YWAM School of Dance in Lakeside, MT. Randall teaches Jan. 28 - Feb. 2nd, 2008

Urban Bush Women: Pre-Curtain Foyer Performance Houston Society for Performing Arts January 19, 2008 @ 7pm

Ad Deum in London with Springs Dance Company   Ad Deum Dancers Bethany Brantley and Shelley Walker in our first exchange program with Springs Dance Company January 7-21, 2008

A Medieval Christmas Live Music with Kemper Crabb and Mysterium with guest  Ad Deum Dance Company Sunday, December 23rd at 11am St. John The Divine Episcopal  Houston Texas www.sjd.org View Larger Map

A Classic Christmas First Baptist Houston 7401 Katy Freeway Houston, TX Ring in the most heart-warming season of the year with the classic sights and sounds of Christmas! Plan to attend any of the three performances of A Classic Christmas, this year’s musical production by the HFBC Choir, Orchestra,and Children's Chorus with Ad Deum. Friday December 14, 7:30 PM Saturday, December 15, 3:30 PM Saturday,December 15, 7:30 PM View Larger Map

Amahl & The Night Visitors St. Martin's Episcopal Church 717 Sage Road | Houston, Texas 77056-2199 Friday, Dec. 7th, 8pm & Sat. Dec. 8, 4pm (Two identical performances) George Mims, Conductor With Ad Deum, Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra Special ticket prices: Family price $20.00 Adults $15.00    Students and Senior Citizens $10.00 For information call 713/985-3838 or visit  http://www.stmartinsepiscopal.org/music-2.htm View Larger Map

Benefit Performance for dancer Liza Pollock November 9th, 2007 @ 7:30 pm The Woodlands United Methodist Church 2200 Lake Woodlands Drive / The Woodlands, TX Adults $25 / Children $15 For tickets call 281.292.7134 All proceeds from this concert will apply directly to the recent medical costs of Liza Pollok.

