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The Pilot Dance Project, a company known for its site-specific and community-focused performances, presents its first repertory concert in five years. Prince of Flowers premiers May 29, 2026 at the MATCH-Midtown Arts and Theater Center, and features new dance works by Adam Castañeda, Ashley Horn, and Julie Rubio. The program also includes guest appearances by Houston Met Dance’s two performance ensembles: TerraForm(ed) Collective and the Houston Met Dance Adult Ballet Ensemble. Prince of Flowers includes four of The Pilot Dance Project’s latest repertory, including “Coatlicue,” a trio that originally appeared at the Hispanic Alliance for Performing and Audiovisual Arts’ Danzas en Tarima 2025. Based on Chicana feminist Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands/La Frontera, “Coatlicue” is a meditation on the mother goddess of Aztec culture, and the necessity of drawing from her power in contemporary twenty-first century life. According to Anzaldua, one must access “the Coatlicue state,” a liminal space of deep introspection, restoration, and reflection, in order to navigate the confining intersections imposed via a hostile patriarchal world order. “Coatlicue” will be accompanied by an original score by celebrated Houston musician Sonia Flores of Aurum Son.
The concert’s title work, "Prince of Flowers" is a solo that sees the convergence of four disciplines: dance, visual art, music, and costume design. Adam Castañeda, Ashley Horn, Lynn Lane, and Sonia Flores will work in tandem to bring to life a character inspired by the national flowers of Mexico, including poinsettias, marigolds, dahlias, Mexican sunflowers, and Birds of Paradise. This work is an attempt to craft a mythology and narrative that addresses history and culture through contemporary art practices, and illustrates Adam’s ongoing fascination with Mexican aesthetics and folk art traditions.
Longtime Pilot Dance Project choreographer and costume designer Ashley Horn will unveil her latest work on the company, “Carpel.” Referencing the female reproductive organ of a flower, “Carpel” is an examination of the Everywoman. She is always doing something. Holding something. Becoming something or doing something for someone else. This dance lives in the in-between: seen and unseen, needed and overlooked, graceful and furious, decorative and utilitarian, caring deeply and desperately trying not to. “Carpel” is about the work that holds everything together and gets credited to nobody.
In the program’s finale, "En Transito," Adam Castañeda and Julie Rubio explore the many concepts of transition, from the life stages of womanhood and the development of romantic love, to the syncretism of evolving cultures and the ways in which communities evolve in order to persevere. Their movement and choreographic ideas are expressed through a romantic, Latinx lens that asserts the power of femininity and the beauty of the human body in motion. "En Transito" is also an act of care and community-building, with an able-bodied choreographic voice assisting in the development of movement ideas of a choreographic voice in recovery.
"En Transito" is supported by a Let Creativity Happen! Grant from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance.
The Pilot Dance Project choreography will be performed by Allyssa Abacan, Ashley Boykin, Adam Castan?eda, Dorianne Castillo, Cynthia Garcia, Keeley Dunnam, Sierra Johnson, Holly Moran, and Kristina Prats.
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Event Venue
MATCH - Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston, 3400 Main St,Houston, Texas, United States
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