Ishida Dance Grabs Another Houston Moment With a World Premiere Flourish — Poetic Narratives at the Asia Society

Brett Ishida Shows Plenty of Staying Power

BY Catherine D. Anspon // 05.30.24

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Maddie Medina in Ishida Dance's "green apples" (Photo by Amitava Sarkar)

Sam Fine will perform in Ishida's "mutability." (Courtesy Ishida Dance)

Austin Meiteen will perform in Ishida's "mutability." (Photo by Nicha Rodboon)

Ben Defaria will perform in Ishida's "mutability." (Courtesy Ishida Dance)

Juliet Doherty in "keepsake" by Ishida Dance.

Natascha Mair will perform in Ishida's "mutability." (Photo by Mikael Ohlsson)

Sam McReynolds will perform in Ishida's "mutability." (Courtesy Ishida Dance)

Maddie Medina in Ishida Dance's "green apples" (Photo by Amitava Sarkar)

We’ve been tracking the ascendant star of choreographer Brett Ishida ever since she and her Ishida Dance company were introduced to us in 2021 by Karen Sumner, the former Menil director of advancement who is now with the Colorado Ballet. When we last wrote about this dance luminary this past winter, Ishida was getting ready to present her company’s keepsake at The Hobby Center.

The program featured world premieres from Brett Ishida herself, as well as rarely seen works from Swedish choreographer John Wannehag and the French-born Jérémy Galdeano.

Now, Ishida Dance is once again staging a commissioned piece at Asia Society Texas Center, presenting two works in a world premiere program titled “Mutability” on Friday, June 7 and Saturday, June 8. Both works are described as poetic narratives. The first is green apples, a formidable four-woman performance. The second is the titular mutability, featuring text from Japanese writer Haruki Murakami.

The avant-garde program taps two notable international guest choreographers. Canadian Kirsten Wicklund is one of them and will be making her United States debut.

Ishida Dance Grows

In the past few years, Ishida has added a Houston base of operations, hired Jamal Madden as managing director, scored a Houston Arts Alliance grant and made an impressive Asia Society Texas Center debut last summer. All this momentum arrives when the nonprofit, which was founded in Austin in 2019, has been awarded what Ishida calls the equivalent of a James Beard Award for dance: inclusion in Dance Magazine’s annual influential 25 To Watch list.

Ishida Dance is the sole United States dance company that made this coveted list.

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This honor is no doubt fostered by a recent commission for Ishida to create a work for The Washington Ballet, led by artistic director Julie Kent, who is now Houston Ballet’s co-artistic director. Stay tuned for Ishida Dance’s upcoming world premiere December 6 in the Houston Ballet’s Jubilee of Dance series.

The world premiere of “Mutability” is set for 8 pm Friday, June 7 with more performances on Saturday, June 8 at 8 pm and Sunday, June 9 at 3 pm. All the shows will take place at Asia Society Texas Center. Tickets start at $40.