Click Here for CS Lewis Foundation

AD DEUM DANCE COMPANY Dances for the Seasons of Life Dancer: Shizu Yasuda Photo credit: visagephotostudio.com   Dances For The Seasons of Life - A blog preview by Toni Valle-Arts Houston It's a busy weekend - a good weekend to begin my first blog.  My plans are to attend several dance concerts along with Zoo Boo and a pumpkin carving party for my 3 year old.  I'm attending Phantasia 2007: Etched and Extracted on Friday to get me in the holiday mood and SPA's Shaolin Warriors Saturday to open myself to new experiences.  Hey, isn't it the season for ghosts? Actually, not everyone is into vampires and candy.   Because I now have a 3 year old, celebrating Halloween is no longer an option - it is a necessity.   So, to treat myself before I begin the Halloween weekend with "Darth Vadar," I attended a rehearsal today of Ad Deum Dance Company as they prepare for the stage this weekend.  Dancers include Bethany Brantley, Lydia Polhemus, Alvin Rangel, Jill Tarpey, Shelly Walker, and Shizu Yasuda.  Ad Deum Dance Company is performing Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at Barnevelder Theater in Dances for the Seasons of Life. Now, this isn't a review -it's my personal experience - that's what blogging is for.  I want to give the "inside view" of upcoming works - there is just not enough being written about dance and it's my turn to throw in the pen.  Being a choreographer, dance educator and performer myself, I come from a different perspective than your average audience member.  After all, I see 4-6 concerts per month.  That's a lot of dance.  And I like to talk.  So I'm going to talk about the 3 pieces that created an emotional reaction in me. Now, two things Ad Deum does well is dance and tell a story.  They started rehearsal with Steve Rooks' Adouma (Life). Colors of green, gold, red, and blue woven together in scarves were wrapped around the mid-sections of this quartet.  I thought of soothing fall - until the movement began. Strong and sharp, Jill Tarpey's dancing was only slightly less forceful than her intense piercing gaze. I felt angst, strength, and awe at the beautiful lines mixed with angles and leaps.  I thought, "There is no relief for these women dancing their pain," until the second piece of music started where unison and canons brought them together to support one another.  I actually watched the transformation in Tarpey as she felt supported by the others.  She closed the piece with a solo and a smile and I could breathe again.                                                                                Now if you missed Randall Flinn's Reconcile My Heart at A Weekend of Texas Contemporary Dance, let me say that this piece, in my view, is the showcase of the company's and choreographer's talent  - every imaginable turn, leap, leg lift, and upside down floor work is crafted.  To top it off, I was drawn to the emotional content - the turmoil of relationships.  No fabulous lighting, no stage, just us in the rehearsal studio, and I was just as completely pulled in as I was when I saw the performance version. Randy introduced the next piece, Buried Alive, as, "the need to acknowledge, mourn and lament and to intercede on behalf of oppressed women."  The dancers appear in all black with black scarves on their heads and I immediately thought about the significance and symbolism of the color black in different cultures. When Shizu Yasuda entered in a black petticoat, I felt we entered western civilization.   We think oppression has lessened over the years with the rise of human rights and liberties but this piece tells a different story - that prejudice is alive and well and minorities are still suffering.  With the story of the Jena 6 in the news, we realize this oppression is not just in a far off third world country. As the piece progressed, I was seeing women from all over the world.  In their silence they share their grief.  Though the dancing is beautiful, I am more struck by my own sense of sadness, of loneliness, and the silence that is inherit in oppression.  There is a sense of praying and not being sure that the prayers will be answered.  Even in the group section, each woman appears to be dancing alone.  I ached in response. As a wise dance lady once told me, "You can only watch so many years of dancers sticking their legs in their ears.  Then you want something more."  Well, Ad Deum Dance Company CAN stick their legs in their ears - its no secret that they have some of the best technically trained dancers in town.  But I walked out of that rehearsal with a feeling that I was more full than when I went in.  Experiencing these pieces just in the rehearsal studio made me pause and breathe - for a moment - and think of my place in my society, my culture, my dance, and my family.  Thanks Randy. Now I feel I can go on tour with Darth Vadar. Tickets:  $20 General Admission ($15 senior citizens/children under 12) Dates: October 27 - October 28, 2007 Times:  Saturday 8pm, Sunday 3pm For Tickets, Click Here or call 713-626-5050 RSVP tickets will be held at Will Call from 30 minutes prior to performance. Tickets may be purchased at door: cash or check only. Barnevelder Movement / Arts Complex 2201 Preston Houston, TX 77003 Below is an interactive map to the performance location: View Larger Map Ad Deum Dance Company thrives on its mission to create and perform dance works that serve as personal and purposeful offerings to enrich their audiences. Artistic Director Randall Flinn comments, "I feel that often there is a great and unquestioned gulf between performers and their audiences. The art of dance can be displayed by the familiar formula of delivery, "watch me dance" and the hopeful response from the audience, "please value and applaud". Yet as one who believes that the artist has been given a special endowment for the purpose of serving and enriching humanity, I must question certain things concerning the truths of my own craft: Is the audience only seen as the distant and supportive (financially and emotionally) observer to be awed by the prowess of the choreographer and performers and called upon to enable and appease the artists' need for personal and artistic validation? In contrast, has the audience sensed that the work and its content are being presented to them as a generous offering and that the artists are more concerned about what the audience receives from them more than awaiting the mere absorption of bravos offered in appreciation for a performance? The latter sees the audience not merely as foreign spectators due to give homage for the privilege of watching their staged artistic expression and returning accolades, but as intimate and important recipients of a gift in which the artist has fulfilled their call to serve and enrich them by. Dance is not a temporal sight-seeing event or spectacle to be amused or amazed by-it is an intimate sharing of expression, whether challenge, delight or comfort, that willingly leaves the stage of self and offers something to others for reasons that remain long after the applause grows silent and the lights go to black." Seeking resolve in this matter, Ad Deum Dance Company is taking their performances to heart on behalf of those that have and will become their audiences. On October 27th @ 8pm and 28th @ 3pm at Barnevelder Movement Arts Complex, they will present Dances for the Seasons of Life, four new works of choreography that have been crafted with intimate care, compassion and concern for the receivers-purposed to enrich the lives of those that attend. Flinn will present Reconcile My Heart, the completed body of two preview works that debuted recently for Weekend of Texas Contemporary Dance at Miller Theatre. Arts Houston reviewer John DeMers has written; "Set to a pair of hit songs by Elton John and made flesh by Ad Deum Dance Company, Reconcile My Heart answered the strong, dramatic flourishes of Elton John's music with matching choreography by Randall Flinn. An opening pas de deux was nothing if not full-blooded and muscular, followed by impressively beat-driven ensemble work to the heartbreak refrains of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me." Former Martha Graham principal dancer Steve Rooks will premiere his dynamic and poignant Adouma (Life) - newly designed on Ad Deum as a personal testimony to standing firm in times of critical challenge and chaos. Rooks' work is raw with the seasoned skills of a well crafted artisan who tears at the seams of the ordinary to devise something fresh and profound. German Choreographer (Xaris Danz) Loreen Fajgel has unraveled the threads that hold the garments of injustice over innocent lives in her deeply provocative work entitled Buried Alive. This work is being revived by former Ad Deum and Arizona Ballet dancer Christina Schanta and will include new extensions to the work by both Schanta and Flinn. Another "pure revival" on the bill will be a retelling of Alvin Ailey's own dancer/choreographer Hope Boykin in her intimate exploration of The Long Journey Home featuring the soul stirring music of Sweet Honey on The Rock. This work is created by a woman that persists on her journey, danced by women who have a journey of their own and offered to those as not to fear their own journeys, for they are not alone. Ad Deum's dancers have disciplined themselves in counting the costs to bring forth this gift in excellence and honor. They are well honed and in shape for the task and willingly eager to perform their mission.

