Brian Guilliaux
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
DALLAS GETS DANCING
When Bruce Wood dipped his toe back into local dance waters, the ripples turned into a wave. Other North Texas choreographers began forming troupes that have transformed the Dallas dance scene. The Fort Worth native founded the Bruce Wood Dance Project in 2010, three years after closing his first company. It was a triumphant return, reminding dance fans of his sensitivity, technical prowess and movement-design skills. In his wake came avant-garde ensembles like the Danielle Georgiou Dance Group and Dallas Neo-Classical Ballet to challenge our notions of what dance could be; Avant Chamber Ballet to make the argument for and put into practice the essentialness of live musical accompaniment; and Dark Circles Contemporary Dance to unleash the wild imagination of Joshua L. Peugh, who has become nationally recognized for choreography that seesaws between the comic and the tragic. Even a company well established before Wood’s re-rise, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, yielded a major new talent in Bridget L. Moore, who has gone on to create her own fierce troupe, B. Moore Dance. Wood died in 2014, but two of his company members, Joy Bollinger and Kimi Nikaidoh, have become impressive dance-makers in their own right. Coincidence or not, they are all part of Wood’s legacy.

Manuel Mendoza