Brett Ishida of Ishida Dance Company Debuts Houston Program at MATCH

could you release me plays March 17 – 20, 2022 at Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston (MATCH) located at 3400 Main Street.

Tickets are on sale now at IshidaDance.org

Meet Brett Ishida | ISHIDA DANCE and her thoughts on the World Premiere:

  1. How do you feel about having your world premiere here in Houston?

Houston is home to the world-class company Houston Ballet and a mecca for fine arts and culture as the fourth largest city in the US. We’re honored and thrilled to debut could you release me. The title comes from a Sappho fragment from over 2,000 years ago. Like her poetry that embraced everyday being—patterns, ceremony, mourning and love—this high caliber contemporary dance program will emotionally impact audiences.

  • What can audiences expect in this show?

could you release me includes two new works by ISHIDA: 10,000 years I love you inspired by Hong Kong film director Wong Kar Wai’s “Happy Together” and changeling—a fragile depiction of falling in love. Emilie Leriche, a Berlin-based choreographer commissioned by NDT2, will be creating a playful new work on the company. Award-winning Finnish British choreographer Kristian Lever will present “An Intimate Distance” which will be a Houston and US premiere. He is returning to Houston after his work was featured at Dance Salad Festival in 2019.

  • What makes this show unique?

We work with venerated dancers from across the world to present repertoire that has never premiered in the US—works that audiences I believe should see because they have the power to transport you into a world that’s genuine and full of care.

  • Anything else you want to share?

ISHIDA is a new world-class contemporary dance company on the scene that Houston audiences do not want to miss. Audiences that want to laugh and cry and celebrate loving, ISHIDA is going to steal your heart!

About ISHIDA Dance Company: ISHIDA is a new world-class contemporary dance company for Texas, featuring venerated dancers from many of the top companies in the world (Houston Ballet, Ballet BC, Ballet of Saarländisches Staatstheater, Netherlands Dance Theater, Hubbard Street, Göteborgs Operans Danskompani). 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 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.