimpally in performance were Tvisha Kalambi and Vamshika Konda. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cicely Fullylove performed her words-and-dance piece "Is That All There Is" to Peggy Lee's pop ballad, a national anthem for the bored, the tired, and the cynical. Fullylove gave the song much love through her movements and gymnastic skill; and her autobiographical notes gave it humor. Here, too, the ensemble music took on a life of its own, insisting in counterpoint to song, “No, there is so much more!”

 

 

Luis Ordaz Gutiérrez's dance and  spoken word piece was “La Suma De Todas Mis Partes/The Sum of My Parts.” His athletic contemporary dance movements were an immigrant’s journey, followed by a powerful poem delivered as a screed in Spanish. The longish testamentary was published in the show program in Spanish and in English translation. Adding much charm to Gutiérrez’s dance was young Katia E. Sánchez who performed many of Gutièrrez’s strong movements with a boldness all her own. The total piece was unforgettable. Guest artist Queenie De la Rosa also performed

 

Andrea Ariel choreographed short transitional pieces between the danses of the trilogy. Taken together, they addressed themes of the American Dream, what it means to Americans now, how new migrants recast it. These thematic dances wove together the message addressed in Ariel’s Community Voices workshops: many voices addressing the American Dream with written words. Those workshops were brought into the performance by videographer Hector Daniel Ordaz Gutiérrez and brilliantly blended into the performance.

 

In Still. Here. Now. Ariel and her collaborators took cultural diversity and with it crafted the fuller, truer meaning of community. Community lives and breathes face-to-face with neighbors next door and those around the world. Here it's shown as a pathway to peace, depicted through beautiful, enlivening art. All who appreciate art and desire peaceful change should be following Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre. 

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Still. Here. Now.
by Andrea Ariel Dance Theater
Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre

September 25–26, 2026 | 8 p.m.
Boyd Vance Theater, George Washington Carver Museum & Cultural Center
1165 Angelina St., Austin

Tickets: $20–$35