Press

Say WHAT?! Reviews, Recognitions, and Awards

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WE’RE HERE

“The end section gave us a full-out demonstration of the powers of this company—extended, well-timed, demanding, and athletic…We’re Here was yet another gemlike dance event given to the world by the Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company.”

– Dr. David Glenn Robinson

Read the full CTX Live article here

THE MAGNIFICENT CONJURING OF YOU AND ME

“Each of the company dancers could be a soloist headliner in any other contemporary company. Together, they form a collegial, rare, and possibly unique, ensemble.The Magnificent Conjuring of You and Me elevated all of us to greater heights of inspiration and accomplishments. The audience was walking on air afterward.”

– Dr. David Glenn Robinson

Read the full CTX Live article here

IN SITU

“This show was immensely complex. Each theatrical medium formed its own level of meaning, and meaningful gestures came at all levels through the performance.”

– Dave Robinson

Read the full article here.

AT A DISTANCE

“The miracle that is Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company’s AT A DISTANCE”

– Tarra Gaines, Arts+Culture Texas

Read the full article here.

“And on preternaturally hot Saturday as the sun went down, I watched a live performance for the first time in more than six months. Dancers on their precarious platforms moved through lissome, meditative sequences.”

– Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Sight Lines Magazine

Read the full article here.

Read about Hamrick’s early approach to the pandemic

“Hamrick possesses a bit of Zen grit when it comes to letting go, teaching in a new way, and being okay with not knowing when we will all be able to come together again.”

-Barbara Purcell, Sight Lines Magazine

Read the full article here.

MOON
“Masterstroke of modern dance” “every movement feels freshly invented” “the dance ensemble…performed the nonstop action with uniformly crisp brilliance”

– Michael Barnes, Austin American-Statesman

“Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company elevates Austin’s reputation as a national center for contemporary dance.”

– David Robinson, Art Profiler

EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING!

“Astounding…Powerful, lyrical dancing reminds us all why we attend dance shows.”

– David Glen Robinson, Art Profiler

From our Audiences:
“I kept saying to myself, please don’t be over, please don’t be over!”
“Delicious and satisfying.”
“I laughed, I cried, I clapped. I did it all.”

BE STILL, MY HEART

AUSTIN CRITICS TABLE AWARD for Best Dance Ensemble
AUSTIN CRITICS TABLE NOMINATION for Best Dance Concert
Top Ten Dance and Classical Joys of 2018 – Austin Chronicle

“Instantly engaging…The company dancers labor in emotional fields of love, desire, rejection, fear, curiosity, despair, whimsy, dread and satisfaction… marked by the company’s trademark athleticism and extended and lyrical passages of varied ensemble combinations.”
– David Glen Robinson, Art Profiler

“Hamrick is comfortable with creative ideas running parallel or in tandem, or in any case not in a straight line…Certainly it’s an artistic strategy that’s proved successful. Hamrick’s fresh, smart yet sometimes poignant choreography has netted a slew of accolades and Hamrick a spot in the Austin Arts Hall of Fame.”
– Jeanne Claire Van Ryzin, Sightlines Magazine

From our Audiences:
“As soon as it ended, I wanted to watch it all over again.”
“I really, really can’t recommend this show enough.”
“Deserves to be seen by every damn person in this town.”
“I have never seen anything like this. I loved it and can’t wait to come back!”

AUSTIN CRITICS TABLE HALL OF FAME AWARD 2018
“Kathy Dunn Hamrick…has been a model for the artist who approaches each project in a spirit of experimentation and reinvention.”

ONES and TWOS
“…as the piece progressed, the dancers, agile and adept, morphed into symbiosis with the music, fuguing and swirling as though tossed around by the air shooting through the organ’s pipes. Despite this music’s minor key, after the first threatening minutes, you might hear a sort of persevering, determined joy. In exquisite relationships with each other and the music, the dancers of “Ones and Twos” showed jubilance persevering along with the ever present sinister.”
– Jonelle Seitz, Austin Chronicle

Piece de Resistance
“Whole essays might be written on the idea evoked by this sweet dance – that the body is a site of resistance, which makes it important to pay attention to what dance artists are doing. But the quartet launched into a fun, purposely awkward adagio to the “Méditation” from Thaïs, and no one felt like writing an essay anymore.”
– Jonelle Seitz, Austin Chronicle

AUSTIN CRITICS TABLE NOMINATIONS 2018

Best Dance Concert: “Parade”
Best Choreographer: Kathy Dunn Hamrick for “Glacier” and “Parade”
Best Ensemble: Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company’s “Parade”
Best Lighting Design: Stephen Pruitt for “Glacier” and “Parade”

GLACIER

Top Ten Thrills in Dance 2017 – Jonelle Seitz, Austin Chronicle

“Hamrick’s choreographic style combines complex micro-movements with large sweeping gestures, intricate ensemble work with solo moments of uncommon grace.”
– Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Sight Lines

