CELEBRATING ST. LOUIS’ VIBRANT DANCE COMMUNITY
St. Louis Dance HQ’s Blog is a compilation of writings and performance reviews from a variety of St. Louis based dance writers. If you’re interested in sharing your writing on our blog, please email stlouisdancehq@gmail.com.
HQ Review: Space Station’s Winter Weekend with Miller, Halm, and Sapozhnikov
Launching Space Station’s 2026 season, Winter Weekends assembled six seasoned artists for a split-bill evening. Touring from Illinois with her collaborators, Anna Sapozhnikov presented “Good House Keep.” St. Louis-based artist Melissa Miller presented “Daphne” alongside her collaborator Laura Halm visiting from Baltimore, Maryland. Each work surfaced questions embedded in the subtle—yet pervasive—aspects of the feminine experience.
HQ Review: Saint Louis Dance Theatre and Jazz St. Louis present “Gaslight Dreams”
In its second such collaboration, Jazz St. Louis and Saint Louis Dance Theatre, under the direction of Victor Goines and Kirven Douthit-Boyd, respectively, presented Gaslight Dreams at the Skip Viragh Center for the Arts. Joined by special guest Denise Thimes, this holiday-themed production featured some Christmas classics as well as a reimagining of The Nutcracker Suite by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.
HQ Review: Ballet 314’s “The Nutcracker and the World’s Fair”
This season marked Ballet 314’s seventh production of their particular version: “The Nutcracker & The World’s Fair.” In this clever retelling, choreographers and directors Rachel Bodi and Robert Poe incorporate an exciting chapter of St. Louis’ history into the ballet. The World’s Fair serves as an ideal backdrop for this magical story—a real-life event that engendered wonder and novelty, catapulting people of the time out of their everyday lives and connecting them with exciting new ideas and cultures. The fair offered everyday people a chance to engage with wonder: miniature Ferris wheels, colorful banners, towering exhibition halls, exciting inventions,
HQ Review: RESILIENCE hosts local arts’ new works at Seen: STL
This past weekend, I stepped foot into Intersect Arts Center in order to watch a showing of Seen: STL. The semi-annual viewing is both financially accessible and ruleless, with dancers signing up to show pieces that they have been working on. No rules, no time limit, just pure artistic movement made accessible for the Saint Louis community.
HQ Review: Grace Meraki Dance Company presents its first performance “Finding Home”
Encircled by stained glass and pews, Grace Mareki Dance Company made its performance debut at Hope United Church of Christ. The church served as a poignant setting for the Christian dance company’s first show, “Finding Home.” Director and choreographer Nina Serigos began incubating the idea for the production through conversations with her mentors while deliberating about her next steps in her career.
Holidays in STL: Dancer Roll Call
The magic of the Holiday season has just begun in St. Louis. With many fun and festive times ahead, Saint Louis Dance HQ would love to share with you how some of the dancers from around the St. Louis area celebrate during this time of the year and where you can see them perform.
HQ Review: STAGED presented by Karlovsky and Company Dance
On November 21-22, 2025, Karlovsky and Company Dance showcased 5 pieces, each created by a different choreographer: Corpus Missa, Last Train Home, Catching, How Come We Never Talked About It, and Seeing You, Seeing Me. With the collaboration of nine company artists, twelve guest artists, three musicians, and one set designer each piece was filled with a unique voice and powerful emotional resonance.
HQ Review: Washington University Dance Theatre presents “Something is Happening”
On November 14, 15, and 16th, WashU’s WUDT performed their annual concert, this one entitled Something Is Happening, at Edison Theater. The talented students had the amazing opportunity to work with choreographers Elinor Harrison, Liz Lloyd, David Marchant, Ron K. Brown, and Xi Zhao. The dancers performed in works of many different genres including classical/neoclassical ballet, contemporary, West African and modern dance influences.
HQ Review: Saint Louis Dance Theatre’s Love Languages Fall Series
On Saturday, November 15, 2025, Saint Louis Dance Theater (STLDT) celebrated its 15th season by hosting its “Movers and Shakers Ball: Cristal Anniversary” gala. Many donors, dancers, and patrons came adorned in glittery themed formal wear. The night began with champagne toasts, a buffet, and a cocktail hour. The audience was already buzzing with excitement for what STLDT has to offer when the performance began for the first installment of their Love Language season, aptly titled Fall Series.
HQ Review: SIUE presents Timeless Reflections Fall Dance Concert
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville presented their fall dance concert, Timeless Reflections at Dunham Theatre in Edwardsville, IL, featuring choreography by Carly Vanderheyden, Maria Majors, Kristin Best-Kinscherff, Geoff Alexander, Omar Olivas, Lindsay Hawkins, Snack Break Movement Arts, and Brenda Serrata Tally.
