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Video-on-demand will be available starting at noon on December 6 through midnight on Sunday, December 17.
Runtime: 1 hour with no intermission
Tickets: Pay-What-You-Can
$15 - Regular
$25 - Patron
$35 - Supporter
Ticketed income is equally split between the choreographers. Your ticket purchase, at any level, increases the amount of funds available to be redistributed directly to the artists.
Dance Source Houston presents the 27th edition of Mind The Gap, an evening of works by local choreographers Mark Aguilar, Brittany Nicole Bass, Adam Castañeda, Kyle Rucker, Stacy Skolnik, and Lori Yuill. The program will feature aerial and contemporary solo and ensemble works created and performed by dance artists based in the Greater Houston area.
Mind The Gap was created in partnership with MATCH to support independent choreographers and small dance companies in presenting their work. The program offers participants high production value, low administrative burden, and shared ticket income, as well as production and audience development support. Begun in January 2017, Mind The Gap has featured works by more than 115 local dancemakers to date, providing opportunities for dancemakers and connecting audiences with new dance experiences.
Learn more about the artists
Mark Aguilar is a Houston native who recently graduated from New York University Tisch School of the Arts with a bachelor’s in Fine Arts in Dance and a minor in Spanish. While attending NYU, he had the pleasure of choreographing multiple pieces for his peers, including Masculine vs. Feminine, T.M.R & N.O.A, In Red Ctrl, and F2A/F2B. Additionally, he was able to work with Rafael Cañals, and the Trisha Brown Dance Company. Mark is a Kinder HSPVA graduate of the class of 2020 where he had the opportunity to work with Zack Tang, Hope Stone and Michael Foley. Mark is a choreographer and dancer of Mexican descent. His own cultural background and tradition serve as a source of creative inspiration for their choreography and perspective in dance. He believes people can obtain fresh ideas on life by witnessing art. Through music, lighting, clothing, and movement choices, he questions Eurocentric dance norms that were brought to America. He criticizes the lack of diversity that is ingrained in Eurocentric dance genres. Dance is a form to express himself; for him, it’s a cultural experience. He also brings Mexican social dance into his choreography since it’s how they started their dance journey.
Brittany Nicole Bass has earned her Bachelor’s degree in dance from the University of Houston. She is a Teaching Artist with Houston Ballet’s Education and Community Engagement Department. She is on Faculty for the Houston MET Dance. She is the Program Manager for Dance Source Houston and has been a Karen Stokes Dance Company member since the Spring of 2014. Brittany’s choreographed works have been featured in American College Dance Association, Houston’s annual Barnstorm Dance Festival, Houston Choreographer X6 at ERJCC, Houston’s 2019 Fringe Festival, and Mind the Gap.
Adam Castañeda is a dancer, choreographer, and arts administrator living in Houston, Texas. He is the Executive and Artistic Director of The Pilot Dance Project, a non-profit arts organization with the mission of transforming and empowering communities through innovative dance and performing arts experiences. In 2018, he was a graduate of the second class of Houston's Artist Inc. program, and was one of 15 dance presenters selected from a national pool of applicants to participate in the Jacob's Pillow National Dance Presenters Forum. He was chosen as one of Dance Source Houston's 2018-2019 Artists-in-Residence, has recently led The Pilot Dance Project through EmceArts' New Pathways program, served on the National Endowment for the Arts dance panel, and was awarded a 2020 Support for Artists and Creative Individuals from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance for his evening-length dance work, Lazarus in the Promised Land. In 2021, he expanded The Pilot Dance Project's programming to include the Texas Latino/a/x Contemporary Dance Festival, and Queer Fringe Houston. His site-specific collaboration with sculpture artist Tami Moschioni is currently being restaged for Dance Source Houston's BarnStorm Dance Fest 2022. When not dancing with The Pilot Dance Project, he can be found onstage with Suchu Dance/Jennifer Wood. Outside of dance, Adam holds an MA in English and American literature from the University of Houston, and is a full-time faculty member of Houston Community College's English department. For more information, visit www.pilotdanceproject.org.
Kyle Rucker is an undergraduate in his final year of pursuing a BFA in Dance at Sam Houston State University. Prior to attending, he spent many years as a Color Guard Director at various schools in the Houston and DFW areas. As a Color Guard performer, Kyle worked with world-renowned artistic choreographers; ultimately receiving an international championship title in 2017. Due to his background as a musician, Kyle’s work centers around musicality informing the choreographic journey. His playful use of space and sound creates an experience meant to give unique sensations throughout each product. Kyle aspires to become a choreographer for a wide range of performance mediums including contemporary concert dance, pop culture music videos, and broadway stage performance. During his time as a university student, Kyle has also developed technical skills such as Lighting Designer, Lighting Programmer, and Lighting Operator. Each of his presented works at SHSU had lighting individually designed and programmed by him. Other than choreography, Lighting Design is one of his favorite creative endeavors.
Stacy Skolnik was born in Houston, Texas; began dancing at three at Margo Marshall’s Ballet Studio in Houston. She continued on at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts where she continued to focus on dance and their different styles. Graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. She has also performed works by Ohad Naharin, Robert Battle, Mark Morris, Lar Lubovitch, and Andy Noble. Throughout the summers, she has also studied at Point Park University’s intensive, Joffrey Contemporary/Jazz intensive in NYC, Joffrey Ballet Intensive in San Antonio, TX, and the American Dance Festival. Former member of Gaspard&Dancers in Durham, NC. Currently in Houston, was a founding/former member of Open Dance Project. Freelancer performer/choreographer in the greater Houston area. Currently holds a Stott Pilates certification and teaches around the city!
Lori Yuill (choreographer and dancer) has been engaged in making dances for the past two decades. Her most recent work was a collaborative event performed on Pelican Island and made with visual artist Eepi Chaad and musician Jeremy Lejeune. Her work includes ongoing research into the in-between spaces: the space between narrative and abstraction, choreography and improvisation, and between performance and rehearsal. jhon r. stronks (she/they/he) (singer) jhon is a queer-identifying, gender fluid, dancer/singer. jhon is the Artistic Director of “there…in the sunlight” a project heading that functions as a vehicle for their independent choreographic projects. As a choreographer jhon’s has been accused of presenting audiences with seemingly unruly work that reveals itself according to its own logic.
