Arts & Entertainment Editor Denton Record Chronicle
"After being called DancExpress 16 years, the Denton dance company -- which has staged dance in ballet, modern, jazz and tap-- says goodbye to its name. Now, the company is Contemporary Ballet of Denton (subsequently changed to Denton City Contemporary Ballet).
Founder...Lisa Racina, said she and the company's board members spent the last several years musing a name change before finally making the decision to rebrand the company. "The company has changed. It's like coming full circle."- DancExpress gives a more commercial feel. You have dance companies that do video work and car shows and things like that, and a lot of people thought that's what we did". Not so, Racina said. The company has always been an artistic one, premiering choreography and even giving some creative leadership to students. ...The new name is more reflective of the direction the company has taken over the last several years, "Racina said. Her dancers have grown technically, with several studying dance through high school and beyond. ...Racina has brought professional troupes through Denton regularly with her annual dance event, "Collage". All of those companies have used the same classical and ballet vocabularies to build their dances.
Racina's company has done the same, building on the classical ballet and modern foundations to make new dances for paying audiences. When audiences see Denton City Contemporary Ballet, they can expect the classical forms to be the bedrock for fresh choreography. There might not be point shoes in every number, but there will be competent technique and ...growing artistic interpretation.
"Really, the name change reflects what we've been doing for the last several years." Racina said. "And I want the community to take ownership of the company too. This is a Denton company."
By Any Other Name:
Music Theatre of Denton - until Aug. 1999, was the Denton Light Opera Company.
Denton Civic Dance Theatre: Called Denton Civic Ballet until October of 2002
Visual Arts Society of Texas Was the North Texas Area Art League until Nov. 2003