HQ Review: Webster’s New Works Concert
On November 6th through the 7th, Webster University's dance department performed original choreography at their annual New Works Concert. The talented BFA students learned challenging choreography from both alumni and faculty, with styles such as jazz, contemporary, and modern being highlights of the show.
HQ Review: Resilience Dance Company opens its season with ENTRY POINTS
Resilience Dance Company’s fifth annual concert, Entry Points, was performed at the Center of Creative Arts’ Catherine B. Berges Theatre on October 30th and November 1st, 2025. The evening featured two new works as well as one reprised from 2023 and an expanded piece from 2024.
HQ Review: Ballet 314’s Fall Fête Angels and Demons
On October 18, Ballet 314 presented Fall Fete: Angels & Demons at UMSL’s Touhill Performing Arts Center Lee Theater. Ballet 314 delighted their audience with an intimate matinee performance as well as a luxe evening performance and fundraiser. This review is for the 3:00pm matinee performance.
HQ Review: Chew+Spit presents WHATEVERFEST!
Since its inaugural performance in January 2025, chew & spit – a dance residency created by Marlee Doniff and sponsored by Space Station Dance Residency – has sought to actively lower the stakes of performance by creating a space that prioritizes process over product. That essence of low-stakes performance billowed through every aspect of chew & spit’s first annual fundraiser event, Whateverfest, presented on Saturday, October 18, at Webster University’s Department of Dance. A myriad of mismatched living-room lamps framed the makeshift performance space and offered a soft, homey glow that, along with the steady patter of rain on the roof, wrapped the afternoon in a sense of warmth and community.
HQ Review: MADCO kicks off its 50th Anniversary Season with SET: The Legacy Concert
MADCO kicked off its 50th anniversary season with SET: The Legacy Concert at COCA’s Catherine B. Berges Theatre on October 11-12, 2025.
HQ Review: Saint Louis Ballet presents Take Five…More or Less
Red, orange, blue, and purple leap out onto stage as Henri Matisse-inspired costumes paint their way into live performance danced by Saint Louis Ballet. On October 11th and 12th, Saint Louis Ballet debuted Take Five…More or Less, a captivating show featuring three unique works by both guest artists and faculty.
HQ Review: Webster BFA Concert
80s rock and roll, a disappearing moon, a thunderstorm, a trickle of laughter, a prop gun, and the indecisiveness of being a libra. All disparate elements that collectively contribute to the daring artistry of Webster University’s BFA concert “The Paradox.” Featuring three works by BFA candidate Ally Lamkie, as well as four works by recent Webster alumni, “The Paradox” is a fitting title to illustrate how these imaginative works existed beside each other. At times dramatic absurdity took hold as comedic expressions were undercut by tensions of seriousness. Elsewhere, the ecstasy of dance reigned supreme as the electricity of movement bounced from one dancer to the next. Though containing a hodgepodge of dance theatricalities, this concert’s contradictory features depicted the reality of existing in an illogically serious world.
Behind the Movement: MADCO “SETs” the Stage with its 50th Anniversary Performance
Behind the Movement: MADCO “SETs” the Stage With its 50th Anniversary Performance. This weekend, The Modern American Dance Company (MADCO) celebrates that legacy with SET: The Legacy Concert. The performance will bridge the company’s past and its present. In rehearsals leading up to opening night, the studio has been buzzing with energy! Alumni have visited, stories have been shared, and dancers have been connecting with the roots of the work they now carry forward.
HQ Review: Space Station Dance Residency
Space Station, an annual dance residency showcasing experimental works, featured seven choreographers and six new pieces this year, including two guest artists from out of state. The 2025 edition had a special focus on audience participation, deployed in a variety of ways by the evening’s artists. In a pre-show video, viewers were even given instructions on how to decline performer interactions—simply by shaking our heads.
HQ Review: Saint Louis Dance Theatre presents Norbert De La Cruz III’s world premiere “THE NORTH STAR”
There is a gnawing tension that aches within the body of Norbert De La Cruz III’s newest work “The North Star.” De La Cruz’s previous work for Saint Louis Dance Theatre, “Cloud 9,” found the dancers of this company in an ethereal world, emulating utopia amongst the clouds of COCA’s Catherine B. Berges Theatre. While their gaze still reaches towards the heavens, in “The North Star” the dancers have fallen from the clouds, finding themselves among the debris of this earth. The sun is dimmer, the stakes are higher, yet this community of dancers continues to resonate amongst the residue of this newly inhabited world.