“Perhaps the work’s greatest accomplishment was convoluting objective events of physical change with the wilderness of human emotion, imbuing water molecules with feelings of loneliness, community, fear, and loss of control.”
– Jonelle Seitz, Austin Chronicle

AUSTIN CRITICS TABLE NOMINATIONS 2017

Best Concert
Best Choreographer
Best Dancer, Alyson Dolan and Lisa Anne Kobdish
Best Ensemble

SALUD

“In ‘Salud’ choreographed by Hamrick, Lisa Anne Kobdish, a member of her company, was grounded and graceful, cheeky and buoyant. Hamrick’s versatile dancers are usually enmeshed in her intricate ensemble works, so seeing Kobdish, in a red funnel-necked dress, carry the entire mood and story of Hamrick’s dance was like having a master chef make you toast, from scratch.”
– Jonelle Seitz, Austin Chronicle

THE FOUR (3) SEASONS

An abstract work set to Max Richter’s Recomposed: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Top 10 Brave Dance Artists of 2016 – Jonelle Seitz, Austin Chronicle
“When discourse is broken, meaningful abstract work is where it’s at.”

MORE OR LESS

Top 10 Dance/Classical Music Treasures of 2016/Honorable Mention – Robert Faires, Austin Chronicle
A 60-minute original dance performed with line upon line percussion’s rendition of Steven Reich’s masterpiece, “Drumming.”

TRUE STORY

Austin Critics Table Award for Best Dance Concert

Austin Critics Table Award for Best Dancer, D. Poet Powell

Top 10 Dance/Classical Music Treasures of 2015 – Robert Faires, Austin Chronicle

“Screen doors took on a Proustian resonance as dancers entered and exited through them, their transparency and old-timey creak and slam recalling past times at beaches, camps, grandparents’ homes, where one discovered individual freedom and bonded with others.” – Robert Faires, Austin Chronicle

Top 9 Big-Bang Dance Concerts of 2015 – Jonelle Seitz, Austin Chronicle

“Her dancers and each work – of at least two hourlong dances per year – seem even more sophisticated, more human, more poignant, and more important than the last…If I’d been able to, I’d have returned to the theatre four hours later to see True Story again.”
– Jonelle Seitz, Austin Chronicle

MORE THAN ONE COMPLICATION

Austin Critics Table Award for Best Choreography Award: Kathy Dunn Hamrick, Kate Warren, Charles Anderson and Lisa Nicks
Austin Critics Table Nomination for Best Dancer, Mariclaire Gamble
Best of Arts in 2015: The Fresh and Forward-thinking.
– Jeanne Claire Van Ryzin, Austin American-Statesman

“And how delightfully complicated it is… the only constant was its fabulous inconsistency. You didn’t know where it was going next. You were there to live in the moment, along with the dancers, and they were clearly relishing the opportunity.”
– Claire Christine Spera, Austin American-Statesman

BRIEFS: AN EPISODIC ADVENTURE

Austin Critics Table Award – Best Duet – Alyson Dolan and Jack Anthony Dunlap II
Top 10 Kicky Linkups in 2014 – Jonelle Seitz, Austin Chronicle

“As Hamrick’s talented ensemble of eight unfolded the dance in waves, like a daily rhythm, the lines between the similar and the different became inscrutable. The differences between present and past compounded until the old was nearly eclipsed, but the seventh section (like the villanelle) was a reminder that – regardless of our intentions and efforts – the now is undeniably, inextricably rooted in what came before.”
– Jonelle Seitz, Austin Chronicle

THERE, THE MAGNIFICENT

Top 10 Dance/Classical Music Treasures of 2014 – Robert Faires, Austin Chronicle

“This dance’s celebration of small virtues and little kindnesses added up to a bigness of heart, inspiring with images of companionship and support.”

“A bigness of heart both deeply moving and inspiring.”

– Robert Faires, Austin Chronicle

AUSTIN CRITICS TABLE AWARDS 2014

Best Choreographer – Kathy Dunn Hamrick for “The Big Small” and “The Undoing of Nonet”

Best Dance Concert – “The Undoing of Nonet”

Best Dancer – Alyson Dolan

Best Dancer Nomination – Heather Quiring

Best Lighting Design – Stephen Pruitt for “The Undoing of Nonet”

THE UNDOING OF NONET

Top 9 All-in Dance Concerts of 2013 – Jonelle Seitz, Austin Chronicle

Top 10 (+1) Dance Classical Music Treasures of 2013 – Robert Faires, Austin Chronicle

THE BIG SMALL

“Hamrick’s dances sneak up on you, rocking you gently until, about two-thirds through, a shiny truth emerges just beneath the surface, like a revelation from a Magic 8 Ball.”
– Jonelle Seitz, Austin Chronicle

