'Faraway, So Close' World Premiere in Austin and Houston

ISHIDA Dance Company presents Faraway, So Close, an evening of thought-provoking world premieres in contemporary dance: new works based on original poetic narratives that invite existential questions choreographed by ISHIDA Artistic Director Brett Ishida, a new work by former Batsheva dancer and USC Professor Bret Easterling and a work by Australian native Danielle Rowe, a former principal with Houston Ballet and Netherlands Dans Theater who has choreographed on San Francisco Ballet and Royal New Zealand Ballet. Tickets are on sale now. To purchase tickets go to Ishidadance.org.

AUSTIN, TX – August 13-14, 2021

Friday and Saturday at 8 pm
Dell Fine Arts Center at St. Andrew’s 
5901 Southwest Pkwy, Austin, TX 78735 
Tickets: $25-$60/VIP $100 

HOUSTON, TX – August 19-21, 2021

Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 pm
MATCH - Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston
3400 Main Street, Houston TX 77002
Tickets: $30-$70/VIP $110

The 80 minute program will feature an introduction by the choreographer and personal insights into each piece.

About ISHIDA Dance Company

ISHIDA is a new world-class contemporary dance company based in Austin, Texas, featuring venerated dancers from many of the top companies in the world (Houston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Ballet BC, Netherlands Dance Theater, Kidd Pivot, Hubbard Street). ISHIDA blends contemporary dance with theatrical elements while retaining the physicality and beauty of the human form from traditional ballet. ISHIDA presents unique narratives relevant to a modern audience that explore archetypal themes and invite existential questions: Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going? Such works enable audiences to gather meaning and emotional connection. ISHIDA’s poetic narratives intuitively prompt introspection to lead to greater kindness towards oneself and otherness.

About Brett Ishida – Artistic Director

Brett Ishida is a fourth generation Japanese American—Yonsei—raised in a typical valley town of Porterville, California. She grew up working and dancing in between trees on her grandparents’ modest citrus farm...

Brett’s love for dance inspired her to move away from home at age fifteen when she received a full scholarship to the Kirov Academy and later to the School of American Ballet. She then danced with Boston Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, where she debuted her first choreographic work on the company, and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montréal where she toured performing around the world. At Les Grands Ballets, she collaborated in new creations with choreographers and performed principal and soloist roles in repertoire by Nacho Duato, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Ohad Naharin and Didy Veldman, among others. 

Enchanted by wordplay and narrative, Brett studied ancient Greek, ancient Greek philosophy or poetry, and in particular ancient Greek tragedy, and received a BA from UCLA in Literature with emphasis in Creative Writing: Poetry. She also studied psychology and human development earning a MA in Montessori Education from St. Mary’s College. Brett was an educator and administrator in Texas, California, and in Greece devoted to promoting and implementing experiential arts in education and advocating for children and young adults with special learning needs. 

Brett launched Ishida Dance Company in the Spring of 2019 in Austin, Texas, bringing together her two worlds of experience. In January 2020, ISHIDA performed beginning/aρχή to sold out audiences at The Long Center in Austin. Several performances were canceled in the 2020-2021 season due to the pandemic, including her full-length dance theatre production involving film projection which is based on her original poetic narrative titled dream of black you come roaming. 

Brett’s work is unique in that she crafts relevant poetic narratives that audiences can emotionally attach to and extrapolate meaning from. The movement is driven by the intimate narratives she creates which invite existential questions and introspection. Her intention is that her pieces may encourage greater kindness towards oneself and otherness.  

About Bret Easterling – Guest Choreographer

Bret Easterling is an international dance artist, educator, and producer who received his BFA and the Hector Zaraspe Prize for Choreography from The Juilliard School. He was a formative member of Gallim Dance before joining the internationally renown Batsheva Dance Company under the direction of Ohad Naharin. Now based in Los Angeles, Bret is on faculty at USC’s Glorya Kaufman International School of Dance, an Ilan Lev Method practitioner, and a certified Gaga teacher who stages Naharin’s repertory at collegiate BFA programs and professional dance companies around the world. He is an avid dance creator who was recognized as a Choreographic Fellow at the inaugural Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship at Jacob’s Pillow and invited to be an Artist in Residence at LA Dance Project as well as a participant in Rosanna Gamson|Worl Wide's Decameron Residency.  Bret is the founder and Artistic Director of BEMOVING, a non-profit organization that produces financially accessible opportunities to witness and experience the transformative power of dance, and the co-creator of the Ghost Light Residency.

About Danielle Row – Guest Choreographer

Choreographer Danielle Rowe was born in Shepparton, Australia and trained at the Australian Ballet School. Rowe was a Principal Dancer with the Australian Ballet and Houston Ballet, and also danced with the prestigious Nederlands Dans Theater.

Rowe has choreographed works for San Francisco Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater’s SWITCH program, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Co.Lab Dance (featuring dancers from American Ballet Theater), Ballet Idaho, Grand Rapids Ballet, Louisville Ballet, SFDanceworks, Barak Ballet, Diablo Ballet, Oakland Ballet and Berkeley Ballet Theater. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rowe pivoted to film making; writing, choreographing and directing eight dance films, namely Wooden Dimes for San Francisco Ballet and Wilis in Corps-en-tine for The Australian Ballet (with creative partner Garen Scribner and producer Reneff-Olson Productions) which was voted “one of the best things to come out of quarantine” by Vogue.