“Schroeder's abstract, contemporary treatment would be appropriate anytime. …cresting and swooping with emotion…CORE's nimble dancers combined bracing energy with intense detachment. They were…. clearly enjoying the movement for its own sake and effectively pulling the audience in for the ride.”
Molly Glentzer, Houston Chronicle
One of the world’s most powerful pieces of music, Handel’s Messiah is a beloved Classic, to which CORE Performance Company’s movement and color add meaning—further illuminating this grand oratorio. CORE Performance Company brings its unique style of dance to the interpretation of this major work making a grand choral and orchestral work intimate and personal for new audiences.
“My impulse to create this dance began with the astonishing beauty of Handel’s music. It provided me the opportunity to work for the first time with vocal music. I am inspired by the notion that voice production vibrates the human form in the same way that movement excites the muscles of the body. My choreographic intent was to use the body as an instrument through which the music is played.”
Sue Schroeder, Choreographer
Artistic Director Sue Schroeder, as primary choreographer, and members of CORE Performance Company studied the musical structures and motifs of Handel’s Messiah, and found dance corollaries to express Handel’s myriad of complexities. In the process of crafting this work, a creative method was developed that came directly from the source material — mirroring the way Handel worked, only in a different medium. Messiah weaves 80 minutes of Handel’s oratorio into 5 gorgeous movement sections paralleling the music.
Messiah continues Schroeder’s career-long commitment to collaboration with composers, musicians, writers, and a plethora of other artists from multiple mediums. Messiah features Canadian born Antoine Plante as conductor of the Houston-based Mercury Baroque with live choral accompaniment from local communities when the work is performed on tour.
The nature of Messiah and the dance that accompanies it compels people to return to it year after year. By using this familiar work as an introduction to CORE Performance Company and contemporary dance, Messiah builds audiences for dance.
