A MARCHING BAND EXTRAVAGANZA
November 2014 at the East End Street Festival
At the intersection of sports and art, Forklift Danceworks tackled a project with marching bands – and this time we brought the Forklift magic to Houston communities!
Afoot! kicked off the East End Street Festival, an event celebrating the historic East End neighborhood. Forklift choreographers Allison Orr and Krissie Marty spent a 5-day residency in Houston to create a work incorporating 300+ marching band members from neighborhood schools. Forklift Danceworks partnered with the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, Dance Houston, and the Houston Arts Alliance through their creative place-making project, Transported + Renewed, to highlight Houston’s love affair with movement, transformation, and reinvention.
Afoot! featured members from Milby High School’s Marching Thunder, Stephen F. Austin High School’s Sonic Boom, and the University of Houston’s Spirit of Houston marching bands. Forklift Danceworks worked in collaboration with Dance Houston and Houston-based choreographers, sharing Forklift’s unique method of ethnographic choreography with fellow artists.
For decades audiences have been wowed by the choreographic intricacies of marching bands. Half-time performances are an essential part of the Texas football experience, celebrating and supporting the work of young athletes. Yet audiences know so little about the hard work and dedication of those performers. In true Forklift form, Afoot! featured the people behind the music and the movement to show that marching band is about more than football; it’s about art-making.
Press
Arts and Culture | Press Release From U of Houston | Houston Chronicle | Dance Houston Performance Highlight
