The Pilot Dance Project, under the artistic direction of Adam Castaneda, opens its 2018-2019 season with a site-specific work by Houston-based choreographer Lori Yuill. Green Zebras was awarded an Arts Respond – Natural Resources and Agriculture grant from the Texas Comission on the Arts, and will be performed at Finca Tres Robles, a sustainable urban farm located in Houston’s historic East End Cultural District. The performance concludes with a community potluck under the farm’s lighted oak trees.
Dates: August 11 and 12
Time: 6pm (performance followed by potluck dinner)
Location: Morales Funeral Home, 2901 Canal Street, Houston, Texas 77003
Tickets: $16 presale, $20 at the door
For tickets and more information please visit www.pilotdanceproject.org
Green Zebras is inspired by the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Lori Yuill’s newest dance work set on the Pilot Dance Project uses Finca Tres Robles, an urban farm, as a background and inspiration. The dance, Green Zebras, explores themes related to food culture: desire, sustainability, pleasure and cycles of growth. Dancers Adam Castañeda, Ayan Felix, Eva Jin, Sarah Leung, and Nicole McNeil take the audience on a zany movement tour of the farm after which the audience will be invited to join in a potluck dinner.
“I’m excited to start the season with another site-specific project in the East End,” says Castaneda. “Lori’s show is about community and the elements of food that bring people together. And it takes the company back to the community that has been so supportive of us.”
Green Zebras features original music by Anthony Barilla and costume design by Ashley Horn.
About the Choreographer:
Lori Yuill is an independent choreographer, performer and teaching artist. Her work challenges audiences to look at dance in new ways, and aims to create and connect to community through movement. She did her undergraduate work at TCU and then moved to Guatemala to perform and teach with Momentum Danza Contemporanea. In 2000 Lori returned to Houston and performed with Suchu Dance. In 2002 she choreographed her first evening-length piece, “Floating/Falling”, for DiverseWorks Houston Performing Artist Residency. In 2003 Lori moved to NY to pursue a masters degree at Sarah Lawrence College. She spent the next decade in New York and DC performing for Sara Rudner, Anneke Hansen, Milka Djordjevich, Enrico Wey, Stephanie Miracle, UpRooted Dance and Daniel Burkholder/The Playground. Lori’s choreography has been presented through Creer en Libertad (Paraguay), Octobre Azul (Guatemala), WAX (Brooklyn), Dance Conversations at the Flea (NYC), The Field (NYC and DC), DiverseWorks (Houston), The Big Range Dance Festival (Houston), the Houston Fringe, and Barnstorm Dance Fest (Houston). She was a 2014-2015 Artist in Residence at Dance Source Houston and received an Artist Project Grant from Houston Art Alliance to make “The Story of a Space”, a site specific piece set in Tranquility Park. Her collaboration “You’re not here” with Anneke Hansen was named Best in Show at the 2016 Houston Fringe Festival.
The Pilot Dance Project is a 501(c)3 non-profit arts organization with the mission to empower and transform communities through innovative dance, theater, and visual art. The organization is based out of the Midtown Arts & Theater Complex Houston, and produces work at venues throughout Houston’s East End.