BOUNTIFUL: THREE MODERN DANCES BY FOUR CHOREOGRAPHERS

Best Ensemble Nomination – Austin Critics Table

Top 10 Dances with Complexity, 2012 – Austin Chronicle

SCENES FLAMBOYANT (AND INTIMATE)

“It’s all balance and power – grace, really – with an emotional weight.”
– Luke Quinton, Austin American-Statesman

FlashDance, but Flashier: 30 MORE Dances in 60 Minutes

“In that whimsical yet tear-jerking 120 seconds, Hamrick anthropomorphized two cardboard boxes in a failed relationship – believe me, it was more than the sum of its parts.” – Jonelle Seitz, Austin Chronicle

2011 Top 10 (+1) Dances with Big Heart
– Jonelle Seitz, Austin Chronicle

murmur

“Moments of rapid foot work were immediately countered with slow gestures. Partnering always proved inventive. And slowly an emotional arc, enigmatic as it was, emerged. ‘Murmur’ proved to be masterly modern dancemaking.”
– Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Austin American-Statesman

“Ineffable rhythmic lusciousness…glorious and challenging dance.” – Dawn Davis Loring, Austin Chronicle
Best Original Score Nomination for Jacob Hamrick – Austin Critics Table

Here.Me.Now

“I found myself moved, inspired, and thoroughly entertained by ‘Here.Me.Now’.” – ThunderTix

Best Dance Concert Nomination – Austin Critics Table

Best Dancer Nomination for Erica Santiago – Austin Critics Table

Alone, Alone

“Rather than take her usual humor-infused approach to creating abstract non-narrative dance, Hamrick went for thoughtful. ‘Alone, Alone’ was an emotionally resonant hour-long exploration of the state of being alone.” – Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Austin American-Statesman

Best Ensemble Nomination – Austin Critics Table

Her Majesty’s Well-Played Adventures

“KDH continues to have one of the strongest, most polished ensembles in the area… The six dancers in Hamrick’s piece looked fantastic together – on stage and on the video projected behind them.”
– Clare Croft, Austin American-Statesman

TENTH ANNIVERSARY CONCERTS

“An intriguing time travel through the company and director Kathy Dunn Hamrick’s shifting aesthetics.”
– Clare Croft, Austin American-Statesman

“Saturday’s entire cast displayed the ability that makes KDH performances so consistently lovely and loving.”
– Clare Croft, Austin American-Statesman

YES

“Visually smart, playful yet still very rigorous and precise in dance technique and set to delightful original music, in this case a charming new piece by Austin composer Tim Kerr.”
– Jeanne Claire Van Ryzin, Austin American-Statesman

MOUNTAINS, SHIPS AND LIVES

“MOUNTAINS, SHIPS AND LIVES was an intriguing dance expression of the agitation and anxiety that roils under contemporary life.”

– Jeanne Claire Van Ryzin, Austin American-Statesman

THE LOOP

“Something heavenly happens every time one of Kathy Dunn Hamrick’s dancers unfolds her arms and lifts her chest to the ceiling. The KDH Dance Company, performing Sunday at the One World Theatre, collects beautiful dancers, who unfurl their limbs with elegance and breath in the premiere of Hamrick’s ‘The Loop.’” – Clare Croft, Austin American-Statesman

The BarreTenders

Best Choreographer Nomination for Kathy Dunn Hamrick – Austin Critics Table

Best Dancer Nomination for Erica Santiago – Austin Critics Table

FLASHDANCE: 30 DANCES IN SIXTY MINUTES

“A fabulous hour-long dance” – Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Austin American-Statesman

“Bursts of illumination that captivate us and leave us wishing they lasted longer” – Robert Faires, Austin Chronicle

Best Dance Concert Nomination – Austin Critics Table

Best Choreographer Nomination for Kathy Dunn Hamrick – Austin Critics Table

Best Dancer Nomination for Marlo Harris – Austin Critics Table

Best Dancer Nomination for Lisa Nicks – Austin Critics Table

Monumental Baggage

Best Dance Concert Nomination – Austin Critics Table

Best Choreographer Nomination for Kathy Dunn Hamrick – Austin Critics Table

Best Dancer Nomination for Kathy Dunn Hamrick – Austin Critics Table

The Original History of the Ordinary Bean Plant

Best Original Score Nomination for Darren Castello – Austin Critics Table

The Big Push

Best Dance Concert, 2002 – Austin Critics Table Award

Best of Arts – Austin American-Statesman, 2002

Sleepless

Semi-finalist in Rencontres Choregraphique, 2002

The Bystander

Best Dance Concert Nomination – Austin Critics Table

Best Choreographer Nomination for Kathy Dunn Hamrick – Austin Critics Table

Best Female Dancer Nomination for Kathy Dunn Hamrick – Austin Critics Table

Best of Arts – Austin American-Statesman, 2000

So Close

Top Ten Dance Events of 1999
– Austin Chronicle