We're are very excited to announce our second annual Creative Arts Summit, October 12th & 13th . This year's conference will feature great performances and informative workshops in acting, dance, music, visual and technical arts. Special guest artists and presenters include nationally known actress/comedienne, Kim  Coleman,   acclaimed Choreographer and Artistic Director of Dance Ad Deum, Randall Flinn and Ad Deum Dance Company, Lakewood Band Leader, Michael Hodge, and his wife, Carrie Hodge  as well as Grammy Award winning producer, Brian Tankersley and his Dove Award winning wife, Joan Tankersley.   In addition, Casting Director, Barbara Brinkley (Walker Texas Ranger, Varsity Blues  & others ) will conduct a special workshop for aspiring actors. But these are only a few of the many exciting opportunities... For more information and easy online registration simply go to: Click for Creative Arts Summit

AD DEUM in BAILANDO AL AIRE LIBRE" - "DANCIN' IN THE PARK" Corpus Christi, Texas Dance Festival- Cole Park Amphitheater   October 5 & 6, 2007  - 7:30pm  Free outdoor concert featuring multi forms of dance with companies and ensembles from the Coastal Bend and throughout Texas.

Ad Deum Dancers Shizu Yasuda & Alvin Rangel in Apology Choreography by Randall Flinn Photo by Bill Olive Houston’s free dance festival, A Weekend of Texas Contemporary Dance, returns to the Miller Outdoor Theatre stage on Friday, September 21 and Saturday, September 22 at 8 p.m. with an engaging program presenting work by the state’s most dynamic choreographers and dancers. Organized by Producing Director Christina Giannelli and presented by Dance Source Houston, the annual program features a premiere, revivals and excerpts of recent works. This sampler showcases a range of choreographic styles set to a variety of music. Featured on the evening program are Ad Deum Dance Company, HaviKoro, Hope Stone Dance Company, University of Houston ENSEMBLE, San Jacinto Community College South/Community Dance Collective, Revolve Dance Company, Travesty Dance Group. The work of Austin based independent choreographer Leslie Dworkin is also featured on the evening bill. WTCD is a perfect spotlight for both established companies like Ad Deum Dance Company and up-and-comers like Revolve Dance Company. Artistic Director Randall Flynn premieres his new duet, Reconcile My Heart. Flynn speaks passionately about the significance of WTCD, "Contemporary or modern dance is an emotional and philosophical form of dance that unfolds itself to deeper dimensions beyond the technique and artistry," says Flynn. "The contemporary dancer is a bard, they are out to communicate. This is the gift of WTCD to our city and to each artist involved."

April 7, 2007 Click Here to Enlarge/Download April 7, 2007 Poster

March 25, 2007