horse latitudes

Hope Stone Dance and the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University present the dance company’s final performance, “horse latitudes,” a work that explores how and whether we can collectively heal over time.

“horse latitudes” is a 30-minute film choreographed and directed by Jane Weiner, Artistic Director of Hope Stone Dance, and created with Director of Photography Ben Doyle of BEND Productions, composer Ran Bagno, editor Ari Feldman, and the nine company dancers featured in the film. The evening show will feature the film and live performance by dancers, and a few special moments marking the joy and history of Hope Stone Dance as it ends its 28-year run.

The term “horse latitudes” are the regions 30 degrees north and south of the Equator, high pressure areas of calm winds. The legend around the phrase comes from ships sailing to the New World that would stall for weeks where crews, unable to sail, would throw horses they were transporting overboard to conserve water.

“The pandemic’s mark on my heart and soul has left a brokenness in me. The inequities that have existed for so long got exposed in a glaring spotlight, and returning ‘back to normal’ was just out of the question. The Hope Project, our mindful arts education outreach program, was becoming Hope Stone’s focus, in a sense the most important thing I’m creating and choreographing. With this shift, I knew the time for Hope Stone Dance had come to an end. Hope Stone’s Board, staff, and I want to focus on really bringing the power of mindful arts to our city’s children and youth, and empower them as much as possible.

I read a lot about equine therapy, how horses have the ability to hear a human’s heartbeat from four feet away, how in the wild they synchronize their heartbeats to each other in order to sense danger, and how horses have the ability to naturally calm us as their hearts beat at half the rate of humans. What a difficult choice for those sailors as they sat in the horse latitudes, saving themselves by sacrificing such beautiful creatures. I thought what would happen if dancers and horses were brought together, in the midst of so much pain these last several years, could it be a gesture, an apology, a way to heal?” – Jane Weiner

Hope Stone Dance artists are Jacquelyne Boe, Donna Crump, La’Rodney Freeman, Chris Hannon, Rachael Hutto, Lindsey McGill, Travis Prokop, Candace Rattliff, Donald Sayre, and Brit Wallis-McGrath.

Very limited seating, get your tickets now!

Photos by Tati Vicedomine